Dining Room Before and Almost After & Kitchen Before...or...Maybe the Realtor was right!!!

Hi Y'all - It's me!

Have some dining room photos before, during and after the painting.  They aren't blog quality compared to the beautiful photography seen on other blogs, so bear with me.  We just shoved the furniture in the room and then shut down for the night.  Tomorrow we'll fluff and add the jewelry.  A few items will have to be painted to match the new, softer colors.  We started a few items in the kitchen, so will post those before photos as well. 



Dining Room Photos, Color and my need for it, Paint Colors for DR

 

Dining room before - and Runt.

You can surely tell from the first photo that I love color.  When I was growing up, most of the time our walls were white.  When I was young though, I had bubble gum pink walls and I loved them!  That room just seemed to surround me and take me in.  Not sure if I could live in a house with all white.  I think my emotions would shrivel and die.  I need color.

 I. Love. Red.  It may not be in style, or with the times, but I can't help it, I just love red!  This room took 2 coats of pink primer and 5 coats of red.  Only one person could paint, because two people don't paint the same and the different roller marks showed.  Even though R & J tried to help, I finally just gave in to the rollers and painted all five coats myself.  And I loved those red walls.  I think I'll miss them a little.  But it was time to move on. 

Dining Room Before East side

Dining Room Before West side,  Yum - this red is a cherry blue red - nothing orange about it.

When we moved in the room had wallpaper and a tile chair rail - all from the 80s. I had never seen a tiled chair rail before.  Peaches and creams.  For me, the red was a huge improvement!

One last before photo!  Love that red!  =)

I'm having the worst time with my photos.  They are all not staying rotated.  I've tried adjusting them in Picnik & Microsoft.  So maddening!

I'm going to skip the photos of the two coats of primer chaos and see if I can get one of the best after shots to load. Remember, it was dark out!

 So here is our more calm, more quiet dining room.  The colors aren't really true.  The floor is much lighter and the paint below is much more blue.  A smidge of the new paint can be seen in the entry hallway (replacing yellow) and that's really the correct color. 

The lower color is called "Light French Gray" by Behr.  But it looks really blue to me.  That's OK for me because I love blue!  I probably should have looked at the fan deck to see what colors were near it and selected a more gray color so that it would be more neutral for potential buyers but we love it! 

The top is a white called "Soft Pillow" by Behr.  On the sample that is put on the top of the can, Soft Pillow looks a bit pink.  But it looks white on the wall.  The sample dot of the Light French Gray looks gray on the can, so there you go.  You just really don't know until the paint is on the wall, do you?

Silly photo won't load properly!  Imaginations required!  Chaos during painting today! 
Plus, the gray color shows more blue here.  It's that natural light, I suppose.



I tried every which way to get the photo above to load properly.  The is how we worked - around furniture, around Noble darting in and out, around cats moseying by and swishing their tails in the paint.  But we got it done. 

Last night we painted what we call the sun room and that's where we live, watch TV and where Noble plays.  The bottom has white bead board so we got rid of the yellow above and painted it with the Light French Gray.  The bead board was left alone. 

If we finish the kitchen tomorrow, that will be three rooms in three days.  Our glutes are sore from going up and down the ladders! 

KITCHEN BEFORE PHOTOS

Ugly green tiles behind the cook top that I have lived with for 8 years. 

Why in the world didn't I do something about these tiles before now?  I guess that after seeing something day after day, I learned to over look them.  Maybe the realtor was right!  Maybe our home is/was a museum from the past.  This may be the proof!

A little hammer and a chisel and poof - the tiles are gone!  Pretty easy!  And I only gouged a couple of holes in the wall.  Drywall compound is next.

This is a kitchen before photo.  Who doesn't have a trash bag hanging off of a drawer knob?  If you will squint your eyes real tight, and look at the very back of the blurry photo, you can almost, sorta see what will be replacing the green tile and covering the wall between the counter tops and cabinets.  This area didn't have a back splash when we moved in, it was covered with wall paper.  Eeewww. 

For us, updating the bathrooms was the first necessity.  They were old, dreary, dark and depressing and had carpet.  Carpet in a bathroom does not work for us.  We are too messy!  I'm not sure if the next item on our "to do" list would have been the kitchen or new windows.  If it had been the kitchen,  I would have loved to have had travertine and granite.  But alas and alack, that was not meant to be.  So, the plastic panels are plan b.

The panels are actually plastic that look like tin and come from Lowe's. I think they will give the kitchen a little pizaaz and personality, because I admit, it is rather hum drum.  Lowe's has some panels in the store and with several different kinds available for special order.  One type is paintable.  (Fasade Kitchen Back Splash - Lowe's)  Hoping to get them up tomorrow.  The panels can be cut with scissors and can be attached with double sided tape or adhesive.  Lowe's also has end and corner pieces.  I can't wait to see the transformation.  The kitchen will also be painted Light French Gray. 

Rick will be home around eight.  He won't recognize the place! 

Have any of you used the panels from Lowe's before?  Did you like them?  Were they easy to install?  I'd love to have them on a ceiling.  Gorgeous!

Share your projects with us - you might give us an idea that we can use to spruce up this house so it will sell!

TTFN!