#MRDCAPERODD Great Room, Office, and Dining
Next up in the #mrdcaperodd series of posts to share the great room, office, and dining space. I LOVE how these areas all came together. When we walk in, it’s a like a weight is lifted and a feeling of calm takes over, even if only for a minute because #kids. ;) In case you missed part 1, you can read it HERE. Sources are listed at the end of each post.
Photos: Jessica Delaney Photography
Here’s what we were working with before in the great room.
This room was filled with built ins, which normally would be great, however the cabinets were really dated and took over the entire room. We decided we didn’t need a bar at the back of the room and instead used that space to create the dining area (more on that in a sec!). So we actually removed ALL of the built ins in this room. Every last one. The space was so large that it could easily house a nice big family room and the dining table, it was just hard to see with all of the cabinetry.
We made a few other changes as well. One was covering up the shed window above the slider. Gasp I know. But the room gets great light without out and it was really messing up my faux beam/shiplap dreams. I’m so glad we did it! At the fireplace, we removed the window above and brought the box all the way up to the ceiling to take advantage of the height. Then we added a matching window and window seat to the right of the fireplace to create great symmetry.
My dream space was lots of shiplap, beams, and oversized lighting. I’m so happy with how the pendants transformed the space. We added 6” shiplap to the ceiling and fireplace, changed the surround to a simple design and used a dark gray granite for the surround.
As mentioned in the last post, the floors here were in good shape so we sanded them down and re-stained to create a lighter, beach-ier feel. We lucked out with white oak which took the color really nicely.
Moving into the office, again great bones but just more of the same dated cabinetry.
This space got more shiplap on the ceiling, a new squared off window to replace that arched one, and glass doors since it really does function as an office for us. And instead of removing the cabinets in here, we stripped off the detailed moldings, added new doors and painted them. Such a difference!
I absolutely love the paint color here (BM Wales Gray) and it was fun styling these shelves. They’re really the only shelves in the house. I added rattan pulls instead of traditional knobs.
By now you’ve caught some glimpse of the dining area so I’ll stop teasing you. Before was a built in bar which felt like overkill to us but more importantly took up valuable real estate. We added a long (12 foot!) beach seat, art and sconces. Just those three things transformed it into a defined space.
The bench got the same shiplap as the fireplace and ceiling to tie it all together. Ok enough for today! I will be back next week with the bedrooms and bathrooms. Thanks for following along!
Sources:
Great Room: Sofas | Chairs | Coffee Table | Pendants | Floor Lamp | Side Table | Stools | Sisal Rug (custom) | Blue Rug (similar)
Office: Desk (discontinued) | Chair | Pendant (discontinued) | Rug (Homesense find) | Tree | Pulls