The dining room is the ultimate side-kick to the “hostess with the mostest.” Whether it be family dinners, holiday meals or a gathering of friends, your dining room needs to be prepared to impress no matter the occasion. In the eighth edition of our Head-to-Toe Home Reno series, we will give you some practical, yet decorative storage ideas as well as a few ways to spruce up its look.

Window Bench: Let’s face it, there aren’t a whole lot of things that need to be stored in a dining room, but the few things that do need their own stylish place. If you have the space, a window bench is practical, beautiful and adds some personality to your dining room. You can store things like candles, seasonal table decorations, extra tablecloths and cookbooks inside it. Benches can be bought at hardware or home office stores like Home Depot and Staples. For the DIY fanatic, you can also build one yourself with this YouTube tutorial.

Floating Shelves: If you want to display your cookbooks, or you simply don’t have the floor space for cabinets and storage benches, floating shelves are a great alternative. They come in many different colors, materials and sizes for your convenience, or you can customize them yourself and build them from scratch. Artsy home stores like Hobby Lobby and Wayfair carry tons of different selections for you to choose from, including ones with hanging baskets attached for easy storage. Wooden floating shelves are relatively easy to build and can be done following these steps.

Corner Cupboards: This item is pretty common storage for dining rooms, but why mess with tradition? Corner cupboards fit snuggly in the corner of the dining room, out of the way yet within an arm’s reach when needed. To make this piece of furniture more eye-catching, try buying one with some flashy material, paint it a bold pattern or repurpose a vintage one. These can be found at almost any furniture store, but we recommend checking out your local flea market or antique shop first to see if you can find something a little more unique.

Wainscoting: One of the easiest ways to add some sophisticated style to your dining room is by adding wainscoting on either one or all of the walls. You can create an accent wall that is covered floor to ceiling with wainscoting for dramatic flair, or you can go the more traditional route with a half-wall perimeter approach. Either way, this small upgrade is relatively cheap, quick and painless! Before heading out to the hardware store, we recommend browsing Pinterest for ideas on patterns, sizes and placements.

Dramatic Lighting Element: Another simple way to change up and modernize the look of your dining room is to add some dramatic lighting. Shaded candelabra-style chandeliers are a thing of the past and nowadays you are more likely to find minimalistic, rustic and farmhouse styled ceiling lights. Start with a Pinterest search to learn about the different kinds of pendant lights and chandeliers. Once you’ve decided on a style, head over to your local hardware store, like Lowes or Home Depot, to see what options are available. If they don’t have what you are looking for, make sure to check online stores like Wayfair and Amazon.

Come back next week and we’ll explore renovation and storage ideas for your living/family room. See you then!