Emma’s Black & White Dining Room

I was reviewing some of my home tours and I realized that so much has changed in my dining room (and kitchen) that I probably should share a little more. Plus, I just want to. 🙂 In the past year or so, I have made quite a few bigger changes in our home. I mainly wanted things to feel much brighter, cozy, and functional. Somewhat unintentionally, our house has become more and more monochromatic over time. I personally love color, and always will. Ha. But when it comes to decor, at least for now, I crave simplicity. I want our home to feel calm and inviting.

I’ve also been going through a pretty major clean out phase as I’ve become more and more obsessed with the KonMari method. But, who hasn’t? Other than our garage (which still needs some work), I feel like I know where every single thing in our home is, what it’s for, and it all sparks joy. Of course, this paring down of items is an ongoing one (or at least it is in our house). But I’ve found that I love it and it makes me feel so much more relaxed. And, it seems to creep into the decor of our home as well, as it forces me to edit things down to only what I love and feels right in a space.

I feel like you have to look back in order to fully appreciate the present, right? The blurry left photo is what our dining room looked like just after we purchased our home. We fell for this home almost immediately as we are in love with the open floorplan that is the kitchen, dining, front living room, and my office. I love hosting parties in our home as there is just so much space! Although parking is another matter. 🙂

Anyway, if you were to play “what’s different in these photos,” you’d probably note right away:
-The floors are different.
-The ceiling is a different shade (I stained it white).
-The built-in cabinet has been painted and updated.
-The chandelier is different.

First, let’s talk about that chandelier. This is the most recent change to this space. I had a more industrial fixture in this spot before (it was something pretty inexpensive I bought off Ebay) and I liked it but didn’t love it. And over time, I just felt like this is THE most prominent chandelier spot in our home and I decided I wanted something that made a little more of a statement. I also wanted a light that came on a chain because it’s always bothered me how the spot where the light connects to the ceiling is not centered with the built-in cabinet. This just always felt a little visually wrong to me. Of course, it’s not such a major deal that I would want to replace the boards in the ceiling to move it, but with a chain I figured I could just have a sturdy hook and simply hang the light over a little so it was centered. We choose this chandelier and I LOVE it.

I still have the same dining table and chairs I’ve had since moving in. Our glassware collection is sort of always evolving a little, like I recently got those cute little face cups. They are handmade from Oaxaca, Mexico when I went with Thread Caravan on a girls trip earlier this year. I’m not a massive souvenir person, but I love sipping rum from these cups (they are meant for Mezcal).

I also love all the storage that the built-in cabinet in this room provides. I have a drawer filled with craft kits and coloring books that my nieces know as “the craft drawer” and Penny especially will ask what’s in the drawer as soon as she gets to my house. 🙂

I also do all my recipe testing and photography for our blog at my house, so I have space for all my different linens and other props. Trey and I also tend to host at least a couple larger dinner parties each year, so I have a LOT of extra plates and things for those parties that I store in this cabinet.

I can’t decide if I’ll host Friendsgiving in my home this year or if we’ll host it at the SGF Bnb house … I guess that’s still a ways away. But I love thinking about it, as it’s one of my favorite “blog features” we do each year. 🙂

I also have this entertainment/bar area set up in our dining room. Although I have certainly simplified the decor in our home, I still love to be surrounded by art, so this is one spot where I have a mini gallery wall. This is also the space that holds our liquor cabinet and bar tools, record player and record collection, many of the cookbooks I use most often (this rotates all the time), and just a few other small items we frequently use. This is also where I store our annual photo albums. I talk about this (and other organization stuff) in our free mini course: Print + Organize Your Life, if you’re interested in that kind of thing. I love having them somewhere easy to access, I really do flip through them from time to time and they 100% spark joy. 🙂

We’ve been adding some cocktail illustrations to many of the classic cocktails on our blog and we decided to create a printable of all of them for you! We shared this through our email list (so sign up here if you aren’t already), but I have my copy framed and displayed here, by the bar. I’ve used it a bunch of times already to quickly remember the ratios of cocktails I make often. Love it!

Thanks for letting me share my current dining room with you! Now let’s see if I do this again in a couple years because clearly I cannot leave well enough alone. xo. Emma

Room Details: Chandelier/ Rug: Similar/ Dining Table: DIY / Chairs / Wallpaper / Liquor Cabinet + I added hairpin legs / Gallery art from: our mom, Clare Elsaesser, Vivian Strauss, and paintings in cabinet / Designing Indie. And just in case you are curious, my shirt is from Free People and my shoes are from Target.

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy. Cocktail Poster Design: Mara Dockery. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.