When we moved in to our house I knew pretty early on that the dining room was one of my favorite spots in the house. I love the bay window, the wainscoting detail and the sconces on the walls. I didn't have an immediate plan, but knew that I would want to tackle the dark khaki wallpaper sooner than later.
Luckily, once we were all moved in, our dining room furniture from our previous house fit perfectly in the room and we immediately replaced the overhead light fixture with one that we brought with us from Orlando. That helped with a quick fix, but the thick, dark, textured khaki wallpaper was on my to-do list...and close to the top. I originally had plans to remove it and just paint the walls white or a light gray to make the space feel more open and airy.
That plan quickly changed when we started peeling back the wallpaper. Not only was there one layer of old wallpaper, but there were two. MY WORST NIGHTMARE.
My mom was visiting at the time and we started to come up with our plan of attack.
We had the handheld scorer and chemical spray on wallpaper remover that we tried first. That didn't work.
We had a big industrial size wallpaper steamer that we tried next. That really didn't work either, and it leaked all over.
We even tried using the handheld clothing steamer, which worked the best out of all three options. But it still didn't work well.
Even the little bit that we were getting off was taking the drywall off with it. We did this little section and it took us about 4 hours. Talk about a bummer.
After talking it over, we had a few options:
1. Hire a professional.
2. Rip it all off, pull out our hair because it would take years and then replace all the drywall.
3. Leave the wallpaper and nail faux shiplap on top of it.
Ding, ding, ding...we had a winner!!!! Since it was my little brain child I was on board right away. Mike took a little bit longer to convince, but eventually after weighing the pros/cons and pricing it out, shiplap won. (YAY, YAY, YAY!).
I found a tutorial from Young House Love (my go-to DIY website), Mike found a decent table saw from Facebook Marketplace and the rest is history. We got sanded underlayment plywood from Home Depot and had them cut to 5ft, 4ft and 3 ft. sections so that we were able to fit them in our car.
Once we were ready to start we ripped the sections into 6 inch planks and off we went. We decided on what pattern we wanted, used pennies as the spacers and nailed the planks right into the studs.
After lots of stud finding, lots of cuts and lots of measuring...it was all up and ready to be primed and painted. That's always my job. *In real time, it took about 3 weeks to get all of the wood up since we really only had weekends to work on it for any long periods of time.
To paint the planks, I used a roller and then had a toothpick handy to wipe and excess between the planks before it dried. After the primer we decided where we wanted to caulk (game changer - always makes our projects look so much more finished). Mike caulked and then I did a final coat of the Extra White.
Needless to say, it was love at first sight. The room immediately looked so fresh and clean and updated.
For the finishes, I knew I wanted something simple for the sconces. I was thinking brass and black and upon looking around on the internet I found one at Home Depot that was about half of the price of others (or more) and looked very clean and modern.
I loved the price, but also loved that you could install it to face up or down. We actually installed ours facing up and it tied into the black finish and spherical shape of our overhead light fixture very well.
After it was all put together I started looking for the last of the finishing touches. One day, while looking through Instagram I found an inspiration picture (@betterhomesandgardens) that just screamed out at me.
The room had a bay window, white walls, a table similar to ours, end chairs that were different from the side chairs, bold curtains and THE RUG.
I knew immediately that the rug, or something similar, was THE ONE. Loved it and knew it would tie the whole room together.
I also found some amazing bold curtains that I almost ordered, but something kept holding me back. Then I realized that I would cover up so much of the bay window if had curtains in the room, so I didn't order them for the dining room, but I did end up ordering them for our new playroom/study area. I can't wait to see them up!
The rug however, did get ordered (thanks mom)...and it does tie the room together. It's a neutral "pop" (if there is such a thing) and it is amazing.
***TIP: I would recommend if you have any bold carpet, curtains, prints going on in rooms that flow into each other, make a collage of them all together just to see if they "work". I did a few before I committed on any one thing.
Even though I'm not using the drapes in the dining room, the study is open to the dining room and entryway as well, so I know now that they will work in that room, too.
I love the look of the runner and the dining room rug. It all flows and looks so fresh. Remember, everything doesn't have to match...it has to go together (the best advice ever from the show What Not to Wear).
What new wall treatment have you tried lately???
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