Rent This House! Dining Room re-do

Oh, how I wish we were not moving to DC.  For several reasons, but this new dining room makes it even harder to pack up and move!

Dining room before

Dining Room after

Another view

So, to go from stuffy Victorian dining room to fresh, airy beach dining room, we had to paint over wallpaper.  Yeah, I know.  It's not the best solution according to...everyone. BUT, we are moving FAST, and pulling wallpaper is very time consuming.  It turns out that painting over the wallpaper is an ok solution if the paper is very securely fastened to the wall, which this was.  It's just UGLY.  And has no alibi.

First, I peeled off all little tears in the wallpaper and sanded off any loose edges.  Then, I took a damp sponge and wiped all the walls down, but then decided to sand the walls down to give the primer something to adhere to.  Not sure if I should have done that, but Mr. Move-a-lot suggested it, so there you go.  I then got Kilz oil-based primer and gave it two good coats.  I didn't worry about taping TOO much, only around the gorgeous crown molding on top, because I have to encapsulate all of the door and window casings anyway during the de-leading process (I'll post about that at some point). The oil based primer smells pretty horrible, so I taped myself into the room and used a homemade air scrubber that Mr. Move-a-lot built to push most of that stinky air out of the window (and away from Baby Move-a-lot) which helped a lot.  One the walls were good and primed, I put two coats of Soft Sage, by Glidden on top.  Gorgeous. 

The hutch in the dining room had really great and pretty doors on them....that were all covered in lead paint.  Rather than try to encapsulate sections of the doors, we opted to just remove and discard them.  Sorry, lovely doors!  I painted the hutch the same Soft Sage (it was previously a dark red to match the wallpaper) and I think it makes a lovely display case and without the doors really opens up the room some more.

If I was going to live here, I would do more decor-wise.  As it is, I just bought some sheer white panels at Walmart for $5 each to hang in the windows and set out some flowers that people had brought to our going away party.  I would love to hang some weathered frames on some of the big blank spaces in the walls, but I didn't want to put holes it my pretty new walls.  We did buy a light fixture (Hampton Bay Brushed Nickel Five-Light Chandelier) for $40 because there was no light in this room.

And, totally not the point, but how much do you love this color combination?  Purple and light green (well, technically Soft Sage, by Glidden).  I love discovering new color combinations that I wouldn't normally use. 

I'm sad it won't be MY dining room, but how lucky are our new renters?  I hope this makes up for the pink carpet in the hallway......

Friday Tip Day

This might not have a lot to do with moving, but once I learned this tip, a whole new world opened for me.  I love flowers, and every once in a while, Mr. Move-a-lot will stop by a grocery store or gas station and pick me up a small bouquet of something.  Carnations, daisies, I love them all.  But, of course, they ususally die in a day or so.

UNLESS you put a tiny little bit of bleach in the water.  Toss out the plant food that comes with, add a quarter to half a little capful of bleach and those flowers will keep going long and strong.  Right now I've got a simple little bouquet of flowers that someone got me still looking fresh and it's been OVER TWO WEEKS since I got them.

Have a great and flower-filled weekend!