My Country Farmhouse – The Middle Room Refresh (Before & After)

The “middle” room aka the “breakfast” room aka “the informal” dining room… This long and slender room hasn’t really served much of a purpose besides being pass through into the kitchen, powder room or formal dining room. It is the darkest room in the house having windows on the north and east walls. And like many of the other rooms in the house it only needed to be cosmetically updated.

Since I would never fit my farmhouse table and chairs in this kitchen it was only logical to put them in this room. But because it’s so dark the table was only used a few times the first year I moved in. Over time I painted the blue walls Incredible White to brighten the space and well, I already had the paint so besides labour it was free. It is a great neutral colour so everything worked in the space for the time being. I knew that at some point the wall between the kitchen and this space would have to come down. I had hoped that the entire wall could come out but that would have been too expensive so I decided on removing 24″ just before the kitchen renovation would start.

BEST DECISION EVER!

One of the only projects that I did in this room before this renovation was removing the old air return vent cover and making a new one. It stuck out 4″ from the wall and was really ugly. Super easy project and made the room look 10 times better.

Once the wall removal was complete the space just felt so much better. There are now 4 massive windows feeding the space natural light, the room doesn’t feel as tight and the view into the kitchen is lovely. It actually feels more like an eat-in kitchen. At this point I knew I really wanted to add some colour and wood trim detail to the longest wall. Putting any kind of furniture along this wall would mean no table and chairs and this room would basically become a wide hallway. The trim cost about $75 and it only took me about 2 hours to install. It really gave the room some character, which this house is missing. I tested about 7 different paint colours in this space. From dark yellow, too pink and various greens. The winner was Benjamin Moore’s October Mist. A gorgeous sage green that is warm and relaxing.

Since I would have to wait until the end of November to move the fridge and makeshift kitchen out of the space I was only able to get the painting done. Until that time I set up the table and chairs for Christmas. I loved how this space turned out however, the bathroom is right there (grey door) so it’s a little to close for my liking when it comes to dining.

Once the appliances were out, the space really transformed. I laid my antique area rug and moved the table and antique chairs closer to the kitchen. The plate rack was put up, some art was hung and a plant was moved into the corner. On the far side of the room I moved my singer sewing machine dough board table into the corner, rehung the artwork and added some coat hooks. Got some antique books for free, a vintage swag light from Value Village for $19.99, put one of my faux plants on the table and hung the gorgeous gold curtains up.

The space is so warm and ties into the kitchen perfectly. Black, white and green are such a classic combo. I’m so happy with what was a wasted space. Although I am not sure how much more use the space will get used, I do finally have a space to hang coats and bags and well it just looks so pretty.

This space became my motivation to work on the remaining rooms in the house. The primary bedroom (already posted). dining room (coming soon) and the living room (coming soon).

Hope you like it as much as I do.