How to Repurpose a Dining Room into a Ladies Lounge

Almost 10 years ago, we were searching for a home where we could live as two families — me, Mr. and Miss Bee and my parents.  We weren’t quite sure how we could make this home work for us, but we did.  Our home had the typical set up with formal and separate dining and living areas but we knew these spaces would not be used in the traditional sense.  I put a twist on the dining room and turned it into my “ladies lounge” – a place for a small group of my friends to meet and gather while the men are in the family room.

I needed it to also be functional space for my serving pieces and cookbooks so I added two Emerson bookshelves from World Market. I took inspiration from open shelving where you can go right to the shelf to get what you need to set the table.  There are tons of ideas on Pinterest.  Just type in “Open Kitchen” in the search field and photos like this from Oak House Design Company will pop up.

I love stacked glassware, utensils standing up in tumblers, a variety of cake stands, and assorted plates and bowls.

If you are considering shelving, I highly recommend the Emerson bookshelves. You do have to assemble them, but they are very sturdy and high quality.  Look at the fun hardware on the front and a kick bar on the bottoms.

I had my friend Megan from Cleggraphy Designs letter the fronts of these chalkboard boxes from Magnolia Market.  I use the boxes to hold a variety of my cookbooks into categories like French cooking, baking and cookbooks good for weeknight dinner recipes.

 

Remember to take the covers off your cookbooks to expose the beautiful colors publishers use for the spines and covers of the books (you can tuck the covers away in a storage box or file if you don’t want to throw them away).

The wall color is Sherwin-Williams Quietude.  It’s the perfect blue for this space.  I had the sofa recovered into a fun animal print.  The Erin Cute-as-a-Button chairs are from World Market.  The tufted chairs have colorful buttons that add a touch of whimsy.

The chairs are neutral enough that I can move them around the house to different rooms depending on my mood.  That gorgeous Chiang Mai pillow on the sofa was made by Stuck on Hue.  Hollie does beautiful work.

Yes, there are three different types of animal print going on in this room and I love it!  I had the orange animal print bolster pillows made from left over fabric from this chair in my family room.  The blue animal print pillows I purchased at Target, but I don’t think they are available anymore.   The beautiful antique library table is made of tigerwood.  It’s been in our family for years.  The plant stand has a marble insert and belonged to Mother. The cream ottoman is from HomeGoods and is perfect hidden storage to hide out-of-season decor.

The prints on the top shelf are by Janet Hill Studio of my favorite things — cake!

I love my Ladies Lounge.  It’s filled with light, fun colors and is a perfect spot to read through my cookbooks and have iced tea with friends. Thanks for taking the tour!

Photo credit:  Rooted in Love Photography