Simple Dining Room Makeover Ideas For a Cottage-Style Space

Join me today for a dining room makeover. My cottage dining room is ready for a refresh so I have been gathering a variety of dining room makeover ideas to share with you today.

Before I start decorating, I thought I'd give a little overview of the cottage-style dining room space I am working with.

A few years ago, I added these peel-and-stick wall murals.

The designer was kind enough to print a mirror image so I could have them on both sides of the room.

This buffet and mirror were found in an antique shop down in South Carolina. I love the size of the mirror. It was gold when we first purchased it, but I eventually painted it white and gave it a few gold accents with Rub ’n Buff.

From there, I want to show you this beautiful chandelier that we added a few years ago.

The table was a gift from my sister. It was a beautiful mahogany stain but of course, I ended up painting it. Admittedly, it is in much need of a fresh coat of paint so hopefully, I'll get to that this spring.

As for seating, I went ahead and added four of these Parsons chairs. Two of them were in our sunroom, but I decided to bring them in here so that they are all the same around the table.

I've had the sideboard here for quite a while. In fact, it used to have a hutch on top at our old house. We took the hutch off, sold that, and just kept the bottom part.

And then I happened to find this print on Etsy, and I love that it is a continuation of the mural on the other side of the room, so it all kind of ties in together.

Now that I've given you a little overview of this space, I'll go ahead and start decorating.

The shelves are done.

Now let's do something on the sideboard. I love having huge arrangements right in the middle to balance with the mirror behind it. However, I'm going to scale it down just a little bit, adding a smaller floral arrangement but bringing in color.

This is the arrangement I'm going to be adding.

Now before I set down the arrangement, I'm going to place this dish towel here very loosely. I could add a runner, but I want to do that on the table. I could add a tray, however, I want a little bit of fabric, so I think the dish towel might do the trick.

With my floral in place, I'm just going to add a candle to each side so that it complements the arrangement without overpowering it. I am adding in my favorite battery-operated candles next.

Now let's do something fun on the table. First, I'm going to place this table runner down. I found this at HomeGoods several years ago. It's such a pretty runner, and I love the detail going down each side.

Now, to the middle, I'm going to add this soup tureen.

Now, I could leave it like that, but I'm going to take off the top, and then I'm going to bring in these two small faux ferns. This way, I've got just a little pop of greenery in the middle of the table without competing too much with the floral arrangement that I have on the sideboard.

And then to each side, I'm going to place a candle holder and two more of my favorite battery-operated candles.

And now for my place settings. I'm going to start with these white melamine chargers. I found these at Hobby Lobby.

Next, I'm going to add napkins. Now, since I have the pink up on the sideboard, I thought I'd bring it down to the table with these pretty blush napkins.

Now, let's add dinner plates.

Next, I'm going to layer the white salad plates right on top of the dinner plates.

Now I'm going to add one of these pretty green bowls to each place setting.

It is time to add flatware. I have had this set forever. I'm on the hunt for something new, but for now, I do like the two-tone look.

Lastly, I will add stemware.

The last area we need to work on is this one. We have the shelf, the peg rack, and the top of the buffet. What do you say we decorate the shelf first and then work our way down? Now I do want it to tie in with what I decorated on the other side of the room.

So I'll be bringing in similar elements, but then I'm going to add this little gravy boat to fill up the space a bit more.

I opted for shorter wine glasses so it doesn't cover the print visually.

Then, I am adding a matching faux plant like I did on the other shelves.

Next, I am adding dish towels to the pegs and a couple of pitchers.

On the buffet, I'm going to place this faux floral arrangement that I put together. This matches the one that I did for the sideboard. So it's bringing in the same elements, but it's also bringing in a bit of pink to this side of the room.

I'm going to add another dish towel right in the middle and place this cake stand and cloche on top.

Then, I want to place these two candles here. I want one a little bit taller than the other, so that's where this book will come in handy.

Again, I am using my favorite battery-operated candles to finish off the look.