Paint it black, that’s exactly what I’m doing to my old IKEA pine dining set. Now that the majority of the living and dining room renovations are complete and our hodge podge of furnishings are back in place, I decided that the pine dining room furniture just doesn’t work. It’s looking tired and old and in dire need of a facelift. So the priming and painting has begun.

I should have taken some before photos but basically it’s a round pedestal table and a corner cabinet with a glass door. I also have the buffet and hutch but it’s currently being used in the kitchen.

The pedestal is done and the table top still needs two more coats of paint. Then I’ll be able to seal the paint finish. The corner unit is a lot more work plus I’m planning on painting the inside an off-off white and the exterior black. I’m definately not looking forwards to painting the glass door. The glass can’t be removed which means lots and lots of taping required. I really hate that part.

I can’t wait to get them done and back in place. It’s going to look like a whole new set. :o)

The ceiling is finally complete and has been for some time. However I just haven’t got around to posting pics or updating here. We’re very happy with how it turned out and I must confess that I glance at it often to admire all our hard work. It’s much nicer than the horrible drop ceiling that was there before.

Opposite view:

I’ll be installing the dining room light fixture after the trim goes up. It’s stained glass and I’m terrified of smashing into it with the ladder or something. Better safe than sorry!

We debated for some time on what we should do with the ceiling. Should we have it drywalled? Maybe a nice tongue and groove wood ceiling? Or is there another option out there? We decided on option number 2, a wood ceiling. The decision was pretty easy since the guy that finished installing the drywall for us said that if we wanted him to do the ceiling, we’d have to remove all the lath first. Uh…no thanks! And we never did find a third option. Just as well, I really wanted the wood. Even with the decision made, there were still more decisions. What should we do with it…stain, paint, leave natural, white wash? After much thought, and a few unsolicited opinions we went with stain. But what colour of stain? The first colour I chose was really awful. I just kept staring at it and knew I couldn’t live with it. It reminded me of nacho chips. Fortunately I had two cans of English Oak on hand and went with that.

We’re really pleased with how it’s turning out. Even though it’s a lot of work and sometimes the pieces don’t like to “play nice” and fit into each other, it’ll all be worth it in the end.

We still have to re-wire and mount the electrical box for the dining room light fixture before we can finish installing the pine.
Here’s how it looks so far:

It’s been a while since anything major has happened on the renovation front. I think it was a combination of running out of gusto (as this was the first time we’ve ever tackled anything of this magnitude), a very hot summer (too hot to do any kind of construction) and difficulty getting tradespeople. We decided to hire out the drywalling of the livingroom since I was seriously lacking any motivation to do that. Installing the drywall in the diningroom was not fun! So after many failed attempts at hiring someone, it just so happened that my father-in-law knew someone who’s son worked for a drywall company. Long story short, the guy came out, assessed the job and now it’s done. Since we had him here, we decided to demo out the little room off the livngroom. I think it was originally a bedroom but became a storage area after a previous owner moved the attic entry into the room and installed stairs.

Here’s the room (approx. 7′ x 13′) mid demo:

We took out the door and made it larger. Still have to rip out the plaster walls and remove window.

Here it is with it’s new drywall. I managed to save the ceiling during demolition which had been previously drywalled. We made the window opening bigger and plan to install glass blocks. I wanted to get some natural light into the space but not the view, which is the storage side of our porch and quite unsightly.

Here’s the livingroom:

And the diningroom:

We are currently working on installing a pine ceiling in both rooms. So far we have about 1/3 of the room done and as of yesterday we have a “real” light in the livingroom. I spent a few frustrating hours yesterday afternoon installing a ceiling fan. But once it was done and I hit the switch, I felt like Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation when his exterior lights finally work!

We had a very productive “renovation” weekend. On Saturday we finished putting up the last of the large pieces of drywall. Then on Sunday, after a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and mini bagels, we installed the last two small pieces over the doorways. Once that was complete it was demolition time for the dining room ceiling.
Hard hat….check, gloves….check, mask….check, goggles….check, crowbar…check, husband and son laughing hysterically at my ensemble complete with yellow trash bag “dress”….check!

I cannot describe the aftermath of taking down a plaster ceiling. If you’ve ever done it, you know what I’m talking about. The amount of dust is incredible. We had to bring in the snow shovel to scoop up the debris and filled up at least 10 boxes which are now lined up in the backyard like railway cars. I keep telling my husband that we’re going to need one huge dump bin when this is all over with.

Here’s the room as it looks today. We haven’t decided what we’ll do with the ceilings yet. We’re leaning towards a tongue and groove pine ceiling however if that proves to be too difficult, we’ll have a pro come in and drywall it before they do the mudding, taping and general fix-up of all our blunders in both the dining room and living room.



Next up, we’ll be ripping apart the living room. Stay tuned!