Picture Frame Wainscotting in Dining Room

Decorating, for me, is a long process. I always have to live in a space and see how it works and find things slowly, and keep adding layers to my decorating. Nothing is done like those TV shows that have it done in 2 days (or so we are led to believe...). That would be nice sometimes, but then it would not reflect me and my family. Afterall, it is our home and should reflect the personalities of those who live here.

The before picture was taken the day we moved in over 8 years ago. The only thing that has not changed is the wall paint and the chair rail/baseboard. Here it is below.



What an awful, boring photo. Sorry about that! Here is a breakdown of what we I did!

1. Paint decorative treatment around step up tray ceiling (is that what you call it?) You can see it in the photos below.

2. Replace light fixture. I don't think I realized the power of spray paint back then and could have sprayed this awful gold chandelier. However, it would not have stayed in the dining room. The scale of it was all wrong. See how small it is? It is not a large space but has tall ceilings and the light was just swallowed up in the room.

3. Replace window covering. While I did like the texture of the one left behind it covered up the curve at the top of the window. I love this little detail and did not want a shade/blind and/or drapes to cover it up.

4. Make some drapes. I made these almost 8 years ago and still love them. They have a lining which has saved them from the beating of the western sun that comes in these windows every afternoon.

5. We replaced the peel and stick parquet floor you see in the before pictures. We lived with it for 5 years before we replaced it (and a lot of carpet) with engineered wood floors. We did hire this out as it was not a job I had any interest in doing. That decision alone changed the look of our home and we love how they look and feel.

6. The last project done over a year ago, was to add the wainscotting to the walls. It did not look bad without it, but once it was done it looked so much better!

The photo below shows before I caulked. See, how it does not totally line up? Well, a little sanding and a little caulk hide everything! I did paint one coat on all the wainscott pieces before I cut and installed.



This is a corner shot before caulk and final paint coat.


Before starting I had to decide the spacing of my "frames". I decided that I wanted 3" all around my frames. I had several walls to contend with and based on that and the number of frames I wanted on that wall, the actual frame sizes would be different, but the constant would be 3" of space all around.

I did break this rule on one wall where the wall had a bend (not a corner). I thought it would look funny with the 3" of space there and chose to do 6" on either end. That photo is below.




Did you catch a glimpse of the kitchen through the opening? Those oak cabinets are no more! They are glorious white cabinets now! I don't know why I waited so long, I should have done it LONG ago. You can also see a tiny sliver of the island that is off white. That got a facelift with new moulding all around and a new paint job.




Thank you so much for visiting. Have a great day!


I'm linking to:
Savy Southern Style

Metamorphosis Monday
Sawdust Girl