Zero Dollar Dining Room Refresh Using Vintage Decor

Discover how to give your dining room a fresh new look without spending a dime! Get inspired to create a new look for your dining area!

Are you like me and want to give your dining room a makeover but don’t want to break the bank in the process? This post will inspire you to make the change you need! Let’s explore some creative and budget-friendly ways to refresh your dining space without spending a dime. 

From simple DIY projects to clever repurposing ideas, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to transform your dining room into a vintage-inspired space without spending a penny. Let’s get started!

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zero dollar dining room refresh

Changing your dining room feel doesn’t have to involve spending money. I for one love to save money! In our own home, I have used this method of decorating many times. Over the years, I’ve change furniture around in our family room, our bedrooms, and I even moved the cabinets in one of our bathrooms!

This method uses the idea of completely rethinking the placement of furniture. It’s a great way to change the room and give it a whole new look without spending money.

Here is the before shot of our dining room in our open-concept home. The living space is to the left and the kitchen is to the right. In the distance on the right, you can see our laundry room.

Changing the focal point of the room by rearranging the furniture is an easy way to give your dining room a refresh for zero dollars! It just takes a little bit of work and some creative thinking.

Although I didn’t use a mood board for this makeover, you could. I used a mood board of sorts when I rearranged our bedroom. One of the walls would be a gallery wall using vintage ironstone and silver platters. I used Canva to design the wall.

A mood board is easy to create. You can use an online free service like Canva to save images or you can go the old-fashioned route and save clippings from your favorite design magazines. Be your own interior designer and get creative!

empty the space

The first thing to do is to create an empty space by removing the furniture pieces. That includes the dining room table, the dining room chairs, and any other furniture you may have like a hutch, a china cabinet, or a sideboard.

Our home is open concept meaning our kitchen, living, and dining areas are all open to one another. We love this style of space especially when our grown children come home to visit. We can all be together in the same larger space and yet have smaller conversational areas too. 

The open concept made emptying the dining area easy – I simply moved the furniture to the other spaces! Except for the very large vintage cabinet that is stocked full of vintage ironstone, vintage Platzgraff dishes, and thrifted dishes I’ve collected over the years.

The blank slate this created was the perfect way to rethink the furniture placement!

the design process

I should mention that I already had an idea of how to rearrange the furniture in this space. I had been mulling it over in my mind for some time, but when I recently visited a blogging friend, Michele, I saw that she had completely rearranged her dining and family room spaces. She had switched out her traditional dining space with her family room and it looked amazing! 

She and I discussed the current furniture placement in my own space and my ideas for moving the furniture around and decided I needed to do a budget-friendly dining room makeover! She shared her thoughts on rearranging the furniture pieces and we came up with a plan for the entire space!

You can see more of her home in the video I made while on a blogging retreat in which we spent several days in her beautiful home. You will enjoy the tour of her home on my YouTube channel!

All of the dishes came out of the old hunting cabinet to make it a bit easier to move. Hubby and I used thick felted furniture movers under each leg of the cabinet and scooted it over to the other side of the room. It wasn’t hard work at all with those furniture movers!

BTW, the best part of moving furniture like this heavy cabinet around is that it gives you a wonderful opportunity to clean behind it!

​implement the design plan

It was time to replace all of the furniture pieces. The heaviest piece was already in the perfect spot. Having this large cabinet on one end of the room made the room seem longer. That opened the area perfectly for the dining table placement. 

The opposite end of the room was the perfect fit for the dining room table. I turned the table in the opposite orientation than what it had been for the last 20+ years. That opened the area for the entrance to our back patio. Plus, it gives me a little area to set up an antique child’s table and chairs I have for the grandkids.

The next piece to move was the antique oak sideboard. This piece was a gift from a dear friend. It had been in her family for years. She said it was fine with her if I gave it a makeover. So I did just that with a little paint from the Miss Mustard Seed milk paint collection.

The dining room side chairs and end chairs would be the next pieces to move in but before I did that, I needed to empty the dining table of all of the dishes from that large cabinet!

vintage home decor for the walls

​Decorating the walls was one of my favorite parts of this budget-friendly dining room refresh! I used only what I already had but I rearranged it. First, I decided where the larger pieces would go including the vintage botanical prints that I thrifted a few years ago and the antique cabinet doors that were on the opposite side of the room. 

hanging ironstone wall decor

The antique schoolhouse hooks were already on the wall behind the sideboard and I knew the cabinet doors would look amazing hanging on the hooks. Once the cabinet doors were hanging on the hooks, I saw the empty space that was created between them. Plus I wanted to fill the interior empty space of the doors themselves. 

I used several different layouts using ironstone and transferware plates for the interior of the doors that I had laid on the floor. Once I settled on a design I liked, I snapped a picture. Doing this makes it easier to recreate the look once the cabinet doors are on the wall.

Then I hunted out all of the large ironstone platters I could find in our home. I found three that match in varying sizes! These pieces were purchased separately and I was thrilled to collect them!

Hanging vintage plates and platters is an easy way to create a gorgeous gallery wall for pennies. If you want to replicate this look, start shopping at thrift stores, auctions, and even a discount store to find beautiful pieces. I’ve even used tarnished silver plated platters on a gallery wall in our bedroom!

​hang vintage artwork collections

Vintage botanical prints have been one of my favorite pieces to look for. I’m fortunate to have found my first two framed prints at an antique shop for only $25 each. Since then I have found two more – one for $10 and one for $5!

I hung the two with matching frames on the same wall along with some vintage shelf brackets I made over in a recent YouTube video. There are several thrift store flip projects included in the video that I am sure you will enjoy!

​old cabinet styling

Next up was to style this gorgeous old hunting cabinet. Yep, that cabinet was gifted to us when a friend of my husbands changed out furniture in his hunting lodge! The shelves had been used to store each hunter’s gear like coveralls, heavy socks, and boots. Each hunter had a designated shelf.

I think the shelves look better with my collection of vintage dishes! What do you think?

The top of the hunting cabinet was the perfect place to display the antique ironstone pitchers that are part of my ironstone collection. They are filled with dried lavender from my gardens as well as a couple of green thrifted pitchers to add some color.

dining table makeover

Once the dishes were styled in the vintage cabinet, I brought the dining room chairs back in. The captain’s chairs at the end and the regular chairs took their place at the table.  BTW, this dining table has been with us for over 30 years. We’ve shared many meals around this table. Several years ago, I gave it a little update by painting the legs and the apron. It was just enough change to make it feel like a new dining table!

The centerpiece on the table was so easy! After putting all those dishes away, I had a stack of red and blue transferware with a few white plates. I also found two old flags that had been tucked away deep in the hunting cabinet! Along with a vintage silver pitcher filled with dried hydrangeas blooms the plates and flags make a beautiful centerpiece!

vintage furniture pieces

Lastly, I stacked the little collection of children’s chairs in the corner of the room, the old highchair my youngest used as a child, and some vintage organ stools I recovered and painted a few years ago. I also hung some antique secretary desk wood pieces from an old roll-top desk up in the corners of the room to add a bit of separation to the spaces. You will see more of those details in the video coming soon!

final touches for the dining room makeover

This makeover was a zero dollar dining room refresh but I must admit, I have some plans for spending a few dollars. Let’s chat about it!

finding the perfect rug

An area rug would help to define the dining space while adding another layer of texture to the room.

I’m on the hunt for either a new rug or a thrifted rug. That’s if I can find the perfect one!

lighting a dining room

Did you notice my lack of a light fixture in this dining room? We have had a real candle-burning candelabra for years. It had a little mishap and needs to be replaced. I am currently looking for another one that I could drape over to the center of the new table placement. I would love some suggestions from you! 

Let me know your thoughts about the style of the light fixture – should it be an antique crystal chandelier? Or maybe a brass chandelier since I love vintage brass so much? or should it be a black iron real candle-burning candelabra?

​vintage wall decor

I’m still on the hunt for more botanical prints and as I find them, I want to add them to the wall with the two prints. I’m not a huge fan of the framed basket but I am hoping to find more of the botanical prints to replace the basket idea. Another botanical print would look amazing just above the two organ stools, don’t you think?

a fresh look for your home

I hope you found inspiration in this post! Designing, reimagining, and rearranging your home and furnishings is an ongoing project! Little changes can make your space feel new and fresh again!