Our dining room renovation is under-way and, dare I say it…going fast!
See what we accomplish in Week 2 and what our dining room plans are.
It started last weekend with wiring the electric for a switch and the antique crystal chandelier with the help of our friend Keith. It’s a good thing he was here to tag-team with Karl as it was a doozy to get the wires up from the basement and through the dining room’s wall; kind of like trying to get the needle to poke through the correct hole when cross-stitching.
Once they had the wiring in, they worked to get the mounting brace for the chandelier centered in the ceiling. We used a brace designed to carry the weight of our heavy brass chandelier and designed to extend the arms out over the joists for extra support.
To install the brace, they had to pull up a piece of flooring in one of our upstairs bedrooms that showed signs of having been pulled up before. This was confirmed when underneath the board we found these really cool marble square tiles!
You never know what time capsules are laying hidden away!
Then came my favorite part of the day – the chandelier being hung!
The rest of the week was spent repairing the plaster as it was a cycle of adding a layer of plaster, giving it 24 hours to dry, then sanding it all smooth, and repeat.
We no longer have “vented” walls! ;)
Oh, and then we nearly burned the house down.
We installed our historical reproduction lightswitch, flipped it on, and for one glorious minute the room lit up with the light of the beautiful chandelier. All smiles, Karl turned the light off and sparks few from the switch! What the heck?!
The switch was fried.
We called the manufacturer and they said it sounded like a faulty product, so they graciously are sending another to replace it. Until then, we have a cheap temporary switch installed so that we can still operate in the room with light, which is something that is still such a new convenience for us in the dining room that’s never had light in the evenings.
Our ceiling medallion we’d ordered was also added in with the help of my bro-in-law, Ben, using liquid nails and screwing the base of the chandelier into it using extra-long bolts.
It completes the chandelier and the room in so many happy ways!
To cap off the week, the ceiling and the medallion was painted a nice crisp white! For the first time since tearing out the shelving, our dining room ceiling is all one color!
This coming week we have to prime and paint the walls and of course I have to suddenly question my choice of wall color, which is not cooool. For many months I’ve had a sample up on my walls of a pretty greenish-blue Spruce color and I thought I was settled on it. It’s close to this color, just a little lighter:
In the last 48 hours I’m starting to question having a dark color in a room we’ll be eating in for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the morning I like a room that is bright to help me feel awake, while a dark color is more for a nice moody evening dinner setting. I don’t like light green colors though. I’m even considering a frothy creamy white. Geh. What to do…? As if to confirm my growing gut instinct, I went through my pinterest board of dreamy dining rooms that I’ve collected over the years and the overall theme I noticed was…light and white walls.
*sigh*
I have to make a final decision today. I’ll be in the paint store and going through more sample cards, hehe. Wish me luck!
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Catch up on our renovation plans for the dining room and the transforming power of paint in Week 2.
Shared On: makeitprettymonday, thatdiyparty, tuesdaysatourhome,
