I love our dining room. It’s where we start our day and watch the sun come up over the fields. We have a great view across the farm and can watch whatever wildlife is around. At the end of the day, we come together again to share dinner with the dog under the table and the cat on the window sill.

Whether it’s everyday meals or occasions with extended family, this room gives us lots of special moments. And now, the space measures up to what happens in it, and I love it even more.

Welcome to the final week of the One Room Challenge and the reveal of our new dining room.

If you’re new here, welcome to our farm. My name is Julia, and I live on a 129-acre farm in Ontario with my husband, Matt, our one year old daughter, Ellie, our rescue dog, Baxter, and #theworldsbestbarncat, Ralph (who loves sitting on the dining room window sill).

We moved here 7 years ago and have been fixing up our 1970s era ranch style house ever since. Our style is a bit traditional, a bit country, with lots of personal elements, thrifting and DIY.

Which brings us to the dining room. You can get caught up on this project with all the dining room ORC posts: the plans (week 1), sanding and patching (week 2), the start of painting (week 3), more painting (week 4), beginning the china cabinet makeover (week 5).

Six weeks ago this room was dark. The brown walls were rough, cracked and scuffed. The thrifted shelving unit that is our china cabinet was all kinds of brown and dated.

Now the walls are smooth and light thanks to a lot of sanding and two coats of Abalone by Benjamin Moore (mixed at 75%). All of the trim also got a fresh coat of paint (Cloud White by Benjamin Moore).

My go-to Cloud White was also the solution for the china cabinet. Painting this was not fun–especially when I decided I needed to do a third coat–but it was absolutely worth it. This cabinet gives us so much storage and now it’s no longer a black (brown) hole in the room.

I feel like all of our special dishes and family heirlooms look so much nicer in the white cabinet than in the wood (and yes, I desperately need to polish my silver).

You may notice that the cabinets are lacking hardware. This is my second ORC reveal without hardware. There’s another unfinished part of the china cabinet. I plan to build glass doors for the upper sections, as I don’t believe in dusting. Those will come in the next couple of weeks.

The wall opposite the china cabinet holds Matt’s grandmother’s piano. Ellie and I play on it occasionally already, and I hope one day to teach her to actually play it properly. I love the beautiful heritage from her Great-Grandma, her Daddy’s family and her Mama.

The Coonley Playhouse-style stained glass (inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright) was made for us by Matt’s uncle.

The picture was a gift from Matt’s parents. The barns look very much like our two barns–although we’ve never seen that many deer that close to the house.

There are a few more things I want to do in here, but I’m really happy with where we are after these 6 weeks. Finishing another room is a big accomplishment. More importantly, every time we sit down for another meal together, it feels so nice to be in a bright, beautiful space.

Interested in seeing other beautiful makeovers? Visit the One Room Challenge to check out all of the other participants’ reveals.

Thanks for following along on the dining room makeover.