So this was my dining room before… and this is the after. In this video I’m doing a living/dining room reno on a massive budget (like saving not a hundred, but a couple thousands of dollars) and I’m showing you the exact tips and tricks I use to get a high-end look without hiring a contractor. I tiled feature walls, built sleek wall slats (and repainted them black for a more neutral modern feel), and I walk you through how I plan the whole concept so the dining room and living room actually flow together. The biggest takeaway is my wall-tiling process. Some people may or may not agree, but it’s definitely worked for me: for walls I use PL8X fast-grab construction adhesive with clean “dime-sized dabs” instead of messy bucket adhesives that need trowels and long dry times. I also show how I set a tile height using screws as a ledge, how I use tile leveling clips to pull tiles flush, and where I do (and don’t) worry about spacers depending on the look. Then I finish it off with my LED “painting” hack—basically turning a regular frame into a sophisticated backlit feature with better-quality diffuse LEDs for that wow factor.