Midcentury Modern Dining Room & Bar

April 2, 2021

My midcentury modern dining room and bar area are finally (almost) ready!! This has been a long time coming, mostly due to endless back-ordered items, but I’m happy to say the last common area in my home is finally presentable! As you might remember, I started designing my kitchen the moment I moved in, and my living room wasn’t too far behind, but I would have never thought it would take me this long to get my dining room to a place where people can actually hang out and enjoy.

Making the design decisions for this room was a bit more difficult for a few reasons. First of all, I wanted this room to flow with the rest of the home, especially since it’s pretty open to the kitchen and living room. So I wanted it to flow, but I also wanted it to have its own personality and feel like a true dining room as opposed to all blending together. Another reason is that I decided this bar area could be Ryan’s domain. It can be hard to mix and match styles, so since the rest of the downstairs is mostly white and leans feminine, I figured it would be a great opportunity to let Ryan take the reins here. He designed the bar wall with and the , he found the vintage paintings, and it was his idea to add some , so I have to say, it certainly worked out! I’ll take credit for the gorgeous , though.

Another addition I made was the pendant lights. We originally had “recessed” lighting, which was actually more like a flush mount, but whatever. I became obsessed with pendant lights after I discovered just how easy they are to install and how much they can transform a space. And they totally did here! Funny story, I got on sale after stalking them for months. I was so excited that I ordered right away. Turns out, I accidentally ordered the wrong lights. I didn’t even notice until they were already installed by a professional and at that point I was like it is what it is, lol! I actually meant to get . Oh well, these will work!

Another tough decision was the window treatment route. Personally, I love open and airy, but ever since we moved in, there has been construction outside of our windows on this side of our house, meaning some kind of window covering was definitely required. I knew I didn’t want traditional blinds–I just felt like they didn’t fit–and curtains seemed too soft for the space. And since I’m not a millionaire, I couldn’t go with velvet drapes or something dramatic like that. The perfect solution for us was roller shades: clean, white roller shades. I knew I wanted something that I could control with a remote and ideally connect to my phone, so I began my search. After weeks of research, I landed on Blinds To Go. They do full custom, which was great and feels so much more luxurious than picking up any old set of blinds. I went through their samples and decided on Tokyo in Coconut for the dining room and the guest room. I actually ended up picking out their blackout Brilliance Solid in white for my bedroom upstairs since it faces the same construction. It’s nice because all three sets of blinds can be controlled by the same remote – both as sets and individually.

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As for the , we chose this one out of necessity. All the tables I wanted were $2000+ and that combined with everything else we were purchasing the first few months after we moved in was really starting to add up. Ryan found this table for a shocking $350 so it was an easy decision. But then after that came the decision of the dining chair: a decision that plagued me for months. I went back and forth between colors, fabrics, shapes, and everything else. When I finally decided on something, it was back ordered for months, so I was back to square one and the process repeated itself. Last month, I couldn’t take any more waiting and finally decided to bite the bullet and order these beautiful dark grey . Such great decision – I absolutely love them!!

Surprisingly, I actually love the dark color in my midcentury modern dining room & bar area. So much so in fact that I have commissioned my favorite Atlanta artist to come paint the wall behind the bar! We are planning to go with a black base and have her paint gold branches and other beautiful designs to make the space truly complete and truly unique. I can’t wait! Until then, this will happily do.

Do you find it difficult to make design decisions?

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Photos by Ryan Carpenter.