Take a peek at our unique dining room design board by Shannon Claire Interiors! Plus how the board came together and more about the design process!

design board by shannon claire interiors 

c/o light fixture | c/o marble mural | c/o runner rug | c/o cow print | c/o beach artwork | similar lamp | c/o console table | c/o garden stools | c/o paint {simply white by Benjamin Moore mixed by Lowe’s} | c/o blush painting | c/o similar end chairs + slipcovers | c/o side chairs | c/o dining table 

Happy Friday! Last week, I shared our living + dining room reveal with Glitter Guide. Have you checked it out yet? I have loved reading the responses of y’all that have. Thank you so much for your comments, direct messages, and emails. Shannon, Joshua, and I are beyond thrilled that you love the space as much as we do!! P.S. Shannon is the interior designer we worked with, Shannon Claire Interiors. 

To continue the home decor talk, I want to dive into the process. This time, we’re moving backwards. You can see the finished product here and now we’ll talk about how we got there. AND at the end, there will be a GIANT giveaway! So stay tuned and keep up with the home series, you won’t want to miss this giveaway. 

Finding Inspiration 

This should come as no surprise, first, we needed inspiration. I mentioned a little in this post where we found inspiration and some of the photos we used. What I recommend though is starting a Pinterest board and pinning every photo that inspires you. Where you stop and take an extra second or two to look at the image. Or something particular in the photo stands out to you. Then after you taken some time to do that. Look back at your board, see if there’s a trend going on or a particular style of couch that you like. Doing this will really help you figure out what you like and what you’re drawn to. 

You can also do the same thing with magazines. Think Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, HGTV Magazine, The Magnolia Journal, and the list goes on. Tear out pages with your favorite images and create a mood board. Much like the board on Pinterest, this will help you determine your style and the vibe you are after for your space. 

For us, we were drawn to spaces that had a homey cottage feel, were light, and included a little character. Therefore, we knew, we wanted our space to be very welcoming, have that homey feel, and darker coolers were out! A farm table was an item that was included in almost every dining space I had pinned or ripped out of a magazine. There was also a mix match of chairs in several of them. Which pointed out my dining room style and what I loved! 

Make A List

Make a list of what is most important to you {and your significant other}. What is it that you absolutely want in the space. Just as important is including what you don’t want in the space. Such as particular colors, maybe a metal you don’t like, your favorite painting you HAVE to have hanging above the couch, whatever it is that is important to you or you know you would hate to see in the space. This will help you and you’re designer, if you’re working with one. 

If you do live with a significant other, I believe it is really important to include them in this step. You want to make sure they feel the space is theirs as well! You don’t want them hating all of the colors included or miss out on including one of their favorite items in the space. 

For us, as mentioned above, I really wanted a farm table for our dining room. A big table where we could host friends and family. This was also really important to Joshua as he loves having people over. Having comfortable chairs at the dining table was also high on Joshua’s list. I personally, really wanted a cow print. That was a HAD to have for me. May sound silly but I love the animal and have always wanted one in my house. 

Working with a Designer 

If you’re totally lost or don’t even know where to start, working with a designer is HIGHLY recommended. They are absolute lifesavers! Having a space that you love and feel at home in is obviously incredibly important and creating that space yourself isn’t always easy. Some spaces are extremely hard to decorate or some of us {me included} don’t have the eye to kick things off or complete a room. That’s where having an amazing designer comes in handy! 

My tips here for working with a designer are to be extremely honest, open, and opinionated. This is your space, you want it to reflect your style! Share your Pinterest board or mood board with them, go through the list of must haves and have nots with them, and explain your style further. Having this open communication will give your designer a great idea of what you like and don’t like and they’ll have a better idea at how to create the space of your dreams. 

We partnered with Shannon Claire Interiors and the woman created the exact space I had dreamt of. She even made me step out of home decor comfort zone a couple of times. Which made me love the space even more. An example of this is the artwork. The oversized Blush Pink artwork is HUGE and it’s pink! A color I had never really thought to include in our space. Mainly because of Joshua but also, I had never really decorated with it before. Well Shannon Claire knows her stuff and the artwork has become one of my favorite pieces. And Joshua likes it too! 

Creating the Design 

When working with a designer, they will create a design board for you. Similar to the one you see at the top of this post. That was created by Shannon Claire Interiors. After you share all of your inspiration with them and talk through your style, they will pull that together and put it on paper {technically a PDF file}. Once you receive the design board, it is again important for you to be very open and honest about the design. Do you love it? Is it your style? Are there parts you love and parts you dislike? Share all of that with your designer. It’s basically now or never because after this step, you or your designer will start purchasing the items for your space. 

A design board is a GREAT way to start imaging your space and see it come together. If you’re designer does well, it’s exactly what you wanted. Even if you didn’t realize it! If they missed the mark, they just may not have understood your style and need to tweak a couple of things. There’s also designers that just don’t have the same style as you. If that’s the case, simply let them know and find another. No worries, that happens! Not everyone has the same style. 

Working with Shannon Claire Interiors, was such a blessing. We were truly at a loss as to what to do with the space. It is so open and the set up is kind of funky – we just didn’t know where to start. Shannon Claire really understood our style, what we hoped to have the space look like, and made it come to life. What I really love about Shannon Claire is that she has various styles. If you look at her blog or Instagram she is drawn to darker styles and heavy pieces. But she also knows how to light and airy. Having someone that can do both is amazing!

Check back next week to see the living room design board, more photos, and hear more about the design process.