Dining Room Remodel = FINISHED!

As much as I really, truly need to focus myself today and get this house decorated because I really don't feel like working on it all weekend (although I know it's going to be a work in progress as the season goes on)...

...I absolutely can't wait another minute to share our dining room renovation story with you all! It turned out so well and we're all so happy with it, I just have to show you some pictures of the process.

Here's a before picture.  I wish we had gotten a REAL before picture, prior to all the junk being cleared out of the room:

As you can see, it was just lovely, wasn't it? Complete with sponge paint and 30 year old brown carpet.  Delightful.  Prior to being all cleared out, this was an exercise room with treadmill, solo flex, rebounder and stationary bike and all the crap we couldn't fit anywhere else in the house.  What you can't see, because it's open, is the curtain in the doorway to the far right.  It was composed of gold vertical blinds which could be drawn across the doorway and closed, making a mirrored door.  It was...something.

While changing out the ceiling fan, it was discovered by our neighbor (who is much more well versed in such matters) that the wiring was completely wrong and against code.  Yay! Good to know 15 years after it was done! So...

...a hole was cut into the wall so he could fix it.  He was such a huge help throughout the process.

What girl doesn't love coming home from work and finding a hole in the wall? Not I!

Here I am, touching up some primer:

Then it came time to paint.  The paint was quite an adventure.  What looked beautiful and rich on the sample from the store went on the walls way, way too orangey.  At first I was okay with it (since red paint is so darn difficult to get evenly on the walls in the first place and I didn't want to have to paint it all over again), but then Rob admitted that he didn't like the color and I agreed.

So he went back to the store and bought another color.  THAT was too pink! With the lights on, it looked like a dark bubble gum.  Again, I was willing to stick with it and suck it up and be done with the entire process (we primed on Sunday afternoon and it was now Monday night and 5 coats into it), but my man was determined to get the right color up there.

The third time was the charm!

That's what we were going for! I just wanted to kiss the walls.

I'll spare you the gory details of the frustrations and surprises we went through.  It's just not worth rehashing here.  Let's just say that we learned that there's no such thing as a straight wall, a squared doorway or a 90 degree corner.  Oh, and that certain cashiers at the hardware store think it's funny to make a running joke of how frequently they see certain customers (I think the worst was 5 times in one day) - the first few times, it's funny.  After a week, not so much.

But the finished product was more than worth the effort, the mess and the random tools being left all over my kitchen counters.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention our beautiful furniture! That's what started the whole debacle - the fact that we ordered furniture last month and figured the room should be finished before it was delivered (it wasn't, by the way!).

Look not at the unironed drapes, and if you do see them, try not to judge me too harshly.  Look, instead, at the beautiful floor! The floor I wish I could have throughout the house.  I just loooove it!

 

The wedding wall, which coincidentally involves my favorite little trick of the whole room.  See those two bottom pictures? They're in shadow boxes.  The one on the right is an absolute stroke of genius on Rob's part...

Surprise! It hides the ugly thermostat! We keep it open when no one's in there (until Rob cuts out the top and bottom to actually let air circulate around it) and when we want to hide it, we close the box.  I just can't get over how clever he is.

So one more time, before...

And after...

 (Don't ask me what my father-in-law watches on his giant TV.  I have no idea.  It looks like there's a dead body involved.)

Another before...

And after...

I wish I could spend all my time in here, I really do.  I might have to start blogging from that table.  It's so pretty and relaxing in the dining room now.  And a much as I hated that room during the process (and oh, how I hated it - and I wasn't doing HALF the gruntwork), I am so thrilled with it now.

I feel that we remodeled a small dining room and managed to make it feel cozy and warm, not constrictive.  That was the goal!

One room down...