Well everyone, I can finally show pics of the Dining Room. It has taken a little longer to get there than we first thought! Like by a couple of months!! But I suppose we all get there in the end. Now before I go any further I have to thank my lovely husband without whom the dining room would never have been possible. Sounds sorta like an acceptance speech at the Oscars! But I really am thankful. Not only is he ubersmart and handsome but the man can swing a hammer!! As my Dad used to say about Den- "he is as handy as a wee pot". (Dad was Scottish) And thank goodness Den is handy! He has made such an effort to put my ideas into fruition. When one has a limited budget being handy is a definate asset!! So thank you, thank you my dear man!
Here is the BEFORE- Nothing really wrong with it, but just wanted to really up the ante as it were:
It can be quite a challenge taking pics in my dining room since it doesn't really get direct sunlight. Although we do have the window and the back door-we never really get direct light. So please bear with me with my pics. Would love to get professional pics taken some time soon!!
Here is another shot. It is taken from in the kitchen into the dining room. When we first bought the house, to say that the kitchen was unworkable would have been an understatement! We opened up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. That way we can sit at the island or in the dining room. By opening up the space it really made the space way more functional and way more sociable! Everyone always ends up at that island. I am currently working on that island at repainting it "Mariner" by Martha Stewart-more to come with the kitchen in a later posting. I just this past week painted the kitchen "Morning Jog" by Valspar to match what is in the Living Room now.
The next shots are the destruction phase. This is the phase where one starts to doubt and think, "What the hell was I thinking?" You know what I mean?? But we plug onwards and save judgement until the end. Well at least we should. This in between phase is so hard, but persevere and you shall be rewarded!!
So now before I reveal all, I have to say that I have always wanted Wainscoting in the house. And I thought that doing so in the Dining Room would fit the bill. And I was soooo right- it is beyond my dreams how it all tuned out.
Remember the difficulty I had with the White paint I chose?- previous post! But thanks to Fran at Home Hardware she fixed me up real nice! I would have to say that the white that is on the panelling is a custom tint and that it is about 1/2 strength "Pocket Watch White" by Ralph Lauren- so I am calling it "Megan's White". Just enough warmth that isn't too yellow like Pocket Watch White can be. Or too creamy like a Benjamin Moore Cloud White- Note: Cloud White to me is NOT the be all and end all that so many people go on about-but that's just me!!
The Red that I chose was "Hottie" by Para:
Hottie by Para P5086-25
It is such a gorgeous Red. Not too dark but with some life in it.
And so without further ado:
AFTER:
Denis did such an awesome job with all of the panelling and the trim. Especially the frieze boards above the opening, door and window. He totally rocks when it comes to trim!
And the white of the trim really pops against that rockin' Red!
At first we were just going to add boards to the walls-taking the easy way out (not that there is anything wrong with easy sometimes). It is just that when we were going to do so we noticed that the wall texture wasn't right where the vertical boards would have been (the space between the boards). So we added hard board first and then the verticals. Looks WAY better. Just wanted to mention in case you ever wanted to add wainscoting like we did.
You can just make out the wall colour in the living room-"Morning Jog" by Valspar. The icy blue looks so nice next to the pillar and the Red of the Dining Room. We did the whole pillar thing between the living room and the dining room for a couple of reasons; 1. to make a natural break between the two rooms and 2. I just can't get enough of trim and detail!!
I want to mention that we will in the future be scraping the ceiling of it's awful "popcorn" and be adding either beadboard to the ceiling and/or adding crown moulding. To me the room will NEVER be truly complete until that crown is in. But I think it still looks pretty awesome so far!
Well that's it for now. I hope you have enjoyed the reveal. Sorry it took so long but sometimes life just gets in the way-but you all know what I mean by that? We have all been there.
Have a great day everyone.
Megan
