Coming in from the foyer brings you into the formal dining room. Cream wall paper, the brown carpet, a crystal chandelier and two large windows one on either side of the room. One thing was for certain, I wanted wainscoting. I chose the same bead board as the kitchen with a slimmer profile trim. A little more elegant.
I began to remove the layers of wallpaper, washed, plastered, sanded, primed and painted a wall at a time. I chose a soft paint colour that would also complement the grey in the kitchen. I had the wainscoting cut at lowes, purchased the trim and cut it with my mitre box and saw. I chose Benjamin Moore Gobi Desert 2110-50 for this room in a soft rose to go above the trim. The wainscoting was painted with the same Sherwin Williams QC 12 Snowbound SW 7004 used in the powder room, sunroom and kitchen. In only a couple weekends the walls were done and it would be time to decorate.
During the month of July 2016 before the house closed I did a Trade for a dining room table set. It came with 6 chairs. The wood was dark and the fabric on the chair seats was mismatched and ugly. Some chairs had two layers of fabric on them. I removed the chair bottoms and spent two days sanding the chairs and table legs down. I primed and painted them all white. Once that was complete I went to fabricland and purchased new green fabric and some new chair padding. It took about 3 hours to redo the chair seats. Once the chairs were dry I reattached the bottoms to the frames. The cost to redo the dining table was approximately $75. I reused the primer and paint from the kitchen and sunroom.
I went to the St. Jacobs antique market and found a heavy gold mirror that I instantly fell in love with. It was $70.00. Later on I went to Homesense and found floral oil painting that had the perfect colouring for the dining room. It was $39.00.
Over the months I’ve struggled with the overall look and feel in the dining room. I decided that the dining table I had was just not big enough for the space. I sourced some steel U shaped legs online made and shipped from a Canadian company and purchased the wood and hardware for the table top from The Home Depot. I sold the old table for $100.00 and used the money towards the new tables material. The legs with shipping came to $120.00 and the wood and hardware $30.00. I’ve kept the old chairs but will eventually change them out to a black wood frame chair. To darken the wood I used a coffee stain… it was an easy process but I’m not in love with the finish. In the summer I’m considering using a dark walnut stain and clear coat finish.
I realized the gold mirror just didn’t work in the room anymore having a more farmhouse style table. I purchased two oil paintings from Homesense and kept the one I liked best and returned the other (Take advantage of return policies – choose multiple items, try them out and return for a full refund) I do this a lot. Under the new painting is a homemade buffet. The wood is from a salvage yard in Trent Hills. The total cost was $70.00. They even cut it to size for me. I used steel piping for the legs and supports, they were about $55.00. I used black spray paint on the pipes, measured and mounted the hardware in about an hour. The decor on the buffet is a plant from my garden in a milk glass planter, vintage wood box from the Meyersberg Flea Market – $15, and off Amazon.ca I found some wine glass mounts for $18 – free shipping!
Just this afternoon I mounted a steel pipe curtain rod and some white curtains. The rod cost just under $20 for material and the curtains were $34.99 for the pair.
The total cost for the dining room is just under $700.00. And because I’ve been selling the items I’m not keeping the cost hasn’t been going up. This includes all primer, paint, wainscoting and supplies, decor and furniture. The only thing that will increase the budget will be the new farmhouse chairs but I will be selling the old ones to help with the cost.
My Country Farmhouse 