Dining Room: Before & After

BEFORE: When we first moved in the floors were carpeted and walls were a high gloss red.

AFTER

We bought our house almost 2 years ago this summer. It’s 2 story brick farmhouse built in the 30s. When we purchased it, it was a “fixer upper”. Everything was working and livable, but it needed an overhaul and of course our own touches. As much as I complain about not being able to get things done, and the never-ending list of things to do, now that it’s been 2 years, I’m looking at before and after photos and thinking, “Yeah, we did do a lot”.

The very first thing we did, even before we moved our things in, was refinish the hardwood floors. The downstairs had carpeting, and the upstairs floors were painted mustard and black. Many hours and sand papers went into these floors. Then they were cleaned and stained in a clear stain finish.

The dining room and living room used to be a very bold brick red. I was looking for something more calm, and warm. I choose Martha Stewart’s Oolong tea, a soothing green with yellow undertones. We used Behr Premium paint which has a primer in it. They claim you only need one coat. I have painted a fair amount of walls in my life, and I was skeptical, but now I am the unofficial Behr Premium spokeswoman. It really is worth the money. Some advice, don't let the person at the paint counter tell you can can't use a Martha Stewart color with Behr paint, or vice versa. All they have to do is a color match. Every time I mixed paint this way, they gave me hard time, but it's completely doable. Because I was painting over bold red, I did a coat of Killz primer, then only one coat of the Oolong Tea. This saved me both time and money, bonus! I haven’t gotten to the trim yet; you can see the test swatches on the side. I think I’ll end up doing a slightly softer white, but that’s only on the To-do list for now.

The biggest change we made in this space was knocking out a window between the dining room and front room. We suspect the front room used to be a porch since it’s all exposed brick and there was a perfect window shaped spot that we knocked out to become our bar. This project was taken up by my grandfather, the expert craftsman, also known as Johnny Four Fingers, coined after his close encounter with a circular saw whilst making the bookshelves shown (don't worry he still has all 5 digits!). The whole was cut, drywall and insulation removed. Then we put down a custom laminate counter-top  in a textured black matte, that gives the look of stone. The bookshelves were measured, cut, stained and installed by Johnny Four Fingers to our specs. Later we added the glass rack across the window.

Another change, that made a big difference, was swapping out the crystal chandelier. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, it just didn’t fit with everything else. We replaced it with a Craftsmen style hanging light with a wrought iron finish.

Voila! We now have a cozy dining space for eating, drinking, and reading.