A Totally Tired ’80s Dining Room Gets a Stunning, Modern Refresh
If you’re picking a room to go with a much bolder paint color or pattern, powder rooms and entryways are common options because they’re not very big, so the bold color or pattern won’t be too overwhelming, and you won’t need much of any splurgy wallpaper or paint you might have to buy.
A dining room is also a compelling place to go bold. Although it’s a little bigger in square footage, it’s a room often saved for special occasions and special meals, so the decor might as well feel a bit special, too. When pro organizer and stylist Malaika Lubega (@huzahomeharmony) and her family moved into their home, they transformed the dining room to fit their “bold, maximalist aesthetic,” as Malaika says.
“We needed the room to reflect who we are and to feel like ‘us,’” she adds. A space that would match the energy of her, her husband, and two sons was “bold, cozy, inviting, warm, curated, and comfortable.”
The dining room came with some cherry wood furniture.
Malaika and her husband bought the home from an 88-year-old owner who’d lived in the house since 1986. “The room was painted a two-tone green color,” Malaika describes. “[The] top half of the walls was a light green color, and the bottom half with beadboard wainscoting was a darker shade of green. “Under the dining table was a red traditional rug.”
Malaika says even though the room “felt old and dated,” she did love the cherry wood curio cabinet, dining table, and velvet chairs the owner left. “We decided to keep [them] and incorporate the new, updated style,” she says. For instance, she swapped the more traditional rug with a modern abstract one from Ruggable, and added four mid-century modern dining chairs.
“We updated the light fixture from the old brass light fixture to the modern sputnik light fixture we brought with us from our previous home,” Malaika adds.
The major change in the dining room is the red paint.
Malaika and family enlisted their contractor to paint every room (and make a few other changes) when they moved into the house. In the dining room, they chose Sherwin-Williams’ Juneberry for the walls and wainscoting, but there was a slight problem.
“We loved the color when we saw it online, loved it on the color swatch, but hated it after the first wall was painted,” Malaika says. We realized it was too light … we wanted a wine color, something a little darker and moody. So back I went to Sherwin-Williams to have all three cans of paint custom mixed with some other color to darken it, and it turned out perfect.”
Malaika’s design advice? “Don’t be afraid of color; color is your friend if you want to update and refresh a space on a budget,” she says.
The DIYer plans to wallpaper the ceiling in the future.
Malaika says this year, she plans to add “a fun wallpaper to the ceiling for more razzle dazzle.” But for now, she loves the mix of modern and traditional. One of her favorite details is the feathery juju hat wall decor.
It’s “the last piece to complete the vibe in our formal dining room, which also happens to be my favorite room in the house so far,” Malaika says on Instagram. “It was love at first sight when I saw her, and I knew she’d be perfect for the color scheme in this curated space.”
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