Hi guys! I’m sharing with you my first post about our dining room makeover. This is something we are really excited to take on since it will completely transform the look of the upstairs. We had a consultation with Empire Flooring and booked them to install engineered wood floors on November 20^th 2020. With this date in mind, we knew we needed to get going on the construction portion of the project before the floors were put in.

The Plan Before Floor Installation:

• Remove the wall that separates the dining area from the kitchen
• Remove trim from the top and bottom of the walls
• Remove the angles from the top of the doorframe
• Add vertical shiplap
• Add a faux beam to the ceiling between the dining area and kitchen
• Paint

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The wall that was in between the dining area and kitchen made the space feel closed in. Eventually, we will be re-modeling the kitchen and wanted an open concept between the two. My husband removed the wall and once it was down we couldn’t believe just how much bigger it felt. (We also went ahead and opened up a portion of the entryway wall into the kitchen because but I’ll save that for a later post)

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The next day my husband removed the trim, squared off the corners of the doorway, and spackled.

Next was the vertical shiplap installation. We chose to use finished plywood for this wall and spaced each piece ¼” apart. I rolled the first coat of paint using Sherwin Williams Gauntlet Gray. Once the first coat of paint dried, I noticed bare wood exposed in the spacing between the pieces of wood where the roller wasn’t able to reach. We decided to use a paint sprayer for the second coat which made coverage much easier. (If I were to do vertical shiplap again, I would use the paint sprayer for both coats. It applies much faster and more evenly than the roller and there was not much overspray at all)

The next steps in this project will be to finish spackling, paint the other two walls in the room, paint the sliding door, and add a faux beam to the ceiling in between the kitchen and dining area before the floor is installed.

My husband is also going to build our new dining table so I need to find chairs to go with it, as well as a new light and frames for a gallery wall for the shiplap area. Our goal is to have this room completed by Thanksgiving which gives us a little less than a months’ time. Fingers crossed we can do so!