Hello, hello, hello Week 2 ORC participants and spectators! How much fun was last week? I am always so amazed and inspired by the community that is generated during the One Room Challenge. And y'all were so kind to leave nice comments about the plans I have for my dining room!
This week I wanted to stop in with a quick update on progress in the dining room. On top of this dining room makeover, the makeover on my fireplace wall is progressing at full speed ahead. Not the best timing but I'm not doing any of the work myself on the fireplace so I figured why not make a mess of the whole house in one shot? Plus life is boring when you don't have chatty carpenters to talk with all day long!
The big change in the dining room from last week to now is the new wall color! I went to the dark side and painted the walls and ceiling black. My favorite black is Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black, which the guys at the paint store tell me is just the very basic black. And I want to tell them that this black isn't basic, it's got subtle undertones of blue and green and gray. But let's be honest, it's black. I chose a flat finish for the black paint because I have textured walls and I didn't want the sheen of the paint to highlight any of that texture. Using a flat black makes the walls almost look like they have been painted with chalkboard paint. I can't wait to hang up a large piece of glossy art on those flat black walls! Also- a thing I learned from the paint guys. With a dark color like black and a flat finish, the color on the walls will actually rub off if you bump into it. I wasn't too worried about that happening in this room since a) we never use it and b) there is wainscoting that comes up pretty high on the wall. But if you do have a room that gets a lot of traffic in it, probably need to use a paint with some sheen to it if you decide to use a highly pigmented color. Alright, I will stop with the unsolicited advice and show you some pictures!
Before
After
I love it! Of course I love any room that is black so I was pretty sure this would work out. I had to do three coats to get full coverage and I'm not sure I will ever paint a ceiling again. Luckily this room didn't have much in terms of walls to paint with one wall being almost all windows, a large doorway on one wall, and wainscoting on the other walls. I deserve no sympathy for having to paint a ceiling three times so just ignore my whining. And look what else showed up in the room, those gorgeous lights from Rejuvenation! Yes they look great but...with just those lights on it's a very romantic/interrogation-like dinner experience. There are 4 wall sconces in this room so I'm not too worried about the room being dark at night.
I also can't wait to show you guys the gorgeous vintage rug I got for this room. Truth is I've had the rug for a few weeks now and there has been sneak peeks of it on our Instagram. But I haven't taken a picture of the whole rug yet so for now here's another look at it:
The color is a deeper burgundy than the pictures lead me to believe but I actually think it is even better for the room that way. I love that it is fade already and when my dog pukes on it (secret: dining room rug is my dog's puking spot) I think the puke remnants will blend in nicely. And it's way easier to clean puke off this rug than it was to clean puke out of the jute rug that lived in this room before. That jute rug with all it's fibers intertwined with vomit is going straight to the garbage. Those fabric swatches on the rug were contenders for drapes in the dining room but I've decided to forgo drapes because there are sconces above the window which prevents me from taking the curtain rod up as high as I would like.
So there we have my progress for Week 2. Let's take a look at my to-do list for the upcoming 4 weeks.
Paint walls blackNew lights above table- Fix hole on the ceiling
- New sconces
- Large artwork over buffet
- New dining table
- New dining chairs
Vintage rug for under table- Accessories
- Mirror for room
- Style the room and photograph
At this point I haven't had any real set-backs. I have received the new dining chairs, the vintage rug, and the mirror for this room. Confirmation of the table being shipped has been received so that should arrive in time. I will hopefully be back next week with an update regarding the large piece of art I have planned for over the buffet. This art piece has several steps that must be done sequentially, including first having the canvas stretched onto a frame, then applying Art Resin over the stretched canvas, and finally framing the canvas with a floating wood frame. Fingers crossed that I don't totally ruin my art piece along the way! Make sure you come back tomorrow to check in on Tricia's progress in her master bedroom! And as always check out what the 20 amazing designers and over 200 (!) linking participants have accomplished this week!!
