Dining Room Renovation

During all of the ladies' fellowships, home schooling, church responsibilities, Olympics and lawn care, Taigen has managed to fit in the renovation of our dining room. This process has been a bit longer than others, but the transformation has been awesome (in our opinion).When we moved into the Saco home, Erika Gray had a folk art/country theme in the kitchen/dining area and guest bath. I loved it! It looked so neat and fits perfectly into the New England style. I wanted to pull some of that into the downstairs of this home.

I had found some terrific curtains at Wal-Mart when Mom was out here and they were just the color and style that I wanted in the dining room. They are very close in color with the valance in the kitchen over the sink at probably a third of the price! The ladies who compliment the curtains are always surprised when I say that I found them at Wal-Mart. It makes me laugh.

I originally wanted to paint the dining room a rich cranberry/mulberry color, but after our wretched experience with five coats of Behr paint in the guest room in ME, Taigen hastily said a firm "let's not." I don't blame him. I loved the color, but for some reason, that room never looked quite right. I tossed colors back and forth and the idea of wallpaper since that is coming back into style. We couldn't decide. On a whim one day I was surfing the net, looking at folk/country wallpaper when I came across a plaid, yes, plaid wallpaper that looked really neat. It was a bold look, but when I asked Taigen about it he gave the thumbs up. I guess anything is better than five coats of cranberry paint, eh?

The dining room was a light gray (it matched the kitchen) with darker gray trim. It didn't look too bad but definitely not something I wanted to keep. When we first moved in, I had a coupon for a free sample of Benjamin Moore paint from a local paint store. I picked up a tan color that I thought would look nice on the living room wall. It didn't. Maybe it would look better in the dining room? Nope. It didn't look any better. So for weeks we had gray walls with a splotch of Lenox Tan.Taigen started off the renovation by painting the trim to match the rest of the downstairs. Then when the wallpaper came in he took the roll to the paint store and matched it with several swatches of brown and called me to have me look it up on the computer. I wanted the room to coordinate with the rest of the house since it is not closed off, but I wanted it darker so that it would be a slightly more formal eating area. When he came home and opened the paint can I was a bit nervous, but holding it up next to the wallpaper confirmed in my mind that he had chosen the right color. The painting started.Taigen had painted all of the top half of the dining room by Friday night of last week and we were able to wallpaper one wall before my Moms and Muffins Ladies' Fellowship. That way, the ladies knew what we had in mind and didn't think that the brown was a mistake! The room wasn't picture perfect for a troop of ladies to come and critique, but it didn't affect the get-together one iota! We still had a ton of fun. During some of the evenings this week, Taigen and I have been furiously wallpapering with intermittent Olympics breaks! Taigen had asked if he could have some help on the chair rail from our good friend Dale Tock. Dale was available to come over tonight and help hang it. Side Note: Not only does Dale have all the big boy toys necessary to do the job, he also has the know-how. He is amazing. The reason I say he is amazing is because he is legally blind. However, Dale functions at such an incredible level, that even I forget sometimes that he cannot see. He cannot drive, read a hymnal or book, but this guy can hang a chair rail and do so many other wonderful things. The guys did a great job tonight (while his wife, Carol, and I chatted and played with the kids). We are so very pleased with how the room turned out.

Now all we need are guests! Ready to come and dine?