My Outside Voice: House Update

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

House Update - Dining Room

We finished the dining room in July last year. This was a really fun room to do. We use our formal dining room quite a bit, so this was a very important room to me. About two years ago, we made the decision to move our formal dining room from what was traditionally supposed to be the formal dining room, into what was supposed to be the formal living room. We weren't really using the space, we had enough "living" space for two people (at the time we also had our downstairs before that flooded as well). We host at least one dinner party a month, whether it is family, friends, neighbors or just impromptu drop ins. So this was a big room for us. First the before shots -

These are shots of what was supposed to be the formal living room.

Standing in our now formal dining room looking into the now sitting room.

One day, I want these windows to be french doors which open onto our front porch.

And now some before shots - before we painted and prettied things up! Looks so blah now, but it worked for us for over two years.

Stella is so vain, see her by the window always has to get into the shot.

I took these pictures the night before we were moving all of the furniture into the sitting room and getting things ready to paint.

You can see into the entryway and stairway where we had already updated with paint. Man those walls look like French gross vanilla.

You can see into the sitting room from this angle. Can't believe how these rooms have changed now.

And now, the furniture goes to the middle of the room, everything off the walls and we are ready for some color on those walls.We had lots of different color swatches on the walls, but we went with Oatlands Subtle Taupe on top and Lava Gray on the bottom. Both again are Valspar from Lowe's and we are very happy with the paint, it really holds up well.

I was so ready to get rid of the 70's brown trim.

The boy really pays attention to detail and literally had to put on two coats of primer and three coats of paint for the trim, but you can really tell that he gives it that extra touch.

Notice all of the different color paint swatches below next to the window.

Ugh, I look at the green green grass and bushes, oh how I miss our spring and summer at the moment.

Stella of course, supervising, always there.

So nice to see color on the walls.

We decided (after seeing it in one of the Spring Parade of Homes) to do a chair rail and crown molding. The colors were also inspired by the Parade of Homes.

I really do not think any of these projects would get done without Stella's supervision, do you?

The crown molding made such a difference. It was fun for the neighbors to see the changes as they were progressing as well.

A couple of new lamps, new window treatments, wall decor and a rug (all courtesy of Home Goods of course).

We also had to wire the ceiling for a new chandelier that we had purchased during the tent sale at Southern Lighting. A $500 light fixture for $125. Made having the ceiling wired for it very reasonable.

The final touch was the rug, also a Home Goods purchase, perfect colors, and I just love it. Now I just need hardwood floors throughout the main floor.

This was also a Home Goods purchase. We were looking for a big piece of art that would work over the buffet, and we stumbled across this, it works perfect and the colors were made for this room.

The photo from the left is from the Spring Parade of Homes, our dining room post paint.

I think I need one more picture to go with these in progress below that has the new rug. It is amazing how this room has just been completely transformed and I am so happy with the results. Yes, we still use this room probably more than any other room in the house. Love a good dinner party. 4, 6, 8, 9 or 10, this room just works for us. SO happy we finished this room. Sitting room up next.