Dining Room Make-Over

My main mission before the party at which we celebrated my graduation/our housewarming, was to re-wallpaper the dining room.  Half the readers gasp in horror, whatever wallpaper has its place.  Here are a few photos of the dining room before and while we were moving in and getting settled.

This was and has always been one of my favorite features of the house.

Original light fixture, I always liked the crystal but it definetly needed some help.

And of course the original switchplate, just like the one in the half bath.

The mess while we were getting settled.

This was our first dinner in the dining room, with Bruce's parents the weekend they came down to help us with cleaning.

Shannon came and helped take down the wallpaper, which came down surprisingly easy.  The former owners were smokers and the paste behind the paper was brown from absorbing years of tobacco smoke (the stains are visible in the first photo). I washed, sanded, filled holes, primed then my mom came down for a few days to help hang the wallpaper.  It took two full days to do, I then painted under the chair rail, trim, and china cabinet.

My mom picked up a sideboard which matched our dining set, she and her cousin John picked up the curtains and rods, and table cloth. That table cloth is amazing, it's microfiber and doesn't stain!

I painted the back walls of the china cabinet with the lightest shade from the paint chip that the color from below the chair rail came from.  I also painted the outside and the shelves of the china cabinet the trim color.  I switched out the knobs for some clear acrylic knobs and spray painted the screws to match the light. I didn't get the top door on the cabinet until last week, it was very time consuming to paint!

I painted the radiator the same color as the trim, by first using a spray paint primer then a foam roller with the trim color. I love the way it turned out, I stayed true to the house by keeping the original light fixture and switch but now it's updated and clean!