Spring 2024 | One Room Challenge | Century Home Dining Room Refresh | Week 1
Welcome to Week 1 of the One Room Challenge and thank you for joining me on this journey! My name is Margaret Stagg and I am the Owner and Principal Designer here at Stagg & Paper Interiors.
This is my first time participating in the One Room Challenge. In case you don’t know what it is; the One Room Challenge is an eight week online event that happens every Spring and Fall, where interior designers, decorators, home DIYers take on one room and work on transforming it over the course of eight weeks. The goal is to stay focused and cheer each other along the way as everyone works on transforming one room from start to finish.
Since this is my first time participating, and being completely honest, not the biggest DIYer and having a minimal budget, I choose to focus on transforming my dining room in my 1910ish century home. My home is a beautiful red brick foursquare style home in Hamilton ON. We bought the house back in 2015 and have had to focus on a few more functional than aesthetic improvements over the years. The previous owners did a great job of maintaining the original character and century home details on the main floor. The original wood trim, inlay hardwood floors and plaster walls and ceilings all remain. When we moved in back in 2015, we updated the paint in the dining room and called it a day.
Fast forward to 2024, I am looking to add a splash of colour and pattern, and liven up the space to better reflect our family and lifestyle. Generally my design aesthetic is a bit more modern than my century home, so my goal is to add in modern design elements while maintaining and respecting the character and charm of my more traditional home.
Century Home Dining Room Refresh | Before Photos
As you can see there isn’t a whole lot of wow going on here. We had painted the walls white, because we do not get a lot of natural light in the house. This is actually the brightest room in the house and the only one I can keep plants alive in. I’d like to incorporate shelving to be able to add more plants by the window. The grey paint below the white feels outdated and doesn’t add anything to the room. The wood trim and floors add a beautiful warmth to the space, but combined with the wood furniture pieces, none of it really stands out or pops. Speaking of the wood furniture pieces, a lot of them have been passed along from my family and will be staying. My dining room table is a beautiful rosewood and desperately needs some love and attention and so do the original inlay hardwood floors.
Here is a look at the inspiration photos and the direction I will be heading with the Dining Room Refresh.
Century Home Dining Room Refresh | Look N’ Feel
I hope you will follow along over the next eight weeks as I work on transforming this space and bring it to life. I will be back next week with the design reveal!
You can check out all of the other Spring One Room Participants here.
Thank you! Margaret
