A Modern Boho Living Room & Dining Room Makeover

Debby, Dom and their 2 kids moved to Dhahran from Abqaiq from a fairly spacious home to a really spacious home. They brought all of their furniture with them, but it wasn’t quite enough to fill this new, very large house…

Originally, they had thought to arrange the room so that the dining room was closer to the door that leads to another door that leads to the kitchen. Makes sense, but since the kitchen door is actually close to both rooms, I didn’t think it made much of a difference where the dining table was… so we switched the living and dining rooms!

Luckily, not only is their dining table beautiful, but is also small enough to work on the other side of the room. I also knew that I kinda needed to give it its own moment to shine… Debby & Dom really wanted to be able to entertain people in their home as well, so it just made sense to make the larger of the two rooms a living room instead of a dining room.

We started off by moving the drum set upstairs to a bedroom as it wasn’t really necessary in this space. We also realized that the coffee station could easily be moved to another part of the house, so that it wasn’t cluttering the entertaining space. The sideboard was moved to the center of the room, and the piano was moved to the living area.

The thing about the larger home that they moved into is that it’s also a brand spanking new home in our compound, and there are a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t do – like not being able to paint the walls or change the light fixtures. All the drama had to happen on the ground! Yeah, I know. Brutal.

We started off with a dining table, a beautiful blue Kazak rug, a piano and a sideboard, so we had a lot of space to fill. It took some time to put together – we had a few custom pieces made and had to order some things that weren’t available at the time – but it eventually came together. And boy did it come together nicely…

| AFTER |

The beautiful blue Kazak rug was originally under the dining table, but it was kinda getting lost there. It also felt a little like 2 beautiful pieces competing with each other, so the rug was moved to the living room so that it could be a nice little statement there.

In the living room, we made the piano a focal point, but we also needed something dramatic on the wall next to it. I considered keeping the sideboard there, but it really needed to be closer to the dining table, so it was moved to the middle, and we had a couple of gorgeous bookshelves custom made by Desert Designs. We also had the wooden loveseat in front of it made by them as well. As you can see, it’s just the kind of drama we needed in the room!

Debby and Dom are both fantastic photographers, so we knew we had to put their photos around the house, including these 3 large prints that were printed from Amazon, framed by Arab Frames, and then featured above the sideboard. The sideboard was a second-hand purchase in Abqaiq that they had refinished and fixed as well.

The orange chairs were all Dom. That was something he wasn’t willing to budge on, but I really love the pop of color that they add in the room! They were a super critical addition.

I love these curtains and I love that they’re customized IKEA! We liked the fabric, but I really wanted a double pleated look. After buying 4 panels per window, we had Ali add some pleats and hem them to the perfect length.

The photos in the dining room were purchased from Mixtiles – something Debby really wanted to try out as she had so many great photos on her phone. The sideboard was strategically moved to the center of the room to store serving dishes, but also so that it could be used as a tabletop when entertaining.

We really struggled to find the right rug in this room mainly because we wanted a little bit of the Kazak rug colors in the space. Some options weren’t available, and we couldn’t really find the right colors, but luckily Debby and Dom found a gorgeous understated rug on one of their shopping trips! It is just the perfect backdrop to this beautiful table, and totally gives it the moment it needed.

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Living Room Product List: 

Iron & Wooden Bookshelf & Loveseat, Custom made by Desert Designs | Orange Chairs, West Elm | Light gray 3-seater couch, West Elm | Coffee Tables, IKEA | Log Side Table & Wood Metal Side Table, Desert Designs | Black Task Table Lamp, West Elm | Floor Lamp, West Elm | Lamps on Sideboard, Pottery Barn | Basket, West Elm | Curtains, IKEA & customized by Ali (050-494-0359) | Potted tree, Dhahran Flower Shop | White Cushion Cover, H&M Home | Camel Cushion Cover, IKEA limited series (not available anymore) | Black & White Cushion Cover, Home Center | Mustard Blanket, IKEA | Framed photos, Arab Frames | Photo printing, Amazon

Dining Room Product List: 

Photographs in the Dining Room, Mixtiles | Rug, Pottery Barn | Plants, IKEA, Sultan Gardens, Dhahran Flower Shop

Please note that the dining table, blue rug, piano and sideboard were part of Debby and Dom’s existing furniture. 

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I really hope you enjoyed this transformation!! For more fun transformations, make sure to check out the PROJECTS page!