Home Remodel: Dining Room
So technically when I bought this house my “dining room” was a bedroom. There was a homemade closet in there, but it was built super shitty, and the room is tiny. I couldn’t even figure out how a bed would fit in there, so I knew immediately upon viewing the house that that room was dying to be a dining room. Plus the kitchen was super small, and there was no other space to eat, so it made sense to me.
There were two big roadblocks in this room. First, there were millions of layers of wallpaper. Ok millions is an exaggeration, but there were definitely eight. Eight layers! It literally took me a week to peel all that shit off. There were many times I was ready to throw in the towel, especially when my body basically seized up for a few days and I couldn’t move because of all the scraping I was doing at weird angles. I persevered though, and as with the living room, once all the paper was down, there was lots of scrubbing to be done. The scrubbing was very satisfying because you could see immediate results. This room also got a skim coat to cover all the cracks and blemishes.
Once that was all done, I painted everything black. My mom, interior designer that she is, had the brilliant idea to paint the trim work a glossy black to contrast with the matte black walls, and I’m so glad she suggested it.
The second big issue we ran into was the floor. That stupid tiny closet was built on top of carpet, but they later covered the carpet with laminate. When the closet came out, there was like a 2 foot by 2 foot square in the corner that had this hideous 70s burnt orange and yellow carpet, and the rest was a blonde wood laminate. I scoured the city for a match, but it was impossible, and no longer exists. After months of trying to figure that problem out, it became clear that I’d just have to replace the entire floor. Dumb. Turns out there were like 8 different layers of vinyl, carpet, laminate, etc. as well. Since I had to re-do the entire floor, instead of sticking with the blonde wood color, I tried to match the laminate in my living room, and think it turned out pretty well.
Just as with the living room, I abhorred the mini blinds in here, so I decided to make some dramatic curtains - I mean, the room’s already black, which is pretty dramatic, so why not? The art I decided to hang in there just happened to follow a pretty primary color palette, so I decided to embrace that. There’s a Spanish artist, Joan Miró, that I like, and he happens to stick to a primary color palette. He also happens to make abstract art that is full of random shapes and lines, and pretty easy to replicate (not that I’m anywhere near Miró as an artist, just that I was at least willing to try his style). I also love any reason to bring my Spanish roots into my home, so away I went. I have to say, though it took MUCH longer than I anticipated, it was so fun painting these curtains! I felt so creative and free with it, and love how they turned out. These are definitely not for everyone, but I guess that’s my point with all this; they’re mine. I also added some fun little pompom trim around the edges because again, why the hell not?
My mom had the dining room set for staging, and she convinced me to take the mid-century modern china hutch. It was pretty hideous when she gave it to me, with these dated wooden legs, and plastic handles, but I painted the whole thing, bought new hardware, and gave it new hairpin legs. I’m a fan now. I wish I had taken a before picture, but alas, I did not.
The fun star clock was from my mom’s consignment store; the poster is a photo I took on a trip with my friend Montse in Spain and then blew up; all the art is either from street artists on trips I took, painted by friends (Camino de Santiago painting by my talented friend, and fellow peregrino, Shawn), painted by my mom, or gifted to me (like the amazing portrait of Mischa my brother made me in Photoshop!). And then my brother and sister-in-law bought me the light fixture off of Amazon.
I still haven’t fully decided what to do with the ceiling. I definitely don’t want it just white, but I’m not loving the design I put up either (I’ve already changed it twice - it’s just electrical tape and washi tape), so I’ll keep playing with it. I also think the built in mirror is a bit strange, but quirky is what made me fall in love with this house, so I kept it - cut out wood trim and all.
This room has been my multi-purpose space - sewing room, crafting studio, online teaching classroom - so I’m really excited to finally have it be fully a dining room, with the completion of my shed…a post for another day.
