Small Dining Room Update with Ikea Banquette Review and New Pendant

It’s been a while since I share my DIY dining room updates on this blog. If you’ve followed me on Instagram, you might have seen a few photos here and there with my most recent dining room photos. In this post, I’d like to share what’s new in this space, Ikea banquette seating is holding together after a year of daily usage, and sources of all the furniture, decor and DIY tutorials in this space.

New wicker pendant light fixture

Picking light fixture is always a struggle for me. Dining room light fixture is no exception – I went back and forth with light fixtures for months. In my dining room mood board, I Photoshop’ed in a pendant from Rejuvenation that I loved. Eventually I decided to go with the cone/dome shape, but a different texture because I worry the black metal finish might come off too strong for my more cottage inspired space, and the sizing was a bit small for my dining table.

So I ended up picking a wicker pendant from Wayfair with dome shape. I have been really loving it as it ties so well with my baskets above the cabinets, and all the other woven textured items which I have in the space. Another pro is it hides dirt really well due to its color and texture, since I’m always so behind at dusking the light shades ?.

When it first arrived, I was actually thinking it was a bit too big when seeing it in the box, as the diameter was 22 inches. Once I hang it up on the ceiling, it just looks like the perfect size. Big enough to make an impact, but in the right scale with my dining table.

One year update of Ikea banquette seat hack

I’d also love to give you an update on how this Ikea banquette seating has been holding together after using it almost daily after a year. To get the tutorial of Ikea banquette hack, you can check out this post.

Ever since we built it, we have been using it as our primary dining seating. We sometimes would seat there to work too if we need access to the kitchen. I do think bench some how feels cozier than dining chair that we usually prefer it over chair.

It is holding together pretty well in terms of sturdiness and versatility. Speaking of the finish, because the finish is stained pine wood, it is softer than most laminated surfaces. I have seen some tiny scratch here and there, and I just use a small brush to spot paint any exposed parts. I used the same paint from painting the banquette seat top, so it blends in with the original finish color.