Shells

Dining Room Centerpiece Root Bowl with Shells

From the very beginning I had a vision for this room. Yes, it was a “formal” Dining Room and no, not many people use Dining Rooms anymore. But it is a designated room and I had hopes of hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas in our house when it was finished. If that time ever came!! Overwhelmingly I feel the need to clarify some things every time I begin to talk about our before and afters. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case there aren’t enough words to describe how utterly bizarre this house was. Some things you would have to see firsthand. And I so regret not taking more pictures, but for obvious reasons I didn’t. So, you see, even if the “before” picture looks fine, something a coat of paint would take care of, trust me, there’s more than meets the eye!!

For the Dining Room, a lot of the issues were resolved when we did whole house things. Like the major drywall repairs and the antique heart pine floors that could pretty much make any room gorgeous! But I would wait for what seemed like an eternity for those floors, so I had to do what I could while I waited!

First thing we did was remove the chair rail. I know what you are thinking, chair rail is nice. Yes, I love chair rail. But this unfortunately was made from exterior grade wood with lots of knots and the angles were all cockeyed. Also, in the back of my mind I was hoping to eventually install either board and batten or shiplap, which were both more in line with a beach house. I thought that the white plantation shutters would be a nice touch. And lighting, oh lighting makes the room. I searched high and low until I found this one at CHD Ineriors, just love it. A sisal area rug from Pottery Barn and a new Kincaid table and chairs to compliment the antique china hutch that my mom had passed along to us when they no longer had a space for it. Then it was just a matter of time for the floors and baseboards! Finally the room is complete! And yes! We hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and it was amazing having so much space.