I love the idea of a formal dining room. I'm an old lady at heart. I have visions of Thanksgivings, Christmases, family dinners, game nights, bible studies, and dinner parties. I love finding beautiful china and mix-matching pieces. This huge open dining room space was part of what sold me on this house.But look at those floors! They were awful! Here's our theory: At one point the floors were beautiful and new. Then, someone took large area rugs and glued them, with bionic, tar glue, to the middle of the floors. Then, someone ripped up those and tacked down carpet. If you look carefully, you'll notice our floors all have lines about two feet from the walls where the planks slightly change color. We think the glue permently affected the color. However, 80% of the time it's not noticable. But hey, they're almost 100 years old and are supposed to tell a story.
Here's a view of the original posting photos from about a year before we purchased the house. I actually don't mind the funky wallpaper, but judging by the rest of the house, it probably wasn't in good shape close up.
Zach worked hard and refinished these floors. They were some of the last he dd and his new-found experience made them look really nice!
We also had the whole issue with the beams. They were falling down and I was having visions of it killing a whole dinner party of guests. Definitely not irrational. It was the only project we've hired out so far, because it looked scary. Turns out it was stupid easy, you can read about it here.
Now, I've been slow at collecting furniture for my dining room because I want it to look perfect. I picked up the buffet a few months ago off of Craigslist and I love it. It has a great 30's vibe.
That black shelf is definitely temporary. I'd love to find a huge, glass, dark, hutch to house my excessive collection of china. I'd also like it to only cost about $50... maybe that's why I haven't found one. I'll hold out. The kitchen tables and chairs are the ones we had in my house growing up and hold some sentimental value. Zach built us a gorgeous family table, but the last coat of poly didn't dry in time to make it into the 1 year pictures. Now I need to find a special place for the table in the picture.
The paint color on the top of the chair rail is called Charcoal grey and I love it. It's a little daring, but nice. The color on the bottom is supposed to be a light grey, but it has way too much blue in it. I read somewhere that adding blue to the room will make the walls look more grey. I think the blue from the window light proves it in this picture! You'll notice I still have no curtains. I've finally picked out some awesome blue geometric patterned fabric... I just need to order it. Zach will be building a radiator cover in here as well, so I think the curtains will have to be shorter length instead of the classier full length style. What do you think?
So what's left?
- Radiator Covers
- Paint ceiling
- Sew curtains
- Buy/Refinish a hutch
Build a table
In case you were wondering, I still hate the wild-west door, but apparently it's original. Sooo blah.
