It’s impossible to stay on top of all the featured designers and guest participants, but click on the image below to go to the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE headquarters where all participants link in once a week for the next six weeks. Pick some favorites and follow along. There is a lot of talent and drama out there.
TREPIDATION
With some trepidation, here I am six months later, still trying to renovate the dining room. For those of you who don’t remember, I attempted to address the dining room last Spring with the SPRING 2018 ORC and ended up putting this project on hold. A trip to San Francisco, the twins’ birthdays, illness, and a major hitch lead us down a dark path of incompletion. The major hitch being that we decided to redo the ceiling rather than paint over the nasty asbestos tiles. I was trying to do a quick fix and my husband Shiloh got me to slow down and take the time to do it right. I really had no idea what we were getting into.
RECAP
Here is a quick recap of our storied dining room. When we moved into the house the dining room was a deep orange and has remained that way for over a decade. You know why? Twins. Charlotte and Arthur came along and needless to say, the dining room had to stay that way for awhile.
When we first moved in, we found the brass light fixture at THE REBUILDING CENTER in Portland. it was supposed to be a $40 temporary fix. I have banged my head on that solid brass fixtures more times than I can count. I relished carrying it to the curb this Summer where it was promptly claimed by some poor innocent passerby who has no idea how hard that thing is when you walk into it.
The curtains will also be replaced.
The chairs will be reupholstered.
MOUNTAIN WHITE
To get rid of the orange, I did a few base coats in MOUNTAIN WHITE by METRO PAINT which is my go to white. I’ve used it all over the house – in my office, in the upstairs hallway. Its recycled, quality paint that is extremely affordable ($40 dollars or so for a 5 gallon tub) and it is a beautiful white for bluish Portland light.
See the ugly ceiling? It looked even worse after the white went up. That’s when we decided we couldn’t bare to look at it every evening over dinner. It would bother us. We’d ask, why didn’t we replace it when we had the chance??? 
THE DEMO
This is the ceiling without the wooden trim covering the seams.
Then he cut into the ceiling to replace old wires and add new ones for the wifi and smoke detector.
Then he bought dry wall to install over the tiles since we were only going to lose 1/2 inch if we took them down and that would have been a nightmare.
He had to build these wooden braces to hold up the dry wall during installation.
And there’s this lovely grate that my father in law and a few others have fallen through when a chair leg finds its way into the holes.
So, 6 months later, clean slate.White walls, white ceiling. Let the fun begin.
INSPIRATION
The room that remains an inspiration is this room by San Francisco ABH Interiors:
I love the soft gray walls with the darker wooden tones and of course this incredible mural by GRACIE STUDIO. We plan to do an accent wall but with a more northwestern vibe. I like the lightness of the room with the warm sepia, aqua and white tones.
Swallows are a thing in Portland. And this John Derian Chimney Swallows Dawn Wallpaper available through Designers Guild is pretty wonderful:
So is this serene cloud wall by A NEWALL:
SO, the walls are where I am headed next.
Thanks for following along! I’d love to hear from you as we go along here…
