Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Another Small Home Improvement - Our Dining Room



Our dining room got a BIG facelift and I am IN LOVE with this room.  I've wanted to do this for years and years and finally I got it done.  I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out.  Before it was pretty Plain Jane with basic white walls.  Over the years I'd added trim to the ceilings, around the doorway and replaced what was along the floor.  It has had a few paint jobs as well.  About ten years ago I put in the china cabinet and some trim around the window.

I picked up a new baseboard heater to replace the forty year old one

I removed the old heater and no surprise the wall was disgusting behind it

First wall where I put up the bead board wallpaper

I had helpers!
Chair rail added

Last week during my "staycation" I was able to update the dining room.  I used paintable bead board wallpaper leftover from my entryway project to add wainscoting to the dining room walls.  The chair rail was added to the top and cost me nothing because I'd pulled it out of the FREE WOOD bin near where I work last summer with the idea that I'd use it for some project later down the road.


Trim above the window

I also finished the window trim, don't even ask me why I hadn't done that sooner than now, I have no excuses.  I also added this decorative wood piece I had rattling around in the garage.  After caulking and priming the new chair rail and caulking around the window trim it was ready for paint.

The old ceiling fan comes down

More grossness

Painting trim and the ceiling

Checking out the new paint color - nice!

I painted the wainscoting and all of the trim with Pure White by Behr and then had to wait for three days for all of the paint to dry and cure enough to tape it off.  That was tough, because I really wanted to finish painting those walls, but I knew that if I rushed it I'd be sorry.

Taped off and ready for paint

Oh mama!

Now that's what I'm talking about

Finally I got to tape off the trim and paint the upper section of the walls with a beautiful shade of gray called High Speed Access also by Behr.  And wow did that pop against the white!  So pretty!!

Now the details of the  trim really stands out


I carefully touched up any spots with an artist brush along the trim and corners for a clean finish.  Yes, I'm that ridiculously anal retentive.  But if it isn't perfect it will drive me nuts.  I even took the old tan 1970s phone jack cover outside and gave it a shot of my favorite metallic spray paint to spruce it up.  While it dried I started putting the room back together.

The old heater had been painted over by previous owner and it was in rough shape

So much better!

The youngest and I replaced the old baseboard heater with a new one that is clean, white (not covered in a zillion coats of paint) and much more energy efficient.  This is the last one that I needed to replace too.  The new ones don't streak the walls like the old ones do.

Wowza!

I washed the switch plates and put them on the wall along with the freshly painted phone jack cover.  I put the mini blind back up on the window and the table and chairs back in place.  Surprisingly we were only without our dining room for five days.  I think that was a pretty good turnaround.  

I still need to pick out the perfect dining room light fixture and I have a few ideas in mind, but in the meantime on to the next project!


28 comments:

  1. This looks wonderful, and so fresh! Great job, and I adore the color choice. There's something so calming to me about gray. :)

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  2. Looks gorgeous! It really does pay to plan out your vision ahead of time to not only do it frugal, but a more realistic amount of time it takes!

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  3. Looks great! I love seeing how inexpensively you fix your home up and how upscale everything looks! ColoradoGirl

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    1. Thank you so much. It is amazing what all you can do with just a little bit of $$.

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  4. I think your dining room renovation looks great! I am always impressed with what a do-it-your-self person you are and that you are passing on to your daughters those same thrifty ways and do-it-yourself skills!

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    1. Thank you. I love to do this kind of stuff and I am really enjoying doing it with my girls.

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  5. Oooh, it looks great! That grey is so pretty!

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  6. WOW!!!!!!!!

    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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  7. It looks SO good!!! Beautiful! Avery told me all about it. Fun to see the finished product. Congratulations!

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  8. I love it! You all did a fantastic job!

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  9. It looks great. I love the bullseye corner door trim. I have that, too. I use an artist brush to correct little mistakes, too. It would drive me nuts, too. It looks so shoddy that way.

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    1. You and I agree! If it doesn't look clean and crisp along the edges it makes me crazy. Just add it to the list of many things.... LOL

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  10. Wow.. this is beautiful.. Could you tell me where you got the wall paper.. I have never seen this before/ Would love to do some in my kitchen..[And it is paintable? ..wow..]
    love reading your blog and see the wonderful projects you and the girls do.. Best wishes.

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    1. Thank you Judy. I found the wallpaper on Amazon. Bead board wallpaper it so easy to work with and it looks great.

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    2. Thank you .. I will go to amazon, and see if they still have it.. Really want to do it in my kitchen.. Did it take the paint well??

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    3. Very well. It is designed to be painted. Hope you like it!

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