Welcome to THE Dining Room!

What can I say!  The Dining Room project has come to an end and I am sooooo glad.  We finished up just in time to enjoy spending Thanksgiving in there, and promptly began Christmas decorating so I didn't manage to get any photos without the decorations.  I hope you will appreciate a little before and after fun!

Welcome to our before dining room

(the first couple of "before" shots were the ones sent to me via email

 when my DH found the house):



The BEFORE.....



the AFTER!

Another BEFORE...

 and... 



    

AFTER!

Here are more detail changes, before....

I thought we were going to have to replace the chandelier...

but the shades made it a keeper!





These window treatments were re-purposed from our last house.  They were too short for the height I wanted to hang them, so I found a remnant (literally the end of a bolt) of raw silk in just the right color, cut it into 4 equal strips and added it onto the bottom with some coordinating trim.  Presto!  I now have  NEW, custom drapes!  Hot glue is your friend!!!! I also used the drapes to recover the chairs.

Here are a few more  random shots of our "new" dining room!

 We still have a few things we want to add to the dining room...a BIG rug, just to name one, but I will have to find just the right one so that may take a few months!  Now, I am off to tackle more Christmas decorating and to start planning our next project!

Tally:

Primer/paint/Spackle/sand paper, etc. $175.00

Hole Patch kit $ 15.00

Electrical receptacles/covers/supplies $ 30.00

Shades for Chandelier $ 45.00

Curtain $ 79.00

Window Treatment supplies (fabric/trim) $ 17.00

 Total Cost for Project: $361.00

For more fun reads check out:

Linked to Hooked on Houses Holiday Tour Week 1
and

Metamorphasis Monday

Stories of a House: Project Diaries, Volume 12

Southern Hospitality's Top Projects

Guess what I am doing this week?

Do you ever start a project with a plan, knowing just what you want to do and where?  You know...you have made decisions!  Well, that was just where I was at the beginning of this week when I peeled the 1st strip of wallpaper off my dining room wall....now, not so much.....

I promise I had a plan...really, I did. 

But, as I peeled and peeled and adopted the nickname of "Queen of the Strippers" (yes thank you,  dear husband,  I appreciate that) I began to wonder if I should do something different.  My dining room is a big room, (20 feet by 14 feet), so I am looking to warm it up and make it more cozy which is somewhat ironic because it seems in every other house I have had, I was trying to open up the dining room and make it less cozy...oh, the irony. 

Got my 1st wall done!

 

So, my original plan was to use this fabric for the window treatments and chairs and the paint chip (laying on the fabric) for the walls. 

But, as I peeled away the wallpaper a strange whisper started in the back of my mind, "Wallpaper" it called.  "Wallpaper would cover a myriad of wall damage...." and I replied, "You have got to be crazeeee!" but it continued.  Do any of you have these strange decorating voices in your head or is it just me? 

So, after I have heard from several of my besties, and much debate over to wallpaper or not to wallpaper, I thought I would ask even more people so I will have even more voices in my head throw this question out into blogland....

What would you do? 

A can of paint...

CAN REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 

Our new-to-us house had a kitchen redo somewhere in the mid 1990s and we knew before we moved in  that we would need to give it a bit of TLC. 

Fortunately, I actually like the cabinets and they are great quality,  and plentiful, so we decided there was no need to consider changing them.  Eventually, (translated to mean when the $$$ is available)  we would like to have new counter tops. The current ones are solid surface, neutral and in great shape, so we kept those as well, which fit with our budget!  At the point we change counter tops we will also change out the cook top but since it has 6 burners and a grill I am happy with it for now.

This project was a first for us, in that we didn't remove the wallpaper before painting.  After hearing several friends say they had painted over wallpaper successfully we decided to give it a shot.  It worked and you would never know...and it saved us many hours of stripping wallpaper!
 

Before

After:

 

Before

 

After

 

Before

 

After

Before

After

 

Before

 

After

Before

 

After

We decided to have a little fun and painted a chalkboard on the wall so we could include all the silly "rules" that have evolved in our family over the years.  This was a super easy project with just some chalkboard paint and  molding to frame it out. 

I am still waiting on 1 window treatment (for over the sink) and plan to get a new rug for the breakfast area as the one above is one that I put there just for functionality. We used as many accessories from our old kitchen as possible. Of course, there are decorative items that need to be tweaked but I am just thrilled with the results and couldn't wait to post pictures.



Budget for Redo = $0 (well, you know what I mean!)

Results = Priceless!!!

I am participating in the 88th Metamorphosis Monday!!!!

 and Before and After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick

Real ugly bathroom photos!

Isn't this just lovely? This is the master bath right after we moved into this house almost 5 years ago. Can you say Mid 90s Waverly attack?
DS2 & DD exploring our new digs...behind those really gross shower doors.
After moving in, before unpacking...I promptly began peeling wallpaper off the walls...it was just more than I could imagine getting up to every morning. Living with plain Sheetrock was truly better, though I never realized it would take us almost 5 years to actually do something about it.