It’s been almost 4 months, but the updates to our dining room are finally done!  Thought we’d share some “Before & After” pictures of the changes we’ve made:

The "Before" Picture

The "After" Picture

We started work in the dining room back in July by removing the old wallpaper.  Once the wallpaper was down, we ran new wiring for the wall sconces to replace the old knob-and-tube.  We then had the walls skim-coated with a fresh layer of plaster to fill in some holes and cracks and smooth everything out.  With the plaster work complete, we installed picture frame molding below the chair rail and then painted the upper portion of the walls gray and the bottom the same shade of white as the rest of the trim in the house.

We still think the room needs some work from a decorating perspective, but we’re so happy to finally be done with the other updates.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working to paint the dining room (finally!)  It’s taken a lot longer than I expected, but I’m really happy with the way it’s turning out.

New Dining Room Paint

I love the color gray we finally decided on for above the chair rail.  It’s Sherwin Williams Pavestone (SW7642).  I was a little worried to start with that it would come off as too blue or too tan, but it definitely looks gray without being too dark or too stark against the white.  The bottom half of the room is Sherwin Willams Modest White (SW6084), which is the same as the trim color in the rest of the house.

I started by priming all of the freshly plastered walls with a tinted Loxon primer that’s meant for concrete block walls.  At first, I thought this was overkill considering that the walls were only skim coated, but we’ve since had a problem with paint peeling off of the walls in the foyer because they weren’t primed properly, so we’re hoping this will prevent the same problem in the dining room.  The biggest challenge with the Loxon primer was that we hadn’t planned on using a different primer for the walls than for the new wood trim pieces for the picture frame molding, so I would up having to cut in around all of the trim , which was pretty time consuming.

After the primer was dry, I’ve put one layer of top coat on all of the walls.  The gray part above the chair rail is a low-sheen eg shel finish.  I really like how deep the color looks without being shiny.  One coat on top of the tinted primer gave us really consistent color and finish, so I think I’m done painting above the chair rail.  For the portion below the chair rail, we decided to paint it in a semi-gloss enamel like all the rest of the woodwork in the house.  One coat looks good color wise, but I’m still deciding if I want to put another coat on to try to even out the finish.  I’m not sure if it’s anything anyone but me will ever notice, but I’m afraid it’ll drive me nuts if I know it’s not perfect and I don’t fix it.

I can’t wait to finally be done with all of the painting, get the light fixtures and outlet covers back up, and move the furniture back in.  I think it’s going to be a huge improvement over the old wallpaper!

We took the wallpaper down in the dining room over the weekend and now I’m trying to pick a paint color for the walls.  I’m really struggling with it because the colors look so different on the walls than they do on little paint samples.  We think we’d like to paint the room gray, but I’m having trouble picking the right shade.

Here’s a few of the colors we’re thinking about:

Paint Samples for the Dining Room

The one on the far left is Sherwin Williams Classic French Gray (SW0077).  It’s about as true of a gray as you can get with virtually no undertones of any other color in it, but I’m afraid it’s kind of dark and might be too stark against all of the other colors in our house, which are various shades of beige and brown.  The color in the middle is Sherwin Williams Mega Greige (SW7031).  It has a lot more brown in it, which I think will make it blend better with the rest of our house, but I’m afraid that the color would read brown instead of gray once it’s painted on all of the walls.  The color on the right is Sherwin Williams Pavestone (SW7642), which has slightly more gray in it than the Mega Greige sample, but I can’t decide if it also looks sort of blueish.

Our plan right now is to put picture moldings on the bottom half of the wall and paint everything below the chair rail the same color that the trim is in this picture.  We’re also thinking about extending the paneling that’s on the front of the window seat around the window and up to the crown molding.  If we do that, we’ll probably also paint that the trim color.  Whatever we pick for above the chair rail we’d probably do in a low sheen finish so it wouldn’t have the reflection the paint samples have now, but that will probably make it feel like it absorbs more of the light in the room too.

Window Seat in Dining Room

Any thoughts on which of these samples would be the best choice?  Or are there other shades of gray that might be better?

I always seem to struggle with picking a paint color from the small samples you get at the paint store.  Once I pick one, it seems to always happen that it looks so much different on the wall than it did on the sample.  More than once, I’ve wound up re-painting the room because of it, which is a lot of extra work.

For our next project to pick paint colors for our dining room and foyer, I wanted to make sure I got the right color the first time, so I started looking on the Sherwin Williams website to see if I could order the larger paint samples you can get from decorators to get a better idea of the color ahead of time.  It turns out that anyone can register as a DIY decorator on their site for “Professionals” and order 3″ x 4″, 7″ x 8″, or 8″ x 11″ samples of any Sherwin Williams color … for free.

I signed up and ordered 8″ x 11″ samples of about 12 shades of tan I was considering for our entry way and also the samples for a couple of colors we already have in some of the rooms in our house so I could get a better idea of how everything would look together.  My top color pick for the foyer before ordering the samples was Softer Tan (SW 6141), which I’d read online had a bit of a green cast, but I just couldn’t see it from the small sample I’d gotten at the paint store.  Once the larger sample came, the green tone was pretty evident.  Now, I’m debating between Nomadic Desert and Latte, which are two really neutral tans from the same paint card … I just haven’t decided how dark of a color to use yet.

The color we chose for our powder room a couple of weeks ago was another case where I wished I’d have had the larger paint sample to start with.  We painted the walls Techno Gray (SW 6170), thinking it would be a light gray color, but it turned out to have so much green in it that I would describe the walls as more of a sage than a gray color.  We like the color just fine, but it definitely wasn’t what we were expecting when we picked it.  After seeing the larger sample, it was pretty obvious it was more of a green color than a gray.

Considering how easy it is to order the samples from Sherwin Williams and how quickly they come (ours arrived in just a couple days), the larger paint samples are a huge help for visualizing what a new paint color will look like.  Definitely something we’ll be doing again …

From the first time we walked through our house before we bought it, we’ve never really been fans of the green floral wallpaper and matching curtains in just about every room on the main floor.  Last winter, we started removing the wallpaper on the main floor when we  redecorated the sun room, but the dining room still has some very green wallpaper from floor to ceiling and our foyer is well coordinated with the matching border along the chair rail all the way up to the second floor.

Dining Room Wallpaper

We probably would have tackled the project to remove the wallpaper a lot earlier if we’d had good ideas for what to replace it with, but I’ve been pretty challenged at picking out paint or replacement wallpaper that I think would look good on my own.  I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be hard to improve on what’s there, but I want to make sure we pick something that’s going to coordinate between all of the rooms on the main floor since they’re so open and I’m pretty bad at visualizing what the whole space could look like with all of the green gone.  Our carpet and some of the existing paint also has kind of a pink hue that I want to be careful to not draw out, which has been an additional challenge.

To help work through my indecision, I started working with a decorator a couple months ago for some help picking out paint colors and coming up with a furniture layout for our very long and narrow living room.  She had some interesting ideas, but I think we just have very different tastes in colors, so I decided to give it a try on my own after all.  The one thing the decorator picked out that I think I do kind of like is some new wallpaper for the dining room.  I wasn’t really thinking about putting up new wallpaper and this is a little bolder than what I might normally choose, but I can see how it would look good in the dining room and provide a very earthy color palette that I like for the rest of the main floor.  My only concern is that it might look dated in just a few years too ..

Paint & Wallpaper Samples

The decorator’s idea was to paper the wall above the chair rail with the brown wallpaper in the picture.  It has some green and a red-orange color in the flowers, but mostly it’s brown and cream with a little bit of gold foil outlining.  The bottom of the wall would be a paint color about the same as the background for the wallpaper so that it blends in, but has no pattern.

The paint samples on top of the wallpaper in the photo are some existing colors we have in the house and some new ones I picked out for the foyer and other rooms that can be seen from and will need to coordinate with the dining room.  The one on the left is Sherwin Williams “Sand Dune” (SW 6086).  This is the color our living room is currently painted and it’s a color we’d probably choose to keep if it turns out to match everything else ok.  The color in the middle is Sherwin Williams Nomadic Desert (SW 6107).  I’m thinking this color or maybe Latte (SW6108), which is just a shade darker) for the foyer adjacent to the dining room.  The dark brown color is Sherwin Williams Nuthatch (SW 6088).  This is the color we painted our sun room, which is (barely) visible from the dining room, so we want to make sure it doesn’t clash horribly.  The final paint color on the right is Sherwin Williams Techno Gray (SW 6170), which we painted our powder room just a couple weeks ago.

I haven’t been brave enough to start removing the wallpaper and go buy paint … I’m still struggling with whether or not to commit to the wallpaper selection.  I think my biggest concern is probably how dark the room would be with that wallpaper if we decide to remove the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors with a darker stain at some point in the future.  Although redoing the dining room walls would definitely make the biggest difference as far as updating the main floor, I’m thinking I might start with the foyer since it’s an easier decision for me.  I found lots of comments on this blog that all of the colors on the paint card containing the Latte and Nomadic Desert paint colors I’m considering for the foyer are pretty true tans with no undertones.  I’m hoping these will help neutralize some of the pink tones elsewhere in the house and provide a good starting point for the redecorating project …

A few weeks ago, we started giving our main floor powder room a face lift by removing the old ivy-patterned wallpaper.  Although it’s taken a lot longer than we expected, we’re finally getting close to calling it finished.  I’d still like to replace the faucet with something a little less gold, but, so far, we think it’s a pretty good transformation considering we’ve only spent about $175 on paint, light fixtures, and accessories.  Here are some “before and after” pictures:

Before

After

The "Before" Picture

Last weekend, we decided to start again on the project of removing all of the wallpaper in the house by focusing on the main floor powder room, which had an ivy wallpaper above the wainscoting.  The pattern wasn’t one that we found very objectionable in comparison to some of the other wallpaper in the house, but the wallpaper was starting to peel at the seams and, since it’s such a small room, we thought it would be a good place to start on a quick project.

So, last Saturday, I started on the project by removing the wallpaper.  I was glad to discover it was a strippable wallpaper, so the process was pretty easy.  I first peeled off the top vinyl-like layer to expose the tissue paper backing.  I then sprayed the tissue paper backing with a vinegar & water mixture to weaken the glue and peeled the tissue paper off the wall as well.  After giving the walls a good scrub to remove any remaining glue, they were ready to be painted.

For a paint color, we picked a Sherwin Williams color called Techno Gray.  Looking at the paint sample, we expected it to be a nice, warm gray color that maybe had a hint of green in the right light.  After painting the walls, though, we think it looks a lot more like a light sage green color that has a hint of gray in the right light.  We don’t find the color objectionable, so we’re not planning to change it, but it’s really not what we had in mind when we picked the color.

The New "Techno Gray" Paint Color

Even though I scrubbed the walls really well after removing the wallpaper, they still felt a little tacky from the glue, so I decided to start with a primer that had an 85% tint of the finished color.  After the walls were primed, I painted a single coat of the final color in a satin finish.  This is the first time I’d tried using a smaller 6″ roller that was about an inch in diameter and I thought it made a big difference, especially when painting a smaller room because it allows you to get so much closer to the trim, corners, and ceiling.  It also seemed to provide a lot better coverage than the standard rollers we normally use.  After removing the masking tape from the trim, I saw a couple places that need to be touched up again, but otherwise, the paint on the walls looks good.

The ceiling in the bathroom is currently painted the same off-white color (Sherwin Williams Modest White) as the trim, the finish is sort of shiny, and it looks like there was only one coat applied because you can see another shade of white peaking through in spots.  So, I think I’ll give the ceilings a couple coats of fresh white ceiling paint in a flat finish to hopefully hide a few of the imperfections a little better and clean it up some.  After that, I need to spend some time cleaning some caulk out of a few of the joints in the beadboard where the expansion and contraction of the boards over time has caused the caulk to crack and look pretty nasty.  I’m going to try the suggestion from This Old House to just clean out the caulk and paint the seams without re-caulking. Hopefully it’ll look a lot nicer than what we have now.

The powder room is still very much a work-in-progress, but we’re happy with the change so far.  Even though we didn’t think we minded the wallpaper when we started, we’re amazed by what a difference the paint has made.  A couple new light fixtures and it’ll feel like a whole new bathroom!

I’ve been a little delinquent in posting, but the project to paint our master bedroom is finally done! It took the painter nearly a week and a half to finish, with most of the time being spent in the master bedroom suite. Here are some before and after photos.

Before

After

All in all, we’re pleased with the way it turned out. The new color is a Sherwin Williams color called Sand Dune, with the trim being painted Modest White. We debated about whether or not it was worth the extra effort and money to paint the trim in the room, but I’m so glad we decided to do it. This was the only room in the house with a different trim color, so painting it makes everything consistent … and I’m really happy with the contrast between the walls and trim. It seems like they would have blended together a lot more had we not painted the trim a brighter white than it was before.

The wall color looks a lot pinker to me in this room than it does in the other rooms we have painted the same color. I’m blaming it on the green carpet, thinking it’ll probably read more tan when we replace the carpet with something a little more neutral. Either way, though, I like the way it looks a lot better than the previous color.

The painter finished up with the final coat in the master bathroom yesterday. Here’s a couple pictures of what it looks like now:

The main wall color is a Sherwin Williams color called Sand Dune. It’s the same color that’s in our guest room and living room and it’s also going in our bedroom. On the paint chip and in all the other rooms, it’s a nice tan color, but I keep thinking it looks pink in the bathroom. It must have something to do with all of the green tile it’s up against. I’m hoping it will take on a more tan-ish hue when we get the rest of the bathroom put back together and get towels and a shower curtain in there.

We had a discussion with the painter a couple of days ago about the type of paint to use in the bathroom. The paint that was in there before was a semi-gloss finish, which probably wasn’t a bad choice considering that there is no exhaust fan in the bathroom and the walls get really wet when someone uses the shower, but we didn’t really like the way it looked. We have plans to install an exhaust fan in the spring when there’s no more snow or ice on the roof, but we still wanted to make sure that our paint selection will hold up ok to moisture. For the new paint, we chose to go with a satin finish instead. We like the way it looks on the walls a lot better than the semi gloss and the painter said it should hold up fine to the moisture. About the only downside is that covering the semi-gloss paint with a satin meant that he needed to use an oil base primer, which has turned out to be a little aromatic.

Eventually, I’d also like to install a new light fixture in the bathroom since the current one is rusted and maybe change some of the hardware. I’m excited to give it a face lift without doing a full-scale remodeling project.

Our painter has made a ton of progress in the last couple of days. The final coat has been put on the family room and it’s completely done now with the exception of a couple of places that still need touching up. The color we chose called Nuthatch. It’s a Sherwin Williams paint and the painter selected a low-sheen eggshell finish since it wasn’t available in satin. Here’s what the room looks like now:

We were afraid the color would be a little dark, but I think it’s going to be ok with all the light coming in through the windows and doors.

The painter has also been working on the master suite. In the master bathroom, everything has been primed and he’s working on the final coat. The part above the trim is called Simplify Beige and the part below it will be a color called Sand Dune, which is just slightly darker. They’re also Sherwin Williams colors and they’re both a satin finish. The color on the wall is just a primer right now, so it’ll be a little darker when the final coat goes on, but here’s what it looks like so far:

The master bedroom is about half-way done. The trim is being painted a color called Modest White in a semi-gloss finish. The painter made sure to tell us that he’s using the Proclassic variety of paint on the baseboards since it will dry harder and hold up better. And the walls are being painted the same Sand Dune color as what’s in the bathroom. The final coat is done on both the trim and the walls in the first room, but he hasn’t started on the second half of the room yet. Here’s what it looks like so far: