There was a lot going on in this room.
Striped wallpaper, robin's egg blue paint, gold borders, textured ceiling paper surrounded by another border, wall mounted cabinets faced with book-themed contact paper, a fireplace whose trim had trim... It was too much.
Putting the chaos factor aside, this room wasn't someplace I could see having friends over to because it also felt sort of like a dark, creepy (possibly haunted?) attic. Because our house is in the middle of a block, we only have windows on the east and west walls - so it can be pretty dark inside. While we were fortunate enough to have the original molding around doors and windows, it had most recently been painted dark brown, which made the room feel even more cave-like than it really is. It needed serious brightening.
Even though the dreary Victorian decor isn't my cuppa tea, I will say that the previous owners did seem to get the look they were going for. This drawing (found here) of an 1880s Victorian dining room looks amazingly like ours did!
Anyway, it didn't stay that way for long. The night of our closing, we ordered a pizza and started stripping wallpaper. Luckily, the paper came off pretty easily with a spritz of warm water mixed with vinegar.
I won't get into all of the nitty gritty details since we did this almost three years ago, but here's what we did to the space:
- Removed wallpaper, trim pieces, and wall-mounted cabinets
- Removed ceiling border (we left the textured paper)
- Painted walls Benjamin Moore Soleil (eggshell) and the ceiling Ceiling White
- Painted the trim and ceiling medallion Benjamin Moore Mayonnaise (satin)
- Replaced the transom over the French doors with a leaded glass
- Reversed the French doors so they open inwards and installed a storm/security door outside
- Removed the excess trim from the fireplace/mantel/mirror
- Refinished the fireplace surround and mantel, stained a lighter color
- Tiled around the fireplace surround
- Disconnected and removed a gas fireplace insert because the chimney isn't lined
- Had the floors refinished to their natural color
It took us months to do, but the work was so worth it - the dining room became so much brighter and calmer. I definitely prefer my rooms to be restful and infused with sunlight!
Once we got it to a state that we could live with, we moved on to some even bigger, scarier projects (I'm looking at you, master bathroom!). The dining room is by no means finished, and here's the list of things that we still need to do:
- Finish the mirror frame (paint or stain?)
- Hang the new pendant light that's been sitting in its box for 3+ months (more complicated than it should be)
- Finish installing the French door hardware, paint white to match the trim
- Give the ceiling medallion and ceiling trim one more coat of paint
- Reassess the possibly too yellow wall color
The room has filled out a little bit more over time. Here's where we are now.
I'd still like to hang more art to the left and right of the fireplace (in the two nooks) and organize the banjo/guitar/fiddle/bodhran corner we've got going on. And maybe, just maybe get rid of the light on the mantel with the electrical taped paper shade that's falling off? Slowly, but surely people.
And these days, we're finding candlelit dinners so soothing and cozy, we may never get around to hanging that newfangled electric ceiling light. How very Victorian we feel...
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