Pics of Rubia's dining room.

[Rubia Warren]

This is what I did last week- I painted my dining room.... except it is no longer my dining room. Graceinme gave me the idea to turn it into a living room, since I don't have a gigantic dining table to fill up the room. It was very empty before, and basically we just crossed through the room to get to the living room anyway (well, I did have my computer in here). We eat at the table in my kitchen anyway. I kind of like it better how it is now.
I initially removed some of the ghastly wood paneling from the walls, and was prepared to repair the plaster walls underneath, but they were literally damaged beyond repair.... and someone had even used drywall to patch huge sections of the plaster walls that were ruined, and I just decided to fix the plaster was way more trouble that what it was worth, so I went with just painting over the paneling. It took me 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint to make sure you couldn't see the wood.
This room has given me straight mental issues since the day I moved in- it totally put me in a bad mood all the time. My house is very shady to begin with, so I don't have bright sunlight shining in through the windows, and with this horrid paneling, it was like living in a dark wooden cave.
There also used to be a HUGE mirror thingie on the wall, you will see in the before pics (where I now have my TV is where the mirror used to be), it was permanently attached to the wall and had been there for YEARS. Someone in the late 70's must have thought that to be a beaut, but I was not impressed. It even had a flourescent light in the top of it. EGAD is all I have to say to that.
Most of my pictues are hung on the walls and the big stuff is on there and I got some blinds hung over the window, but I still have a few small things to do- I need a swag for the top of the window and I need to repot a tree and some other plants I have that will go in there. But the major stuff is done, so here it is. WOOO! No more paneling!

[Rubia Warren]

Here is one more "after" pic, and the last 2 are of the old living room, which I will be painting next, assson as I get better from my surgery. Double egad for that room. I am now just using it as a computer room for the time being.

[Rubia Warren]

Oh, here is another one I forgot to upload.

[Xmansmommy]

All I got to say is DANG girl! :highfive:

[Rubia Warren]

Thanks, XMM. :blush:

[Xmansmommy]

How come you aren't in bed resting? :eh:

[Rubia Warren]

How come you aren't in bed resting? :eh:
I dunno. :nsm: I got up about an hour ago, and couldn't get back to sleep. I am waiting for my pain medicine to kick in, and then it's sleepy dream time for me yet again. :hehe:

[Xmansmommy]

Ahhhhhh I hear ya. Rest while you can sis....it won't be long before you won't be able to. :frown: Hoping you're doing better despite the pain. :thumb:

[mossrose]

It all looks so great, Roobz! Really brightens the room up. I wish I had your enthusiasm for painting. There is so much that needs to be done in my place, and I am at a loss as to where to start. So I might be coming to you sometime for advice! :smile:

P.S. I am SO glad your surgery went well. I pray for your speedy and complete recovery! :hug:

[Rubia Warren]

Thank you, mossrose, I appreciate your prayers. I am doing surprisingly well, but pretty sore.
I am kinda sick of painting already, but as you can see from the "before" pics, that wood paneling was really driving me crazy! That along with the snow outside, I was really getting a bad mood from it all.
You should post some pics and make a poll and let others give you ideas if you can't decide what to do. That would be fun!

[mossrose]

Snow will do that, for sure! Winter is done, already! Let's get some spring! :teeth:

I might have to do that with the pictures. If I can ever figure out the new-fangled digital camera we got a bit back. :doh:

I was really interested in seeing that you painted over the panelling. We have almost that same colour panelling in our family room, although it may not be quite so dark. The panels under the paint make an interesting texture........And I REALLY like the moldings around your doorframes. I think you showed us those before when you were deciding what colour green to use, was it in your kitchen??

I don't think my husband or my son-in-law would go for leaving the panelling on though. The drywall underneath is likely ok, although it has been about 25 years since we did it, so I guess we would have to take some off to check.....

Don't try to do too much, Roobz......we want you completely well and back to yourself again, quick!!

[Rubia Warren]

Oh, if you've got drywall, it is probably still okay. I'd take the paneling off in that case. I had 2 problems, one being that the walls underneath were plaster and were very damaged, and even crumbling into pieces as I carefully tried to pry the paneling off, and the other thing was that the top part of the paneling was nailed to the wall underneath the trim on the ceiling, so I could get all of the nails out, but it was still attached up by the ceiling. I would have had to do some MAJOR repairing to these walls along with removing that trim up there and it just wasn't worth it to me, seeing as I am renting this house.
I like my moldings too..... they are about the only thing in this house that is really original- the whole downstairs of the house got updated in the late 70's or early 80's, so all the cool old cabinets and stuff like that are gone. I had hoped that I'd have hardwood floors underneath my carpet at least, but all I found was that there is some sort of a wood floor, but someone back in the day painted it a doo-doo brown color. :frown:
I did this room last week before I had my surgery.... when I get better, I am going to do the room where my computer is now at.

[mossrose]

Oh, if you've got drywall, it is probably still okay. I'd take the paneling off in that case. I had 2 problems, one being that the walls underneath were plaster and were very damaged, and even crumbling into pieces as I carefully tried to pry the paneling off, and the other thing was that the top part of the paneling was nailed to the wall underneath the trim on the ceiling, so I could get all of the nails out, but it was still attached up by the ceiling. I would have had to do some MAJOR repairing to these walls along with removing that trim up there and it just wasn't worth it to me, seeing as I am renting this house.



Yes, I thought that it would be better to remove the panelling, if you can. What a pain for you, to have the panels help up by the ceiling! Yikes! Is your landlord quite reasonable about letting you do all this work on it? I guess, from his perspective, it means someone else is doing the upgrading.......

That's a shame about the floor. Makes you wonder what people could possibly be thinking to paint hardwood flooring (as well as some other aspects of decorating)! :doh:

[NSMinistries]

looks good but I would need many many many selves... too much stuff... :nsm:

[Rubia Warren]

:blush: thanks NSM. I've got lots of junk, too..... I just have it hidden in boxes in my basement. I have so much junk down there, it is hard to wade through it all. :teeth:

[Esther]

Nice work, Louise! It looks great! You are so ambitious, I get tired just thinking about all of your projects. Where are your hubby and kids during all this? Do you just work around them?

My 5 yo has those same Superman jammies. In fact just the other day I had to make him take them off so I could wash them. I think he thought he was going to wear them for the rest of his life.

I'm glad to hear your surgery went well. There was a gap in my reading on here lately so I didn't know you had it. I bet you're glad it's over and you can look forward to healing up and feeling human again, eh?