Dining Room Makeover
It’s been a little while since I’ve written. I wish I could say it’s because I’ve been busy crafting the next great American novel, hanging out in Kathmandu waiting to lead an Everest expedition, or en route to Hawaii for an Ironman competition. No…none of those things are happening. Shocking, I know. No…I’ve gotten sucked into the show Blacklist and I just can’t tear myself away from Hulu. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve gotten sucked into Blacklist AND I’ve been working on painting the dining room.
Since I haven’t shared anything about our dining room, here’s a little tour of the space pre-painting and makeover-ing.
We have most of our major pieces for the space, it just needs fresh paint, fine-tuning, and a little fluffing. The table is the same table from our old home just with two table leaves in it to fill out the space, I’ll share more about the massive hutch, but first, a moment to discuss that buffet.
It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and I was out and about looking for a buffet to serve drinks and dessert on for the family dinner. I came across this style buffet at an antique store in Burlington (the same exact one I have here but painted white) for $600 and fell in love. If I had $600 to spare I would have dropped it right there and brought it home. But alas I’m thrifty. So off to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore where I found the same exact buffet (minus the white paint) for $80…but due to a store-wide furniture sale ended up being $60. Score! So I loaded it in the back of the truck, patted myself on the back for tying it down with ratchet straps all by myself (why are those so hard?!), and trucked it back home.
I love the buffet but there’s a good chance I’m painting it a color since there’s already so much wood in the room and I’d like to break it up. Right now my mom is yelling at me from 472.1 miles away that it’s sacrilegious to paint wood so hear me out. It’s missing chunks of wood and needs some repair work, the wood desperately needs refinishing anyway, so I’m painting it for now but if I decide to strip and refinish it later, I will.
Speaking of painting, did you notice the color difference between the two doors in the above picture? I’ve started painting. And spoiler alert…I finished painting all four doors, three windows, trim, ceiling, and walls this weekend. But until I photograph the afters, here’s a lovely before closeup of the old paint.
Here’s a shot of the room from the other side (#hellofromtheotherside), where you can see the old built-in shelves that we removed just before Christmas to make room for tree number two. I have a bar cart/plant stand project planned for that nook later.
And a closeup of said shelves.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the hutch. Painting the hutch is nonnegotiable, hence the painting plan for the buffet, and here’s why. It’s a family piece with a story. Colby’s uncle built it for his grandmother back when she had the old, family home (a Vermont farmhouse). When she moved into a smaller, more manageable space, the hutch no longer fit in her home so back it went to Colby’s uncle’s house where it’s lived for the past 25 years.
We were showing off pictures of our house just before closing at a family gathering and Colby’s aunt and uncle, owners of said hutch, started asking suspicious questions. How big is your dining room? Do you have a big wall? How tall are the ceilings? You could see the wheels spinning. They were itching to remove the hutch from their home (it was a bit big for their space) and pawn it off graciously give it to us. After closing, I don’t think we had even moved our bed into the house and they were here dropping it off and helping us secure it to the wall in the dining room (and I was shamelessly unpacking family china to fill the hutch before even unpacking my underwear). It fits like a glove in here and I can’t imagine our dining room without this piece. It’s gorgeous and makes for such great storage.
I happen to love china and collect a few vintage patterns. China is my weakness at thrift stores. On top of that, I also have a set of flow blue antique dishes and king’s crown ruby glassware that used to belong to my grandmother. They’re some of my most prized possessions. I had a dream the other night that a comet was about to hit our house and we had five minutes to get out. I saved the china (after Goose and Colby were safe of course). For now, I’ve tucked the collections in the base of the hutch along with some of our wedding china.
I’ll be back later this week with a dining room game plan along with showing you the results of this weekend’s painting finishing touches. Spoiler alert…there was a bit of wall color indecision since I haven’t nailed down a rug for the space. After a great amount of paint debate, I went with Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. When in doubt, I tend to paint things white.
Oh goodness, I love your house and your collection of old things! Also, huge fan of Blacklist here. Can’t stop. Won’t stop!
YES! So excited to find a fellow Blacklist-er. I keep telling co-workers about it and they’re like, “Black what???”.
That hutch is gorgeous and a such a rich color.
Random question but how comfortable is your home in the winter? I think I saw an air duct and not any radiators, and also noticed you have sheer curtains. Just wondering what heating is like an older house like that. I have a 150 yr old fieldstone house and it gets drafty. I’ve had the basement spray foamed and insulated the attic, and generally the house performs great in the summer, but damn does can it get really cold in winter. We have forced air heat, but we need space heaters in some rooms.
Thanks Kelly! Per your question about warmth in winter, our first floor is pretty warm. Other than one room, we have forced hot air ducts in the whole thing and stays pretty toasty. Upstairs, however, SO COLD! There’s only one air duct on the whole second floor plus it’s super drafty. We weren’t really thinking about winter when buying the curtains. I’m definitely rethinking the sheers and some heavy velvet curtains are calling my name. And we totally have to use space heaters too. You’re not alone there!