Finished Dining Room

It's been a crazy year here with lots of projects getting done despite back surgery and pain issues for Handy Man.

The Dining Room today

The Dining Room four years ago

The latest project has been the Dining Room.  Sooooo many things needed fixing! The first step was removing the rusty old sliding door and putting in new French doors. We priced them at Home Depot, but at almost $10,000, Handyman decided to build them himself. About $3000 later (double pane glass, wood, special bits, weather stripping, hardware) they were done and installed.

Then we had to raise the floor to match the living room and install hardwood flooring.

And we raised the ceiling to match the living room, rewired everything, insulated, and replaced all the drywall.

Finishing the hardwood floor was way more difficult than we thought it would be, but eventually that was done too and we started with the actual decorating.

 

I literally took a piece of Grandma's china to the paint store to match to and came home with a red called "My Valentine". Next I found a fun fabric with elephants for an upholstered cornice above the French doors. I picked a taupey color called "Grizzly" from the fabric and used that below the chair rail.

I scored these cute elephant lamps on Amazon, and the chandelier and sideboard on Facebook marketplace. Rounding out the decor are items we've inherited: the brass ships clock, the Regency teachest, the ship pictures, art from a famous ancestor, and old pewter candlesticks.

    

 

 

We are quite happy with how the dining room is coming together - and just in time because we are hosting parties on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Not that a tacky room would prevent us from having a party; we had parties last year when the dining room looked like this because getting together is more important than the state of your decor.