The Dining Room

One of the first rooms that we knew were going to have to put some love into when we bought our house was our dining room. This is what it looked like when we first laid eyes on it:

*Not Pictured: Half-bathroom painted in the same color. Ick. 

I literally gasped the first time I saw it. The pink was deafeningly loud. Everyone has their own tastes, for sure, but this was completely over the top.

Anyway, we bought the house in SPITE of this room, choosing to look past the color and see its potential. We were lucky enough to put in the contract that the previous owner re-paint these walls back to a white/gray before moving out, so when we moved in, it looked something close to this (I just took this photo a week ago, so imagine it without the new dining room table, rug, and other furniture):

While this was certainly an improvement from the "I'm Going To Throw Up Pink" color, it was definitely bland and we knew we wanted to spice it up. Also, that fancy fu-fu chandelier was definitely not jiving with our new rustic/modern solid wood table and chairs and that ceiling decoration was also really cramping our style.

I decided on a gray/blue color for the walls (Smoke, by Benjamin Moore), and was really excited that our new rug included a goldish color so I wouldn't have to paint the ceiling (Cha-Ching! Less work = more better). 

So, I grabbed the paint and other supplies, put on my Dance Party Pandora station, and Matt and I got to work removing all the furniture from the room and prepping. (Our foster dog, Athena, certainly didn't make that process any easier. Drop cloths are apparently VERY exciting to 8 month old puppies).

 

Then, the painting began. We got into a bit of a groove--I did the cutting in, and then Matt followed me with the roller. 

We made really quick progress and actually finished in under 2 hours. We were so excited to give ourselves the "big reveal" (I even forced him to look away and come with me to the front door without peeking to give ourselves the excitement factor), and we were.......underwhelmed. 

We couldn't figure out why, but something about it looked old and dowdy instead of fresh and modern like we were hoping. I knew that a change in light fixture and removing the ceiling medallion would help, but it still just didn't look right. I even tried putting back the rug that was supposed to tie the room together: 

But it didn't work. Something was still off. 

We stared at it for a good hour (at 11:30 PM) and then it hit us... 

The ceiling. 

The one factor that we hadn't put any thought into at all was ruining all our hard work. 

People. Hear me. If you ever paint a room, don't forget about the ceiling!! I had no idea what a huge difference it can make. 

Thankfully, the previous homeowner had left us the extra gray/white paint, and so (for free) we got BACK to work the next night re-painting the ceiling.

 

And once it was done, all was right with the world again. The dowdy, old-looking blue suddenly transformed into the crisp, clean, modern blue that we'd been going for all along. 

We then removed the awful ceiling medallion and installed our new, much more modern chandelier...

and..ta-da! The new dining room was (semi) complete!

There are still a few projects to be completed in here, but I think it's a huge improvement. Here's what it looks like now: 

*Yes, that is our extensive liquor collection in the corner. I promise we aren't alcoholics...

The "Year of the House" is officially in full swing. Can't wait to get going on our next project!

Naming the Year

You can call it introspective, reflective, and intentional, or you can call it lame and uninteresting, but each year that we have been married, Matt and I have labeled the year. And before you accuse me of forcing this on my husband, he's the one that came up with the idea. Here's how it's worked out so far:  

• 2010: The Year of the Marriage (Really creative...I know...We got married that year)
• 2011: The Lost Year (We really didn't have any friends that year, Matt was working mandatory overtime and hardcore into working on his MBA, and I was lonely after leaving college. We're pretty much glad that one is behind us)
• 2012: The Year of the Church (We found our current church and loved it)
• 2013: The Year of the Friend (We finally made friends around here and feel settled as a part of our community. It's a good feeling). 

 So. Usually, we don't name the year until it's over because you don't really know what will come at you that year, but this year we're doing something different and decided to pre-name the year. 2014 will be forever known as....(drumroll please).....

The Year of the House. 

We have so many projects, updates, decorating ideas, cleaning and organizational upgrades, etc. that we have been meaning to do but just have not had the time until now. With Matt finally done with school, we can focus on the house this year and make it our priority. 

We've started out with a bang---this past weekend (the first in 2014), we spent the whole thing cleaning the house from top to bottom and making a list of sorts of all the projects we hope to accomplish in the near future. We even bought supplies for some of them. Okay, if you must know, we didn't spend the WHOLE weekend cleaning. We also went out for Indian with friends, went to church, went for a run with friends, etc. But we cleaned. A LOT. And that's what I'm trying to say here. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to document some of our progress here. I can't wait to look back at the end of 2014 and see how far we've come! 

First project up: Dining Room Updates. Can't wait to share them---hopefully at the end of this week! 

Have you ever felt there were themes for different years or periods of your life? What are you hoping to accomplish in 2014? Let's rock and roll and get our goals done this year!