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If you're new around here, welcome! Mr DIY and I relocated in early May for his work, and we're in the process of getting settled in the charming coastal community of Ocean Springs, MS.

We decided to rent for a year while we get to know the area, and we found a 1500 sf rental home with great bones and a fantastic yard filled with trees.

Because we're in a smaller home, a lot of our furniture is in storage. I've been busy using what we've unpacked to make this house a home, and it's starting to look and feel like us.

Probably my biggest challenge in this home, aside from the much smaller footprint, is the color of the walls. There is a long-standing joke in our family that beige walls literally follow me around the country, and show up in every home we live in! I have painted more beige walls than I can shake my fist at lol. If you've been here for awhile, you'll know that the pale gray walls in our northern MS rental were one of my very favorite things about that home. 

Our TX farmhouse had beige walls in every room, and one of the first things I did when we move in was to paint! You might enjoy seeing how the lighter walls look with my collections and lighter home furnishings in this before and after post.

So here we are again, with beige walls. Painting the walls is not going to happen...we're just here temporarily, and painting is a lot of work. So for the next few months, as I share projects and pictures of our home, I'm going to learn to embrace beige and work with it instead of fighting against it.

My goal in this home is to decorate tantalizing and cozy spaces with my vintage collections so you don't even notice the beige. Good thing I have a lot of stuff haha!

Like all the living spaces in this home, our dining room isn't large. We left our dining room furniture in a storage unit and opted to use our kitchen table and chairs, and my pine hutch. All these pieces are smaller scale. I was so happy that my diamond V-mat (use coupon code DIYBEAUTIFY to shop) worked so well in this space!

Mr DIY and I are newish empty nesters, so for daily use, the round table works great for just the two of us. When we have guests over, we'll have to get creative.

The pine hutch fills the corner and this will be a piece I'll enjoy decorating for all the seasons. For now, I decorated the hutch for summer with vintage pieces and a few primitive coffee stained flags. To see more, read  Patriotic Hutch Decor with Mason Jars and Milk Glass.

The large found basket on top of the hutch helps to elongate the piece and it nicely fills that big, beige space!

The wall to the right of the table was just a big, blank, beige spot begging for something pretty! There were two screws in the wall but nothing else. Good thing I have a large number of ironstone platters in my collection. They're pieces I've been thrifting for two decades!

Hot tip: When you're unsure what to hang on a wall, hang a plate gallery with your favorite pieces! Keeping the color scheme monochromatic will result in a soothing and cohesive display.

I gathered a few white ironstone dinner plates and platters, and started by hanging two medium sized platters from the existing hooks. Then, I filled in around it with a few more pieces in different sizes so it looks like a cohesive whole.

Check out my newest project where I decoupaged patriotic napkins to these platters for low-commitment, temporary summer decor.

I had room just to the right of the plate wall for my favorite white cottage dresser. This piece holds napkins, tablecloths and other fabric pieces that I use when styling a space. I love the shape of this vintage piece and those cute legs!

I'm finding that whites and woods really pop against the beige walls. Rather than hanging artwork above the dresser, I leaned a large DIY subway sign that I made years ago. It lists the places and streets we've lived on up to that point. You can see how I made it here:  Personalized Subway Sign as Artwork.

Keeping with the vintage theme, I filled the top of the dresser with my Amish pie safe and a thrifted crock that I filled with greenery and faux blackberry stems.

You might be interested to know: I had plans to use this dresser in our main bedroom because mine was too wide for the wall. However it wasn't a great fit and I had to pivot. I'm truly glad it worked here in the dining room because this is the main part of the house and it can be enjoyed more.

I used vintage doilies in the pine hutch, but did you notice the vintage doily with our last name on it? I inherited this from my sweet mom-in-law Joan, but it had been packed away in a box for 3 years. What a joy to unpack it and get right to work finding a great place for it!

Rather than use the doily flat, I tucked the top edges into my dresser so it could hang. This way you can see and appreciate the craftsmanship, as well as the fact that our name has been worked into the stitches.

I have been looking for months for a vintage cabinet with an open front so I could display my collected quilts.

As we were packing up our last home, I realized that I already had the perfect piece! I thrifted this old cabinet years ago and have been using it in my office for storing craft supplies. 

The antique cabinet has been a few different colors, and I've been thinking about repainting it a lighter shade, but this blue really helps it pop against the beige walls so I might just touch it up. You can see how I painted it, and used it in my sweet Texas office that we updated with wood floors and shiplap walls in this post  Painting an Antique Cabinet Bold Blue.

The cabinet could do with some paint touchups after our move, but I got right to work folding and stacking my quilts inside the cabinet, leaving the shelves in place. Do you notice a patriotic theme with the colors of my quilts?

Back when I painted this cabinet blue, Mr DIY installed chicken wire to fill in the hole in the door, adhering it with our staple gun. I love the charm that it adds.

I topped the blue cabinet piece with some baskets, a ticking striped pillow and the DIY Faux Farmhouse Clock that I made from the bottom shelf of an IKEA coffee table.

Tip: By leaning large pieces, rather than hanging them on the wall, I have the option to easily change them out to get different looks.

My office is currently a hot mess and work in progress as I slowly unpack what I think I'll need over the next year. It's a cute room with a peaked ceiling, and I will be using one wall to style vignettes to share with you.

I added a little patriotic decor to the top of my painted lockers. The arched shutters provide a nice backdrop, and propped up my Weathered Antique Sign from Printable Poster (if you're a subscriber, you can grab that free printable from my printables library! Not a follower yet? Click HERE to sign up!)

Layers of doilies and vintage inspired patriotic decorations add a bright pop of summer color. Be watching for more of this room as I finish decorating.

• No-sew Primitive American Fabric Stars
  
• Chippy Patriotic DIY Spindles
  
• Vintage Inspired Campfire Marshmallow Tin of Treats