Before And After Photos Of Our Bodacious Dining Room

 

I promised I would post before and after photos of our Big Bodacious Painting Project. The dining room is the first room we decided to tackle. It's a separate room off the kitchen. The walls and trim were white. I have an aversion for white or off-white walls. That wasn't always the case...

Before I explain, here is the other "before" photo of our dining room. 

In the spring of 1980, my parents bought a huge, old farmhouse. It was a 3 family home. We resided on the first floor which was huge. There were 2 small apartments upstairs. 

I was 7 years old. 

When tenants moved out, my parents thoroughly cleaned the apartment/s. My father put a fresh coat of paint on all of the walls and kitchen cupboards. It was always the same color...antique lace. A fancy name for off-white. 

Cleaning and painting the apartments was a family affair. I learned how to paint at a very young age. I was allowed to do the kitchen cupboards and then as I got older and more experienced, the walls and trim. 

I remember asking my father why he painted everything the same neutral color when there was so many other colors to choose from. He said, "It goes with everything."

As a young adult, on several occasions, I rented one of the apartments. Every room was the same color. 

Antique Lace.

I didn't start flirting with color until I was in my late 20's. I stepped out of the box. The days of settling for neutral colors was over. 

When we embarked on our Big Bodacious Painting Project back in May of 2018 in the home we rented for almost 6 years (at the time), we chose gorgeous pale colors for each room. Prior to painting, every room, all the trim, and the ceilings were painted all the same color. A very bland off-white. When we finished the painting project, we were overjoyed with finally having color.

We enjoyed the color for almost 2 more years before buying our house in February.

When we picked out the colors for the dining room last weekend, we opted for a gorgeous shade of green (Blanched Thyme) and a contrasting trim (Tea Light). 

The green is darker but it paris up amazingly well with the trim color. Those 2 colors were meant to be. We are completely in love with the colors. Both shades bring out the colors in our dining room decor. 

I made a few touchups yesterday while Lisa was at work. When the paint was dry, I put our dining room back together again. 

I couldn't stop looking at it. 

Lisa was just as impressed. 

We are so in love with these colors that we decided to do the same color theme for our kitchen. We're going to flip the colors. The trim and cupboards in the kitchen will be in the same shade as our dining room walls (Blanched Thyme). The walls in the kitchen will be the same color as the trim in the dining room (Tea Light). 

We'll make it work. 

The kitchen will not be the next room that gets color. Next week, I'll be painting our home office. We already have the gallon of paint for the walls and trim. 

It's another burst of color!

This weekend, we'll be clearing out the home office and prepping for the makeover. 

Lisa is going to build a platform for me to step on because I'm not tall enough to reach the top trim. We have a stepladder, but that kills my back, knees, and shins. 

I have no coordination and my middle name is not Grace.

I will keep you posted.

For now, it's time to take our kids out, prep dinner, and make some homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.