I've shown you the photos of the early stages of revamps of the family room and master bedroom thanks to a rug exchange that was mutually beneficial. At the same time as we brought in our black rug to the family room, we also installed a gray one in the dining area. You might remember this gray rug from the family room in our last apartment. It's from Ikea, and they don't make it anymore, but they do still sell a similar yellow version. Anyway, into the dining room it came. And though I do wish it were a tad bigger, to accommodate the chairs even when they're pulled out from the table, I overall think it's the right size for the space. Remember when I tried out the 8' x 10' denim rug here? I hated how huge it was. It felt like it swallowed up the space and I couldn't wait to get it out of there. So now I'm fine with erring on the smaller side.

So that was a good step forward. But everything looked a bit wonky still, and the bookshelves looked strangely small all shoved together like that. So we tried experimenting by pulling out the bookshelves and sliding our little bench in between them.

I think the idea is right; I just need to work on the execution. I'm not sure about that bench; its scale seems a bit small in comparison to the bookshelves. Maybe I can bring something else in, or remedy the scale problem with big art. Hence the pieces leaning against the wall; I'm trying to get a feel for what filling up that space would be like.

Then there are the built-ins. These shelves aren't particularly high quality, but they do offer a lot of storage. When we first moved in, we discussed removing the doors to display all that stuff. I'm not sure where I'd store the doors once I removed them, and I'm not sure its current state shows how much promise this could have. But I'm going to play around with it and see if we think removing the doors would be a good call. Stay tuned.

And, can you spy another change? Yep, I finally recovered the dining room chairs. They're not screwed in yet, because I can't find the screws. I came across them not too along ago and put them in a place I'd be sure to remember. Which was obviously a bad move. But what a difference four uniform chair covers in a nice, calm linen makes. I'll share details this week, but that was also a good move.

So that's the dining room progress. It feels good in that it feels like we're making it work better for us, and it flows well with the family room. But it's still a challenge; I'm not sure what needs to happen, but it's missing something, and I'm gonna find out what it is. If you have any thoughts, I'd love if you left them in the comments. Otherwise, I'll see you tomorrow! We'll be doing WFD later in the week because I'm at my parents' house in Honey Brook, helping them pack and saying goodbye before they relocate to South Carolina. But I have other posts lined up for ya, so check in.