I am so excited to share with you guys my dining room refresh! Bing! Bing! Bing! Our dining room has seen few big changes over the year. We moved into this house with a mid-century dining set and no real plan. I love our vintage Drexel dining set but after nine years I was time for something new.

It’s not a secret that I have a deep love affair with Scandinavian design aesthetic and principles. I’ve found that I have been adding tenets of Scandinavian design to my home along with modern and traditional pieces of furniture and decor to create my own aesthetic. If I were to label the interior style in my home, I’d probably call it “Scandinavian Modern Traditional (in a really old house)”. The traditional is newer to the mix, but I’ve noticed that over the last few years I’ve added a lot of more traditional elements to the main level of our home including our new glass and brass coffee table, velvet pleated chairs, and much darker muted paint colors -PLUS- we can’t forget about all of the cohabiting we’ve been doing with an overwhelming amount of very classic, traditional woodwork.

It’s a delicate balance to keep it all working together, and I don’t always get it right, but I really enjoy the journey of figuring out how to bring it together and make it all work.

The latest and greatest new change to our main level came at the beginning of the new year with a dining set. Article reached out asking if I was interested in including some of their Scandinavian inspired furniture in my home. I loved where they were coming from, fresh and modern bleached oak, clean lines with rich leather textures and hints of pastels. Of course, I said “YES”, and quickly began scheming up plans for the dining room.

A dining room refresh had been on my radar for a long time. The dining room was an after thought in our home-design journey, and never started with a cohesive plan or design, we felt like we had done all that we needed to when we plopped a proper dining set in the middle of the room and threw some paint on the walls. It was a hodge-podge of pieces that weren’t deliberately meant to be together, and now the time had come to curate the space. I don’t mind if a room takes a long time to come together, I actually prefer it to, but I never feel super confident if it just happens by chance without a plan or specific intent.

Our living room (which adjoins the dining room), had been blasted (in a good way) with quite a few more traditional elements over the last few years, and I really wanted to balance the traditional elements of the dining room with more modern and textural pieces in the dining room . The Ventu table had just the lines and light wood I was looking for. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about how it would play with the dark wood work on our dining room walls – our dining room has the most dark trim and woodwork in the entire house. The dark wood is always my number one concern when bringing new pieces into the home. I NEED furniture and decor to either compliment the wood and its red undertones or create a slight tension like an angsty teen would, BUT I can’t have it completely clash.

Honestly, when this table was delivered to our home it wasn’t love at first sight. After living with the same table and chairs for the last nine years it took some getting used to a new very large outsider interrupting what we had grown so accustomed to. Thankfully, I was expecting to have that feeling and didn’t freak out. Over the next few weeks the table grew on me, and now I absolutely love everything about it. The table is such a wonderful example of scandi-inspired design and I’m so happy to have more of that infused into the dining room. I love the rounded edges and light white oak wood. I like that this light wood contrasts the very traditional woodwork and the modern lines juxtapose the age of this house.

One of my favorite things about the main floor spaces in our home is the light. I feel like I’ve talked your guyses ears off chatting about light and dark and woodwork, but it’s the one thing that I feel like I’m really starting to get the hang of in our old home. I love our dark rooms! They don’t feel dark and that’s because the dark walls are just a backdrop for the beautiful light that comes through our windows. I love having light colored furniture and rugs to bounce the sunlight or grey hazy winter light (as it usually is) around the space. Even on the greyest of days, the light from the south facing windows is queen around here, and I love how the light oak Ventu table top bounces her around the space and shows her off.

Besides an affection for light wood furniture, one of the other common design elements of of Scandinavian furniture is texture. Texture is something I really wanted to bring into our dining room, and I always felt like the space had been lacking. I ordered a set of six Kissa leather chairs in Canyon Tan to be delivered with the table. The chairs have a very clean Scandi-inspired look, and the black powder coated metal brace is a subtle nod to modern design, but c’mon, I was all about that leather! I have never owned a leather piece of furniture before, although I’ve always admired leather in other folks’ homes. I wasn’t expecting these dining chairs to be as beautiful and soft as they were. These chairs are so amazingly soft and supple (I’ve never described anything as “supple” in my life). I love them so dang much. We are now eating every evening meal in our dining room and I am not worried about the leather in the slightest. Even with my kids’ greasy hands the chairs still look brand new. I’m honestly looking forward to these chairs, buffing, scuffing, and even staining – I think it will give them such a rich weathered feel.

The table is sturdy and is made of solid wood legs and a heavy duty (but still very handsome) wooden brace. The table base is made of solid oak while the top is a natural white oak veneer. I’ve been cleaning after meals with a damp towel and the surface is as perfect as the day she showed up.

These are now my third and fourth pieces of Article furniture in our home. The first was our Sven sectional sofa and Hexic rug in the basement. We’ve been loving that sofa all winter long. It’s so comfy and cozy, and the lines on it are great and fit in with the more minimal cozy aesthetic of our basement. I only wish my dumb cat didn’t want to use the arm as a scratching post (we’re working on that). I am thoroughly impressed by how this company operates. They strive to bring well designed good quality furniture to your front doorstep, cutting out the retail brick and mortar experience and delivering fair prices. Shipping is a flat rate and depending on the item(s) will range from $19 to $49 dollars for the lower 48. They offer money back returns for 30 days and will even have a delivery company come to pick up any furniture that you don’t love for a small return fee.

Thanks for reading, team! I am so excited about what this dining room refresh had done for our main floor. Article has been a great brand partner to work with, so please let me know if you have any questions about the dining table or dining chairs or any other Article pieces! I’d love for you to have as good of an experience as I have with my Article furniture.

Keep you eyes peeled for more dining room posts in the coming days, I’ll be including a tutorial on installing a ceiling medallion, tips for maintaining woodwork in your home and a source list.