Before and After Dining Room Remodel

We love our home. We really do. But if I’m being honest, it has always had one significant drawback: the layout. Our house is boxy, the rooms are small, and entertaining has always felt like a bit of a puzzle. If you have been following along, you know we have been chipping away at this house for years, and this before and after dining room remodel is the next project I’m excited to share. We’ve looked at other homes in the neighborhood here and there, but nothing compares to our lake view. So instead of moving, we keep making it work.

The dream has always been to open up the wall between the living room and family room. That wall, unfortunately, houses all of our HVAC, and relocating it would be enormously expensive and would likely steal square footage from another room in the process. So that project stays on the wish list.

What we could do was open up the dining room. And that decision led to the most satisfying before and after dining room remodel we have done in this house. Here’s what it looked like before.

That standard 40 by 96 inch doorway was doing the space no favors. Walking into the dining room always felt a little like stepping into a box. We knew even a wider opening would change how the whole main floor felt.

We have done 99% of the renovations on this house ourselves, and honestly, it has been one of the most rewarding parts of homeownership. But for this one, we decided to bring in some help. Our contractor was incredibly meticulous from the start. The prep work alone took several hours. Plastic walls went up throughout to contain the drywall dust, which, if you have ever done any demo work, you know is absolutely essential.

Interestingly, removing the actual wall was the fastest part of the whole project. What followed was reframing, relocating the electrical and adding a new header and trim. The demo is almost always the easy part.

Then came the floors, and this is where things got a little more complicated than expected.

When you remove a wall, you are left with a gap of subfloor where the wall once stood. You have two options: match the existing hardwood for a seamless look, or use a transition strip for a deliberate contrast. The price difference between the two approaches was about $400, so we planned to match. What we did not plan for was learning that the original hardwood in the dining room was laid in various widths, which meant extra work to source matching wood. And once you are adding new wood to old floors, everything needs to be re-sanded and stained together for an even finish.

Here is where the budget took a turn. Because we had just created a wide open connection between the dining room and the hallway, both spaces needed to be done together. And because the hallway connects to the living room, the entire living room needed to be re-sanded and stained as well. That was not a line item we had budgeted for.

But the floors are beautiful. Worth every penny, even the unexpected ones. If you are planning a before and after dining room remodel of your own, budget a cushion for the floors. You will thank yourself later.

After the floors came fresh paint throughout the hallway and dining room and finally the chance to actually exhale. Here’s the after.

The whole project took just over three weeks, and this before and after dining room remodel was worth every bit of the disruption. Walking into our home now feels completely different. The dining room no longer feels cramped, the main floor has a flow it never had before, and we did not have to give up our lake view to get it.

Thank you for reading! Have you tackled a renovation that took on a life of its own once you got started? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.