Dining Room Progress Report - Lighting, Paint and Board & Batten Wainscotting

Our dining room is almost done.  Just a few tweaks here and there are needed. Before we do the big reveal, here are some in progress pics to peak your interest.  

As I posted a couple of months ago, we replaced the carpet with bamboo.  That was the beginning of the transformation.

We swapped out the light fixture.  While the original chandelier was lovely in a sparkly brassy old world way, it was not our style.

This is our new chandelier.  It is a knock off of a chandelier from Restoration Hardware.  I love the warm glow from the "candles."  Even better was the price (compared to the RH version) of $230 at Lowes.

Next up was paint.  We selected a two tone color scheme that will make sense in a minute.  Behr Chocolate Sprinkle (in flat enamel) and Valspar Churchill Hotel Vanilla (in semi-gloss). 

Next we needed to add the wood for the board and batten wainscotting.  Thank goodness Hubs is a math wiz.  Without him, this would have taken days longer to complete. 

Once all the trim was installed, we started caulking (oh, there was so much caulking), priming and painting.

Now we are making progress.  Even better, it looks completely different from where we started. 


Stay tuned for the big reveal later this week.

Extra Chairs Anyone?

The holidays mean that families will be gathering around dining tables across the country to share a meal and raise a glass.  The holidays also mean that people are also looking for extra chairs so all these family members have a place to sit for the meals and toasts. 

Extra chairs can come in a variety of shapes and sizes and costs.

From this

Source:  Flickr

to this

Source:  Flickr

to this.

Source:  Flickr

Not the most attractive options.

What if you could get a solid wood chair with a padded seat for less than $30?  With clean lines and a nice height?  One that looked like this?

Quite lovely isn't it?  And available at Costco for $29.99 each.  Another bonus is that while the seats are a great height, they are not oversized so you can fit several in with your existing chairs.   I was able to fit six of these beauties in with my existing six chairs, which will allow 12 people to sit around the table come Christmas Eve.  Until then, they are stored in the corner of the dining room.