Dining Room and a SURPRISE...

Hey Y'all,

It has been an excruciatingly long time since we have been in touch; which of course means that we have been super busy living exciting lives.....haha, yeah right. It actually means that we have been busy working on the house and continuing to truly make it feel like our home.  Most of the work has been to the outside of the home and with landscaping however, we did recently compete one big DIY goal and vision that I have had since the home planning stages. Over the past couple of weekends, my family has been up frequently, assisting Adam and I in making my dream dining room a reality.

To refresh your memory, the dining room has been a lovely coral since the initial painting during construction. I have received some love for this color but even more skepticism. I kept reminding Adam of my big plans for this room but he remained very hesitantly on board telling me, "I just need to see it completed."

Well, it is complete (except for some needed additional furniture pieces and decor) and I think he has finally realized my vision. We started with the chair rail and then wainscoting trim on all walls above and below the rail. Between taping everything out to get a visual and plan (thanks mom), return trips to Home Depot for additional materials, and trying to tap into my past geometry lessons to master the miter saw (I failed, my dad saved the day... thanks dad!), we were able to complete this part of the project in two weekends.

We placed the chair rail 36" from the ground (there are tons of "standard heights" for this but I just picked what I thought looked best - 1/3 of the height of the wall).  We used quarter round molding for the wall panels and started them 4" above the rail and 4" below the rail. They all came 2.5" off the edge of the wall and 13" down from the top of the wall (to be in line with the top of the openings on each wall).  I have seen other tutorials that make all the panels the same size on all walls but I was more interested in making sure the spacing was uniform. This of course made for more work but hey, go big or go home right?

chair rail and trim complete

wall ready for fabric panels

The next step was to apply the fabric panels to the wall. I always love my ideas but seem to aim high when I go for a new DIY.  This fabric was pictured on a chair in one of my favorite rooms of all time from a past Southern Living magazine. When I first say it, I knew immediately that I wanted it incorporated into my home. Of course, it is made up of horizontal and vertical lines, making it almost impossible to get perfectly straight on the wall (especially for first timers like my mom and me). I think we did a pretty good job though. We started with the middle panel (not sure why we thought that was a good idea), and quickly realized that we would need to paint the wall panels white so that the coral did not show through.

fabric and molding up, now to trim the fabric

After the paint dried, we were ready to try again. Unfortunately, applying an already starched fabric panel for a second time is not as forgiving. Once that one was up, the other two went pretty smoothly. We used a liquid starch and rolled it on the wall with a paint foam roller. We then applied the fabric starting in the top corner and slowly moving across then down. They key for this pattern fabric was to find one reference point and try to make the lines straight around that point. Fortunately, we were using linen so there was some stretch and give in the fabric for straightening. Once the fabric was up, we rolled on another layer of the starch then allowed it to dry. I definitely recommend having two people for this project. The molding around the panels was then applied and my dad used a razor knife to trim off the excess fabric. Caulk was applied to the nail holes and seams, curtains were hung, and voila, my dream dining room!

I will be adding an antique buffet and decor to this wall once I find the right depth :)

 We still need to paint the molding to hide the caulk and add some furniture and decor of course but I think it is safe to say this was another successful DIY! Next up............

THE NURSERY!!!

 
Thanks to our friend Jen for taking these amazing pics (and to her husband Josh for getting Tanning to look like a calendar dog)!

   

SURPRISE!!!! Adam, Tannin (yes, we got a puppy in February), and I are excited to announce that we will be adding a fourth member to our happy little family! Stay tune for more updates on what this past 10 months of life and homeownership have entailed for us.....