dining room transformation

When painting a room it is always a struggle to pick the right color - as seen here! But once that is done it is pretty much smooth sailing...most of the time. :) After the ease of painting the living room I decided I was ready to tackle our dining room. 

pre-move in from HAR

I knew I didn't want to paint it all one color so I started looking into wainscoting. 

I knew I wanted it to be white....

it to be chair rail height...

above photos all from Pinterest
...and for the walls above to be gray. 

After looking at a few how-to sites I just went for it - I measured the ceiling height (8' or 96") and divided it by 3 (2.7' or 32") and that is where I taped for the bottom half or really bottom third. (After reading the sites I totally thought this would be too low, but it isn't! Its a great way to decipher where to put the rail and I am so glad that I followed this rule of thumb.) I knew I didn't want to use the panels so I just went ahead and painted the bottom third white including the baseboards.

Next up was the crown molding...this part almost put me over the edge. I had to do FIVE coats of paint to get it to the bright white I wanted. It took FOREVER and a few nights. Oh and then once I taped it to paint the gray it peeled off and I had to paint it again...good times.

Then it was onto the fun part!...the Gray...I chose three colors to pick from - BM Kendall Charcoal, SW Dovetail, and SW Mindful Gray. I wanted it to be darker than the living room and lighter than the kitchen so Kendall Charcoal was immediately out and I thought Mindful Gray looked too much like the living room so we went with Dovetail. It is still a little darker than what I originally wanted, but I still love it's contrast with the white! 

The paint is not totally dry here so it looks a little sloppy. :)

Next we added the chair rail...

and the finished product...

We are so so happy with how it turned out! A little on the darker side, but it adds so much more character and interest to the room! I love it :) I plan to put a white plate collection on the blank wall above...to be continued...

Have a great week!