Before & After: A Blank Dining Room Gets a Warm $550 Redo Featuring the Trendiest Color of 2022

One reason open-concept spaces are so popular is because they can quickly make the entire area more inviting. Because there aren’t any walls closing you off from the kitchen or living room, for example, you’re more likely to feel welcomed into those zones.

But that doesn’t always go to plan. At Momina’s (@momina.zee) home, the dining room was open to the kitchen — but didn’t really feel like a happy place to hang out.

“It had a builder-grade light fixture with a builder-grade paint, creamy white,” Momina says of the dining room in her 2020 home. “I decided to change it up because it did not feel very inviting.”

Over about two and a half months, Momina gave the entire area a DIY refresh. She started by replacing the old light fixture — a hanging version of the ubiquitous builder-grade boob light — with a sleek black chandelier. Then, she turned her attention to the walls, where she added vertical moulding to create a modern take on board-and-batten.

“The accent wall was easier than expected as I chose a design that had simple cuts and there were no complex angles to figure out,” Momina says. “I’m proud of completing my first accent wall!”

Once the moulding was in place, Momina painted it a pretty sage green (in line with 2022’s most popular color of the year) and hung some art she created herself.

As for the furnishings, Momina put her DIY skills to work there, too. She scored chairs secondhand off Facebook Marketplace, and sanded off the old shiny stained finish to reveal the natural wood underneath. That part took the longest out of the entire project. “I did not realize how much work it is to sand stain off of chairs,” Momina says.

All that sweat equity was worth it, though: With their new raw wood finish, the chairs have a distinctly Scandinavian vibe that suits the newly redecorated dining room’s warm minimalist style. With her DIYs and smart shopping, Momina was able to pull off this redo for only about $550 — with fabulous results. “I love how all the earthy colors work together and especially how warm and inviting the space feels,” Momina says.

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Before and After: A Blank Dining Room Gets a Warm $550 Redo Featuring 2022’s Trendiest Color