The house was built in 1931. When we bought it in 2005, we were only the third owners. The previous owners had lived here for 54 years and had not updated the decor in several decades. Every wall and ceiling in the house had been wallpapered when the house was built, and this paper was painted over some time during the previous owners' tenure.
To restore the house and update the interiors, we needed to strip off the paint and paper and address the significant cracks in the plaster. This multi-step process included scraping followed by steaming, a chemical scrub, professional plaster repair, and sanding before the walls could be primed and painted.
In this room, we used an oil-based primer to seal in any remaining residue from the wallpaper, then a tinted latex primer as a base coat for the dark wall paint. We chose the colors for the room to coordinate with the large piece of art, which we already owned. We wanted the dark wall paint to be lightened by the gold ceiling color. The trim was originally a very dingy white. To complement the tone of the room, we chose a dark cherry-brown paint for the trim. Before painting, the trim was either stripped entirely with a heat gun or sanded to smoothness, depending on its original condition. The trim was primed with a dark tinted latex primer and then painted.
Our priorities for the furniture were the overall look of the table and the comfort of the chairs. We tried out countless leather chairs before custom ordering these based on leather color and seat depth. We removed the valances and wood blinds to lighten the windows and add height, and we chose gold-colored drapery to pick up the color of the ceiling and lighten the room. The sconces and wiring were professionally installed and the original chandelier replaced.
Time: 100 hours (not including shopping, paint samples, etc. -- labor only)
Plaster repair: $800
Electrical: $500
Sources-
• Lighting: $650 Hampton Bay
• Table: $700 Storehouse Furniture
• Chairs: 8 x $200 leatherchairstore.com
• Teak Wine Box: $500, Dovetail Furniture, Culver City, CA
• Art: $4000 (I can't find the artist's name! We had to have the painting repaired, and the restoration place covered up the back of the canvas, where the name was written)
• Drapes: 4 x $175 thesilkdraperycompany.com (Fabric: Madison Pineapple)
• Sheers: 4 x $59 Pottery Barn sheer linen drapes in ivory
• Hardware: $350 Pottery Barn
• Paint: Walls Pratt & Lambert Manchester Red; Ceiling Pratt & Lambert Sunlit Mesa; Trim: Ralph Lauren Mahogany
Whew, that's a lot of work! Thanks for sharing, guys. Nicely done!
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Beautiful! Your hard work really shows!
wow your windows are awesome!
great job!
Dramatic change!... just add a plant! (a big one).
Nice work!.
Great job! So warm and elegant.
Wow, SO impressed that you did all that wallpaper removal yourself. The finished product looks great. I love the wall color and am impressed with the boldness of the ceiling color.
Love Sadie!
Wallpaper on the ceiling?!
Love it.
The room looks so much warmer and more inviting now. Nicely done!
as someone who is currently de-wallpapering an entire house...i would like to award these people a big gold star! the room looks fantastic, never thought i would like gold curtains but i am a changed woman.
@jess13 DITTO! this is now so warm and inviting.
i guess i am old fashioned...i actually like the
'before' dining room better. just seems to have more characters while the 2nd one seems abit too generic for me.
I actually prefer the "before" as well (though I'd still make a few changes to it). Congrats on getting the wallpaper off and walls fixed, though- we went through some of that in our apartment after a flood. What a nightmare!
P.S. Forgot to mention that I do love all the new lighting fixtures, though!
Umm...yak. Read the text first and was pretty excited about the project. Removing the wallpaper and cleaning up the trim was a great improvement. The painting was a great source for inspiration and the paint and such sounded really great but in the end I was less than delighted. Glad you're pleased with the result cuz that's what really counts.
The art is awesome, but the room seems muddied by colors and textures that are too similar. Patterned drapes (without sheers)would look great if they were hung much wider than those beautiful windows (the sconces were installed a little too close, but there are ways to get around that). Also, a few reflective elements (glass, mirror) might add light to the room.
I'm in shock that this transformation cost over $10k. Four zeros!! Should have been three, tops. Seriously shocked.
I have scraped a LOT of walllpaper (some of it really old gunky stuff like you were doing) and it's such a hard and messy job! It feels great to see it when it's all done - congrats on all your hard work and making your house your own!
Wow, what kind of dog is Sadie?!
Once you smell old wallpaper removed, that smell never leaves you. I did it three houses ago and I smelled it again while reading the article. . . .ewwwwwwwwww.
Please please please hang that artwork rather than leaving it on the floor. It's an accident waiting to happen.
I prefer the before over the after too. Before it looked light and peaceful but the after looks more dark and heavy. As long as they're happy with it, that's all that matters.
I love your vintage steel casement windows – really beautiful. Thanks also for including your cost information; that was brave and I think a lot of people don’t really understand how much things cost (like when they’re reading “Elle Décor” and not realizing that lovely little antique table cost $3,000, or that NYC apartment cost a cool $1M+ to renovate). Truly, the rich are different. And unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
@HouseBee: Most of the costs were for furnishings and art, so I’m not really sure you can validly criticize those personal choices. Of course they could have bought every stick of furniture from craigslist and hung some posters, but they made other choices. Now, if you simply don’t like the furnishings they chose, that’s fine too, but that is a different issue altogether. You’re just ragging about how much money was spent without any clear point.
@housebee
Indeed, if you subtract the art, it is three 0s....
I also prefer the first, but largely because it's inoffensive; the new owners have a style that doesn't appeal to me, but why should it. The room looks very cohesive. Congrats on your house and the work you've put into it so far!
I am shocked that someone paid $4K for that piece of art. Granted art is a very personal thing, but ick. $4000, really?
I think this is one of those rooms where the pictures don't do it justice. I'll bet the golden warmth of those lights reflecting from that ceiling is something you have to be in the room, experiencing first hand, to see. :)
I would suggest more art work -especially next to the sconces -and I'd try white (or light colored) plates instead of dark ones. :)
Maybe golden plates? Or white and gold?
@paperkite You are so right. The pictures don't do it justice! I've sat in this room during several small dinner parties, and it's a warm and lovely experience. The lights sparkle, and the dark color creates an intimate and inviting space to linger.
Also, for those who asked, Sadie is a great dane. :)
Always glad to see these come with a detailed budget writeup. That makes the entire project so much usable as a reference point when tackling my own plans.
The full length curtains, the new chairs, the silver lights, the warm wall colour... all wonderful.
I do think the valances should have stayed, or something else that made up for the lack of cornices. The unfinished look at the top of the walls spoils the luxury lower down.
As for the painting that inspired the scheme - I'm with stinkypants. Words can't express how much I hate it.