My Dining Room Makeover with Room & Board [Part 1/2]

My Husband and I moved into our townhouse almost seven years ago when we first got married. In that same year, I was finishing grad school, we had paid for our wedding, home down payment, and our 9-city European honeymoon… so we had to manage our finances tightly, to say the least haha.

When it came to our interior decor, we bought practical, affordable items because we simply needed furniture. It’s been years since then, and now we find ourselves wanting to redecorate and fill our home with well-made, investment pieces that are more grown-up and timeless, which is why I’m so excited to be partnering with Room & Board on my home makeover series!

When Room & Board opened in Seattle at University Village six years ago, I checked out the store and fell in love with the thoughtful craftsmanship of their pieces. They source local materials when possible and partner with artisans, which make the products more special and one-of-a-kind. I also trust in the ethos of the company, as they do not have sales so they don’t inflate prices.

Dining Room Makeover: Before

If I could only redecorate one area of our home with Room & Board, it’d be the dining room, hands down. We have an open floor plan and the dining set is quite central, so we hoped to have quality pieces there that would elevate the area.

Years ago, Husband made our dining table out of a door! He sanded, stained, and attached hairpin legs on it, and he also made the dining bench in a similar manner. Over the years, the table got some small scratches, so he repainted the top of it white. While we loved our dining table and all the great memories we had around it, it was time to update the look.

In addition to a new dining table, I knew I wanted matching, cozy dining chairs. I used to like the asymmetrical look of a bench and chairs, but our seating options were not so comfortable. Family and friends would congregate around the dining table, but we would not be able to sit for too long before moving to the living room because of the hard seats.

With these design needs in mind, we headed to Room & Board to shop!

We shared our ideas with the Room & Board design team, who offer free design services in person, online, or via phone. Here are the top three things we were looking for:

1. A long table at least 70″ in length and 35″ in width to fit our dining area
2. White tabletop to brighten up the space but is easy to maintain
3. Comfortable dining chairs so we could lounge and enjoy hanging out

Choosing a Dining Table

The design team showed us so many gorgeous dining tables, but we narrowed it down to the Portica Table and the Rand Table! While the Rand Table is also offered with a natural steel frame, we opted for stainless steel legs to match the silver metal accents in our home.

Option 1: To me, the Portica Table is a bit more traditional and the thinner legs can make the space seem light and airy. We loved the clean, simple lines of this table.

Option 2: We were also drawn to the Rand Table because the tabletop has a “floating” effect that gives the classic table a more contemporary vibe.

Do you like the Portica or the Rand more?

There are so many options to customize the legs, size, or top of each table. I took a fabric swatch of a dining chair to pair with the different tabletops. We knew we wanted a white top to brighten up our dining room, but from there it was choosing white quartz, marble quartz, or Venatino marble.

Here was my thought process: our kitchen counters are white quartz, so would a similar dining table top be too matchy matchy? Would the marble quartz tabletop look jarring as we don’t have any other marble accents in our home? Would real marble be too high maintenance for our lifestyle? Thankfully, we were able to talk through all these concerns with the design team.

Choosing Dining Chairs

Honestly, every single dining chair at Room & Board was cozy, which is the number one thing we were looking for. So that made things easier haha… or maybe harder? From there, we just looked at aesthetics and picked the Peyton Chair and the Cora Chair.

We liked both because they have high backs and are especially plushy. You could customize everything on the Cora Chair, down to the fabric and leg finish, but we liked the gray fabric and ebony-stained legs, as they match our cabinets.

Option 1: The Peyton Chair is an elegant choice with the straight, high back. The design team said it would help bring eyes upward and pair well with our tall ceilings.

Option 2: We were smitten with the Cora Chair the moment we saw its adorable shape, but even more so after we sat in it. It’s soo comfortable and the curved wraparound back hugs you in — I could envision myself sitting in the chair for hours eating and drinking with family and friends!

Room & Board was kind enough to let us pull the Peyton Chairs and Cora Chairs from around the store and style them at this table to help with visualization.

Do you like the Peyton Chair or the Cora Chair more?

Dining Room Mock Ups

The design team then created these mock ups so we could picture what the items would look like in our dining room, and we also brought home free swatches of the fabrics to test out in our space.

Do you like Option 1 (top) or Option 2 (bottom) better? Please vote in the comments! I’ll be revealing what we chose for our dining room makeover with Room & Board in a couple weeks!