We have been asked ever so nicely to post some updated photos of our house. By special request here are some recent photos of our dining room.

Looking into our dining room from the kitchen.

Our built-in china cabinet.

Looking into the living room.

Looking into the dining room from our living room.

Another shot of our dining room taken from the living room. That is a rare glimpse of David’s cat, Milo. We call him the gray ghost because we can go for days without seeing him but find tufts of his gray fur left behind on our furniture.

On the right side of the picture, directly above the cat, you can see some sample paint colors we are testing out for the little hallway between the dining room and the kitchen. Yes, I’m at it again.

Built-in china cabinet before and after with Lulu.

The dining room was the first room completed in our house. This was before we started writing about our “adventures” in home restoration on the web. So, you don’t get to read all the gory details about how we almost killed each other selecting a paint color for the walls or how I caught the wainscoting on fire.

Dining room before restoration and after.

The woodwork was covered in about 18 layers of paint. We got to relive each decade as we stripped the paint away. There was a groovy 1970’s phase with purple woodwork and hot pink walls.

In the before photo, I had started to strip the paint from the wainscoting. You can see just how dark the original mission finish was.

I had originally intended to paint the dining room a deep burnt red color. We went through 9 different shades of red trying to find the “right” one. After the first 2 paint jobs, David “loved” everything no matter how awful it looked.

Before and After

In the end we settled on this warm golden color, Shelburne Buff from Benjamin Moore’s Historical Collection. Several people have tried this color after seeing our walls and been dissatisfied because the color wasn’t gold enough.

Dining Room After

When a wall is painted a dark color like red, it will need to be primed before a new color is applied or else the dark color will bleed through. Lots of people out there probably already know this, we didn’t. The red undercoat has altered our color. Our walls are not a true Shelburne Buff. But, we are very happy with the color, whatever it is.

Dining room After. The light is from Restoration Hardware. We have since purchased an antique fixture off of eBay, but have not installed it yet.

After. Our box beam ceilings and Lulu, just because she is a ham.