Hello friends, my home tour on my blog is need of an update! I though the easiest and best way to showcase my home tour is sharing my home on the blog room by room, then each week I'll update my house tour page. Make sense?

Every Friday, I'll be sharing rooms in my home. Today, I'm sharing my living room along with how it looked a few short years ago, when we moved back into our home for the second after re-building our home. Below is a link if you're interested in seeing our living room & bad pictures of how our living room looked circa 2009 #mindblown

I love seeing how rooms evolve over time. It's amazing to look back at a room and see how much its evolved over time + see ways my personal design style has changed. Below is our living room in late 2013, shortly after moving back in our home.

Below is my living room now. It's so fun to see the evolution of our living room. Pattern drapes have been hung, artwork is on the walls. bookcases flank our dresser turned TV stand. I love how modern + California casual + layered in color & pattern our living room feels.

Our living room is a mix of old + new. I found the vintage campaign dresser at Antique store and refinished it a glossy white, bought our coffee table via Craigslist (oh how I love CL) and scored our pretty aqua lamp and vintage side table at a Consignment store.

We have small home and our living room acts as our everything room since our home doesn't have a family. Our living room is where we entertain,have family movie night, play games etc. When designing our living room my goal was to make sure our living room was pretty + functional. Instead of one sofa + two chairs like our previous set-up in our living room before re-building I opted for twin sofas to balance our small living room & provide plenty of seating. Honestly, it was one of the best decisions ever! Plus, I'm a pillow hoarder and twin sofas means lots of pillows of my pillow loving heart.

To layer in color in our living room, I painted the inside of our front door Elephant Skin by Behr. Seriously, our front door was too pretty to be left white, plus by painting the inside of our front door, I layered in more color. Don't be afraid to paint the inside of your front door, my top suggestions: Black (its always classic) or Grey (its becoming a new classic and not going out of style any time soon) or consider staining the inside of your front door, but don't go too dark.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my living room! Next Friday, I'm sharing my dining room. It's come such a long way since moving into our home.

Hello Friends, I have fun news! I'm starting a new design series on my blog all about small space design, simply titled: Small Home Style. After getting so much fantastic feedback from my first ever blog survey and hearing that the majority of you my dear readers were interested in small space design ideas & solutions, the series was born. Every Monday, I'll share small space design ideas & solutions to incorporate into your home. Being a small home dweller myself, I know first hand that small home dwelling can be a challenging but also rewarding in so many ways. Along with sharing design ideas, I'm also sharing how my family of four lives in 1100 sq feet, and all the things about small space living I love, and have learned along the way and am learning.

In addition, if there's a small space in your home your having trouble whipping into shape, feel free to send me and email and I can help you tackle your space send emails to Hello@chiclittlehouse.com for design dilemmas.

Now for today's post: 9 Ideas to Maximize a Small Dining Small & Give it Style. My dining room is by no means large, in fact I'd label it very small. Our dining room isn't even its own room, its an eat in kitchen type dining room some would even refer to the size as a breakfast nook. However, even with its small size we can comfortably seat 8 and even have room for a bar cart and our dining room doesn't feel cluttered or cram packed. And honestly, that fact that my little dining room can seat eight is a dream come true, the beauty is all in the laout and design I choose to maximize my dining room to its full potential!

As I mentioned, my dining room is an eat-in style dining room and has three 'points of entry & exit,' from the living room, kitchen and into the mudroom, with all ways to enter our dining room, I had to make sure I utilized in the best way. To maximize our small dining room, we have a banquette that seats 3, opted for an oval dining table with pedestal. I bought a vintage table on Craigslist and refinished it glossy white, the white table helps our small space feel 'light and airy' since white is reflective. To create a focal wall in our dining room and draw eyes up and out, I used 6 18x20 frames hung in grid style on the wall, each frame has B&W family photos. I love how stylish and inviting my small dining room is!

ONE. Dining Room Table Selection: When choosing a dining room table, consider the shape of the room. For long narrow rooms, opt for either and oval or narrow rectangle table instead a round table. Rectangle & oval tables will take up less space for place chairs around the table. If you dining room is square, a round table is perfect to breakup all the boxiness of the room.
TWO. Banquette Seating: Banquette Seating is a ideal in small spaces! You can opt for either a built-in banquette seating, that goes from wall to wall or corner seating depending on the layout of your dining room. This can be a fun DIY project, if you use upper cabinets for the base, it will give you additional storage. Corner style banquette seating looks amazing in eat in kitchens, where the dining room and kitchen 'but-in' to each other. For example in the kitchen / dining room below. Another option for banquette seating is a free standing using a new of vintage settee.

Banquette seating looks best, looks amazing filled with an array pillows. Mix and Match pillow sizes and colors to add visual interest.

THREE. Mix up Chair Styles: Skip heavy upholstered chairs like parsons chairs (I've had them in the past and they're way too bulky for small dining rooms) Instead, mix up your chairs with mixture of chair styles formal & non-formal.
FOUR. Create a gallery wall. Cover your walls with a mixture of personal photos and original artwork.
FIVE. Hang a Picture ledge and layer in photos and artwork. In the dining room below, there's a mixture of artwork on the walls and picture ledge above. Hanging artwork high, draws your eyes up and out.

SIX: Storage options: When it comes to storage in a small dining room, think clear open storage. Bar carts provide excellent storage and double duty in small spaces!
SEVEN: Upgrade Lighting: Choose statement lighting, that will be a showstopper in small dining room.

EIGHT: Go Bold with Pattern: Small spaces can handle big pattern, consider wallpapering your walls in a bold fun colorful print!
NINE. High & Wide: Hanging drapes in your dining room high and wide, will help your windows look larger and ceilings taller. My eight foot ceilings in my home feel taller, because my drapes are hung high.

Remember a small dining room, doesn't mean it still can't be stylish, with the design tips I've outlined you can transform a basic dull small dining room into a 'wow' space.

In what ways have you maximized your small dining room and given it style?