The House Renovation: Living & Dining Room

Honestly, these renovations were the most difficult ones we accomplished. They did take a while to do. But, I'm happy with the results.

DINING ROOM: BEFORE

 Looking into the Dining Room from the Kitchen area. Nasty carpet (it smelled like cat), dark green and blue grasscloth wallpaper, light pink wainscoating, and very interesting window treatments.

 

Close up of the wallpaper and window treatments. Pretty sure there were chickens or birds on the valances. It was strange. And, by strange, I really mean, it was a disaster.

 

 

Looking into the Kitchen from the Dining Room.

 

DINING ROOM: AFTER

 

New, simple window treatments, the grasscloth is gone. The wainscoating is white! We tore down that upper hutch, and it completely opened the room up. There is now a lot of light, and the space just feels huge. I love it.

Looking back toward the Kitchen and Game Room. It's almost like a Great Room, but they are still three distinct rooms.

 

 

LIVING ROOM: BEFORE

 

 

Dirty, blue fireplace, same nasty cat smelling carpet, ridiculous window treatments just like the Dining Room. It was a mess.

 

 

This built-in bookcase was a tough one to figure out what to do with it. Other than that, this room was pretty straightforward. There was only a small, although very ugly, border around it. So...

 

LIVING ROOM: AFTER

 

 

 

We painted the fireplace a normal color, like red; added a mantel (that my Dad also made); and, replaced the carpet with real bamboo wood floors. I figured out that the best way to deal with those funky shelves was to create a background that would distract from their oddness.

 

I just realized recently that I was painting these stripes when I was about 4 months pregnant with Logan. :)

 

New window treatments and some small bookcases made this a cozy little nook.

 

Because this room was so big, we decided to divide it up into an entertainment space and a seating space. So, this is the entertainment area.

 

Grand view.