Dining room turned library progress

Hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend! I almost started five different projects over the three days but decided I just needed to FOCUS SARAH.

Remember my list? Well the end of the month is quickly approaching and I’m not even half way through the to do list I wanted to complete by the 31st. So I decided to tackle a couple of the items and I didn’t touch anything else all weekend. I need to get a least half of the list marked off, I mean really. That’s just sad.

Last time you saw the dining room, it was kind of a mess:

OK, it’s been a mess for three months. :)

When we had the basement dry walled they patched up the spots in here for free. (They needed to be fixed because I used Liquid Nails to put up the trim in here years ago. Don’t do that if you think you’ll EVER take it down. Ahem.)

Anyhoo! This wall is the first thing you see when you walk in our house and I was tired of it being a mess. So I pulled out the primer and got busy:

Already sooo much better!

The thing about paint – I always procrastinate it to no end, but when I get going with it, I actually find it quite enjoyable. I think it has a lot to do with the instant gratification thing.

And the fact that I didn’t have to cut in around much this time helped too. ;)

So while I had the primer out, I got the cabinets started:

And today I got paint for the walls and got that going:

It’s a very light color called Abalone and it’s SO pretty. Maybe a little too pretty though –I was really happy with it till the sun started setting and the whole room looked pink.

You can’t really tell in the pics, but it’s definitely pinky. UGH. I’m trying to get rid of the pink undertones in our front rooms, not keep them.

So that is awesome. :) I’m going to look for a different color tomorrow.  It’s rare that a color I pick doesn’t work out, but when it happens you just gotta role with it – and this time I didn’t follow my own advice of painting it on poster board and leaving it in the room. :) The area above those cabinets will be bookcases and the background on that wall will be different anyway. For now I just wanted to get it looking decent and uniform.

By the way, this color would be divine in a baby girl nursery. Divine. It’s really a lovely color!

I got some trim work taken care of this weekend as well – I picked up a side panel for the end of the cabinets and attached it, then primed:

You can see on the pics above that I also got the cabinets trimmed out on bottom – baseboards and then most of the quarter round. I used scraps of what I had but I need to get more. :)

Priming the cabs really brought out the grain, which I knew was going to happen – I gave it a good sanding which helped a bit. I’m using a semi gloss white paint on them and between coats I’ll sand again.

But here’s a good idea of how it will look with hardware and the butcher block:

I’m getting really excited at how it’s coming together! Next up – finish the trim, at least two coats on the cabs, paint the walls (AGAIN), and then sand down, stain and install the butcher.

Then we can get going on the bookcases! (I’m almost ready Dad! Want to come over this weekend?)  :)

Here’s a review of what the room looked like at the start of this year:

It was a lovely room (albeit dark!), but we just didn’t use it. I was tired of that, so we’re going to make it work better for us.

And in the process it’s getting a little update. ;)

I’m SO psyched to get this moving along and have a comfy “library” to hang out in. We may have some awesome bookcases for a while and no furniture though. I’ll be scouring Craigslist for sure. ;)

So, do you see my vision for this room?

Hope your Memorial Day was wonderful! A huge thank you to our past and present military (and families)! We appreciate you so very much.

P.S. One more day of the Canon Rebel Giveaway!