{Dinning Room} Kottong Homestead
When we built our house, we tried to cut cost by not having “bump outs” on the exterior – which made for a pretty boring rectangle shape. We knew on the inside we wanted to make up for this by having little nooks throughout the space to give it more shape! And one of these “nooks” we put in our dinning room. My dream was to make it into a built-in hutch. As with every home DIY for us, it took a few years before we finally had the time and money to make this dream fully come to life.
| The Building Process |
Back when we built, I had an idea of how I wanted this space to look… but never really put it down on paper. And the space kind of evolved as time went on.
First thing that evolved was the ceiling. I had purchased the dinning room light fixture before we even broke ground and did not think about how it would be mounted on the ceiling. We have a vaulted ceiling in this room and the fixture was made for a flat ceiling. That “oops” turned into one of the best changes we made during the building process! I came up with two options (because returning this light fixture was never gonna happen – I loved it too much!!)
We could either bring the ceiling down (and do some kind of tray ceiling detail) or install some beams to mount the fixture to. Which once I drew it up… there really was no contest (note: this drawing is all on my iPad and far from “professional” but I did not have the fancy program I have now!)
So my husband and father-in-law spent one weekend installing the faux beams! That’s right beam”s”… haha, cause you can’t just have ONE beam … that would be weird (or at least that is what I told Chris!!) We ended up putting in a total of four, evenly spaced, beams throughout the vaulted ceiling space! And I am so happy we did – it added so much character to our home!
Then once the drywall was in, we decided to put in the same cabinets as we were using in our kitchen to keep a cohesive look. However we opted for the glass fronts on the upper cabinets. Chris made and installed a cedar countertop which matched our living room built-in counter tops.
Lower Cabinets and Countertops In! 
the BEAUTIFUL light fixture!!
And here is what the space looked like when we moved in! (haha, ignore the pink balloon at the ceiling… not sure what that is about 🙂 )
After about a year of living in our home, we decided to tackle transforming the space into what I had originally envisioned (and more 😉 )
| The Before |
| The Design |
So again, this was before I had my design program, and had to hand draw my ideas. I knew I wanted to give the space a more custom built-in look and trimming it out with MDF seemed like a no-brainer. I decided to add a farmhouse detail to the upper trim (similar to the window trim in the space) and then throw in some brick (to coordinate with the brick pantry) & add even more dimension to the hutch! Then add a little wainscoting (board-n-batten!) and whaa-la: My Design (easy-peasy right?!)
| Execution |
First up, was adding the vertical shiplap between the upper and lower cabinets and a shelf to display dishes on! (and then we had some extra shiplap so why not add it to the hallway 😉 )
I painted the shiplap a stock white – in my mind it made the cabinets feel like a single unit verses being upper & lower kitchen cabinets if that makes sense!
Then we went to work installing the MDF trim work:
And here we added brown board for the smooth texture wainscoting:
Here is with a few coats of primer and paint:
And finally time to install the brick!
And this is kind of how it stayed for a few months. Other projects came up, life got busy, and for some reason we rarely make finishing our home projects a priority! I can live with half-finished stuff for awhile because I feel like I can always see the finished product in my head and I know one day it will be what I envision! Also it helps that my husband and kids truly don’t care what it looks like – so there is no pressure on that end!
When I finally got around to finishing the board and batten – we had the completed look!
| Final Look |
I love this space so much! What started out as a plain cabinet bump-out turned into a gorgeous feature wall in our dinning room. I love how so much character can be in one space but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Definitely one of my favorite DIYs. I know it will always evolve… like maybe adding a faux beam and shiplap on the ceiling down the hall………. and the wainscoting on a few other walls (Chris is probably running for hills when/if he reads this 🙂 haha!) but I think it is perfect right now!
| Before And After |
Just for fun, here is another before and after shot of the space!
| Links |
thee most beautiful light fixture 🙂
The table was built by my talented hubby. They no longer have our dinning chairs available, I got my upholstered chairs from Pier One, and the black chairs from Wayfair. Here is a similar look for the black chairs:
I went with an Indoor/Outdoor rug for the dinning table – my thought process was if it got too dirty I could take it outside and power wash it… haha, in three years I have not done this…. but I do like it is an option… if I ever muster up the energy required to move all that furniture!!
I got my wall baskets from a couple places, whenever I saw one I liked at a store (Marshals, Home Goods, Hobby Lobby…) I added them, but this one was definitely my favorite:
And lastly, this is the brick I went with:
