Spring Home Tour: Dining Room Styling and Updates

Hey there! How are you guys doing right now? Things out there are crazy and I’ve been trying to move past it and live my life, but boy are there changes happening every day. But, this post isn’t about that. This post is about returning to normal and thinking about everyday things!

I’m participating in something super fun today, that I’ve never done before — a spring home tour with lots of other lovely ladies. If you’re new to Land of Laurel: welcome, and come dive in!

My dining room has been constantly evolving since I first bought my home. It’s been through a journey, y’all. You can check out some of its past lives here in this post from when the room was painted. The problem with this room, is it’s trying to be a lot of different things at once and furniture from other spaces gets kicked out and abandoned in here.

As a single woman, I really only use this room when I’m hosting people. Otherwise, I eat most of my meals on the go or on the couch with a good book! But, when I decided to style this room up for spring, I knew I wanted to give it more of a thorough refresh as well.

I’ve been hunting for a good sideboard to help ground this room and I finally found one! It replaced my old secretary turned bar cabinet and feels so appropriate for this space.

As for the table, the first thing I have to admit is: I never style my table. Eeek! Most of the time I host people, I make a big graze spread and have it on the table, so rarely is it even set. On the occasions I do host a sit down meal, we generally just use my everyday dishes and make our plates in the kitchen. I’m a casual type of girl. So most of the time, plopping a vase with greenery or flowers from my garden is about as dressed as the table gets.

In my mind though, here’s a lot of elegance in this type of simplicity. A meal could still happen around this table. Or the vase could be shoved aside for a game night. Or I can sit at this table and open my laptop and work from home (because aren’t we all right now?).

I couldn’t stop there for the spring home tour though! As lovely as this simple look is, it’s not really a tablescape. Why not play around a little?

I live in Portland, OR and things are just beginning to bloom here. Or at least they were before I started this staycation that is #coronavirus. There isn’t a ton coming up in the yard yet, so I decided to craft a spring table from something else: thrifted finds!

My cousin Kelly was in town and she, my sister Bronwyn, and I all headed to Goodwill to see what we could find. It ended up being quite the haul! I spent $82, which is definitely the most I’ve ever spent at Goodwill, but I got way more than I would have imagined. You’ve seen some of these finds if you follow me on instagram.

Now realistically, I’d be much more likely to stack tableware on my new credenza and leave it prepped there for a gathering. So that’s how I started out styling my space.

I wanted to imagine how I’d style the table for a spring gathering even more though, so I amped up my game and begin to toy around with my things until I landed with this below! The finishing touch of a sweet sprig of rosemary tied with twine feels spring-y, while also nodding to my favorite herb (I snip it from my garden all year long!). I love this simple linen table cloth (it’s from Target!), because it doesn’t have to be ironed and just epitomizes the casual spring feeling in the air to me.

What are you doing to celebrate spring these next few weeks? Are you excited for the good weather? For me, this time of year is rejuvenating and I want to spend as much time as possible outside, soaking up some vitamin D. With social isolation being a primary focus for me right now, I’m ready to get back to digging in the dirt of my garden and prepping for new plantings (or — depending on how things go — maybe just transplanting a lot of the larger plants around…). I have foster puppies right now and they’ve been taking up most of my free time, or I’d already be out with my hands in the soil!

Side note: if you need a break from everything that’s going on, head to my instastories to see lots of puppy shenanigans. These three 8 week old Great Pyrenees head back to the humane society this Friday and I will be sad to see them go, but I’ve added all my videos to my insta highlights!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming though: can we just talk about the layered colors in this shot? My dining room is dark and moody, which is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. At night, especially with candlelight, this whole room glows though. The dark color makes lighter tones pop and it makes me so pleased.

Be sure to check out the other bloggers on this Spring Home Tour! There are so many beautiful spaces to inspire you to cheer up your own home – even if it’s just with greens from your own garden!