The Dining Room
The floorplan shows the "after" version following all of my renovations.
I really don't have a dining room per se; it's just an open space between the kitchen and the living room. But it's large enough for real live dining furniture, which would be a first for me. I spent quite a while searching for a dining set, or at least a table and some chairs, but nothing was grabbing me (except for some really "cool" stuff, which of course comes with a not-so-cool price tag).
Then, somewhere along the way—I think when I was looking at the kitchen makeover—it struck me that I could make my own dining table from the very same butcher block that I'd use for the kitchen counters. I found some inexpensive table legs on Amazon, and together it cost less than half of one reasonably-priced table of a similar kind. Using the same approach, I made a matching coffee table.
For the time being, I'll probably stick with my green stacking chairs, as I'd been having less luck finding chairs I like than tables. I greatly improved their comfort by ordering a set of cushions. However, I did find a really slick, über-modern linear LED chandelier that sets the tone for the whole living space.
A few coats of butcher block conditioner brought the dining room project to a close.