Especially at this time of year, when we want our homes to feel really crisp and fresh.

But like I said, I. needed.For some reason in that photo you can mostly only see the ceiling.

But anyway, that gives you an idea of how it used to look..When you think of a dining room, you think of it coming with a few basic things that make it a bit of a special space for special occasions and fond family memories: A chandelier or some kind of special hanging light fixture, pretty flooring, maybe some built-in cabinetry to hold china and crystal.Usually, in an old house, you get all these things and then some, but we’re just really dealing with a blank slate here.

A lot of new-build houses these days are being left without these basic dining room fixtures as well, so it’s neat that if you’re in a new build like that, we’re kinda in the same position!.Despite lacking all of these basic dining room amenities, I have to say that I absolutely love the way the room looks and functions now, so if you have some of these same “problems” that we have, or have weird floors/ceilings/walls like us, here are some tips to still end up with a room you love if you’re not quite ready to do a full reno where you rip everything out, and start fresh..

Whether you have weird, slightly askew paneled walls like we do, or just perfect, but plain drywall, painting your walls a color that you love will really make a huge difference.

Everyone says it because it’s true!The next step is just to sprinkle it over the area you want to clean and leave it on for an hour.. You can also take a cloth and rub it in a bit, but I didn’t.

I just let it do its thing.. After about an hour, everything gets vacuumed up.The fresh smell from the essential oil only lasted a few hours, but the dog-free smell remains!

It’s really pretty exciting.The rough texture of the corn meal also really helped to get into the fibers of the rug and fluff it up really nicely.. It’s been about a week now and that ever-lasting dog smell really does seem to have been absorbed by the mixture and taken away.