A Dining Room For More Than Just Dining

This is our first apartment with a dining room, or as some call it a “bonus room.” This room flows perfectly off the living room and is big enough to fit a table as well as some other fun things. I knew moving in here that the space was going to have to be multi- functional and serve more than just the purpose of dining. Not only did I want each of us to have a space for our activities, but also I needed a home work space. Our dining room quickly turned into the place we eat, play and work!

THE DINING

I wanted the main focus of this room to be the table. I felt that with it being perfectly centered in the space that it would actually break up the room for all the other things we use the space for. Also, it is a dining room so it makes sense that the table is the main focus!

We have a bench table the we got from Amazon last year from Zinus and we love it! it is perfectly sleek and also fits 4 easily, but you can add stools to both sides for more seating. We also put a bench along the wall in the right side of the room for more guest seating. We figured that could be a place for when people come over to sit and just hang out. With no one coming to our home any time soon, we are just using it as a place to put our shoes on and such.

When it came to “decorating” the table, I wanted to put a table runner as opposed to a table cloth. I don’t know why I feel this way but table cloths feel very outdated to me and table runners feel very modern and interesting. This is probably because when I think about my Queen Joanna Gaines, I know she would never put a table cloth anywhere. The table runner is from her Target collection as well. I also have jute place mats that sit in the center of the table from Target and two bud vases with some fake eucalyptus leaves in them from the Magnolia collection at Target.

HIS AND HERS

It was important to me to make sure that each of us had a space, decorated to our liking and for the space to be “ours” even though it was shared. If you want the full rundown of my art space, head here! For those wondering how I make artwork without a desk, know that I use the dining room table. I keep a chair at the far left side of the table and sit there when I am making art. This is also where I sit now that I am working from home. I also am a huge creature of habit and like to work on the couch. Now with it also getting nicer outside, I work a lot of the time outside.

For KC’s space, we deemed it the “music space” because he has a DJ Controller and makes really fun dance mixes. He has a desk that he has had his whole life. On top he has a laptop shelf that way he can easily access the controller and his computer at the same time. When it came to decorating we put some music posters above his work area and then some pennant flags we got from Boston Calling Music Festival. He also has an amazingly comfortable chair from IKEA. KCs space is very him and it is super nice for him to have it. I often catch him just sitting at his desk from time to time, either playing video games, making music or listening to podcasts. His space is very him an it is nice that it is within another space but feels totally his own!

DECORATING

I have basically described the whole space, except for some of the art that we have on the wall. I wanted the space to be filled, but not too much. Having basically 3 spaces within 1 space can be overwhelming, so when it came time to decorate, I went more minimal than maximal. I did want the walls to be filled though. I got some prints off of Urban Outfitters and framed them to go on the wall above the bench. We then had the whole back right corner of the room empty. At first I wanted to use that as a place to take photos, but I felt that I could still have that and have it decorated when I was not photo graphing. I decided to put our favorite plant in a new big pot and pin flags above the plant. They are very easy to remove because they have small gromits in the fabric and I just move the plant over when I need to use the space. It is a total win in.

This space is very us and we love it. I use my art space every day and KC uses his desk a lot. We are the type of couple that eats dinner together every night so this table and this room gets a lot of use. It is also super fun how multi purpose the room is. This apartment is far from small, but it still is necessary to use every inch of the space that we do have to make this space super inviting and fun.