My "New" Dining Breakfast Room

First of all, Brad did arrive home safely and on time late last night! The kids were soooooo happy to see him this morning! Riley hasn't stopped smiling all day. Of course, the second words out of his mouth this morning were, "Daddy, will you make pancakes?!" :) Once Brad gets his photos and stuff organized, I'll let him share a few photos here and post the link to the album from his trip.

Second, I am ready to share some photos from my dining room makeover! If you aren't up to speed on this, basically the idea was to find a way to improve the look of an old, painted paneled wall that had a lot of surface damage, rather than replace the entire walls. My color inspiration came from living in a waterfront neighborhood and I am going for a fresh, crisp, calming feel for the house overall. It's not completely finished (need to hem the curtains, buy a buffet cabinet, clean the carpets, touch up the trim...), but it's finished enough to share :). I feel like "Breakfast Room" better suits it now than "Dining Room," but either way, it is a beautiful room!

Here is what the wall looked like before (I can't find my full room "before" shots, but if I find them I will post them). You can see the vertical striping from the paneling beneath many layers of paint, and the damage on the wall from removing the poorly installed wallpaper that was up when we moved in.

I have had so many people ask me about this mural I had done on the wall, and, sadly, it is no longer there. But, once you see the "after" pictures of the room, you will understand that I am not too sad about it. :) (You will see in the "after" photos it has been replaced with a painting I did 4 or 5 years ago that has been in storage just waiting for the perfect spot to be displayed).

My first step, after removing all the trim and paneling, was to apply Behr Sand Texture Paint to the top half of the wall and create a "knockdown" finish. I loved the effect, especially after adding the color and it truly hid the imperfections that had been staring me in the face these last 3 years. I will say if you try it, be sure to have drop cloths down because it does splatter a ton! (We replaced the ooooglie light fixture that was there when we moved in with this pretty one last year, btw.)

I chose a blue/gray color for the walls which reminded me of the color of the lake. It is super calming.

(You can see the table we had been using in there below...much too big for the room and all the traffic flow in there).

The next step was to paint the closet door and trim (where my washer and dryer reside). For some reason, this was stained and the rest of the trim in the room was painted white. I'm so glad I decided to paint it! It brightens the whole room and made a huge difference.

The next part of the project involved my dad and his handiwork. We worked together to design a paneling for the lower half of the room, and up the stairwell. He cut flat pieces to fit around the room, and then used pine boards to build the framing and a shelf/molding to mount above the panels and finish it off. It was a ton of work and took 4 or 5 long days to put it all together, but it was well worth it.

I purchased a new table that can be extended with a leaf when we have company (our first table purchase in the almost 8 yrs we've been married!), that better suited the room and matched our current chairs. I also paid $30 for three canvas drop cloths that I hung as drapes with new curtain rods, a great tip I learned from this site. And here is what it looks like today:

Makes me want to sit with my cup of coffee and a book and stare out my picture window at the beautiful trees and flowers with the water in the distance . . . mission accomplished!