If you’ve been following along, you already know I’m deep in my Hometel series, a.k.a. me turning my home into a boutique hotel experience… with kids, crumbs, and somebody always asking for a snack five minutes after dinner.
And out of all the rooms I’ve been working on, the one that called me out the most?
The dining room.
Because let’s be honest… the dining room is the most disrespected room in the house.
It’s not a dining room. It’s a multi-purpose life crisis center with chairs. Mail lives there. Backpacks live there. That one Amazon return you keep forgetting about? Oh, it definitely lives there.
Meanwhile, the actual purpose of the room, eating together, is somewhere fighting for its life.
But what really made me stop and rethink everything wasn’t Pinterest… it was my son. Out of nowhere, he tells me he wants a “traditional family.” And I’m like… Excuse me, sir?
Because in my mind, we are a loving, present, doing-our-best type of family. So I asked him what he meant. And he said… he just wants us to eat together more. At the table. Whew.
Not gonna lie, that one sat with me for a minute. Because it wasn’t about anything big or complicated. He wasn’t asking for more toys, more outings, or more anything extravagant. He was asking for something simple — something we already had — but weren’t really using.
A table.
And that’s when it clicked. Somewhere between busy schedules, long days, and just trying to keep life moving, the dining room quietly became optional. We eat on the couch. We eat in passing. We eat wherever is easiest in the moment.
And listen — no judgment. Life be life-ing. But I realized… we didn’t lose the dining room because we don’t care. We lost it because we got busy.
So, as part of my Hometel series, where I’m intentionally designing our home to feel like an experience, I knew this room needed more than just a makeover. It needed a purpose again.
So, I leaned all the way in.
I wanted it to feel like a little restaurant. A little speakeasy moment. Not in a “don’t touch anything” kind of way, but in a “this feels special, let’s sit down and stay a while” kind of way.
Better lighting. Warmer tones. A mood that makes you pause instead of rush.
Because if we’ll sit at a restaurant for an hour, talking and laughing and being present, why can’t we create that same energy at home?
And here’s the part that surprised me the most: once the space changed, we changed. We started sitting down more. Talking more. Lingering a little longer.
It’s not perfect. Some nights are still quick. Some meals are still chaotic. Somebody is always getting up for something.
But now? The table is part of our rhythm again.
So yeah, this dining room glow-up is cute. I love the design, the vibe, the whole little “hometel” feel.
But what I love most is what it represents.
Not perfection. Not aesthetics. But intention.
Because sometimes bringing something “back to life” isn’t about the room — it’s about what happens inside of it.
And if all it took was a table to remind us to slow down and be together a little more?
I’ll take that.
