1st Home Decor Mission

This weekend I'm finally attempting to paint the dining room and dreaming of design ideas to do.  I'm trying to do this within a limited budget since we don't plan on living in our current house forever but I want to make our house feel more homey.  My goal is to do everything under $500 which will include paint, new furniture pieces, frames, etc.  I'm crossing my fingers on the whole budget thing and also allowing myself several weeks to work on this since home decorating is a completely new venture for me.  I'm not sure how long the whole process will take.

Some of the things that I love for home decor and plan to apply to my design =)

-I love mixing modern pieces with old vintage ones.  Something about that provides the right amount of visual balance for me.  I'm going to be scouring the flea markets in the upcoming weeks for reclaimed wood furniture.  Can't wait to see what I will find!
-I love neutral colors but I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone a little bit.   I heart yellows and navys and my favorite is of course grey!  I'm trying to avoid the whole beige 1 note look.
-I love creativity and putting things in the design that means something to us.  I love fun wall galleries especially the one pictured below from Young House Love.  I will be doing the same to our empty wall with Ikea frames and adding in special pictures and artwork that are sentimental to us.

Here are some of the ideas I have for the dining room....