The Original (to us) Dining Room

Before we purchased BHH, the dining room looked like this (Realtor Photo):

During our real estate tour, the first thing we saw was the stunning chandelier. The next thing we noticed was that the dining room was green. So green.

After we closed the deal and received the keys, I removed the drapes before we even set a box inside the front door. The drapes were clearly custom-made to match the wallpaper. They were skillfully sewn and securely hung. The room was meticulously decorated, but according to recent information from our exterior painter, that was forty years ago.

After a couple of months, we placed some pictures and pottery on the shelves and the dining room looked like this: 

It was an improvement but still not our style.

Right around this time, the wallpaper started peeling off the walls. A large chunk fell off by the heater vent, and sheets curled at the edges around the chimney.  As we do with many cosmetic issues around BHH, we pretended that it was not happening. Andy and I had no intention of leaving this room untouched, but until the wallpaper started falling off the walls, it was in pretty decent condition, AKA not a priority. We did a fine job of ignoring it for quite some time.

Earlier This Year

In January, we rented a wallpaper steamer to remove the paper in M’s bedroom. The work in that bedroom did not take long, so Andy tackled the dining room wallpaper at the same time.

Since this was an add-on, spur-of-the-moment project, we had no vision for the finished room. However, we knew that we wanted to remove the heavy wood valances above the windows. That became my project.

Wood valances were all the rage in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the dining room, they covered up the original window casings and rosettes. As a result, the woodwork looked heavy vs. clean and classic.

The valances above the small windows were easy to remove. The long valance on top of the leaded glass windows was more challenging. There was a bank of fluorescent lights across the top. Removing the valance meant that we had to remove the lights and deal with the electrical issue.

Fortunately, the lights were simply a line of fluorescent fixtures tethered together and plugged into a regular outlet at one end. I unplugged the lights and removed them carefully.

Using a wedge and a hammer, I pried off each piece of trim individually so I would not damage the original woodwork or surrounding plaster.

Andy nearly caught up to me.

Those windows. Right?

As I removed the fancy molding pieces, I worked my way back to the outlet which I left intact. The outlet rested on a piece of wood from the valance. (Check out that blue wallpaper under the green! I am sure it was lovely in its time.)

I keep a running list of small projects that we need to hire out due to lack of time or skill. Terminating the electricity to the outlet and removing it went on that list.

At the end of the day, we had a mess but no more wallpaper or wood valances. Goodbye, 1980s. Welcome back, 1880s.

We walked away from the dining room project with no regrets but no plans either.

End of Summer

Directly after the kitchen was finished, Andy and I looked at each other and said, “Let’s finish the dining room.” It is not that we are unable to sit back and appreciate what we have. Believe me, we do. However, arguably one of the most beautiful rooms in BHH, the dining room was in a pitiful state. For five months, due to the kitchen renovation, it served as storage for construction supplies and a temporary kitchen.

It was time to make it beautiful again.

Next week, I will tell you more about our plans. Since 2016 was the year of the kitchen and exterior painting,  our budget for this room is bare bones. We will have to be very creative to pull this off.