Miriam's Dining Room, chapter 2

Let us continue where we left off in the adventures of
Aunt Betsy and Niece Miriam in their quest to rescue a very dreary dining room. I used Miriam's phone camera, and my hand obviously moved, so I apologize for the blurry picture. The window treatments came with the house, and although they are pretty, they don't work in the room BECAUSE it is a dark space and the fabric covers part of the glass.                             

Last weekend we dragged home the sideboard and a work order was submitted to me for painting it this weekend. It went something like this: "Aunt Betsy, I don't know what to do next!" Where upon I replied (this may be a little bit embellished for literary purposes) "Don't you worry, my darling niece! I will help you redo this LARGE piece of furniture, so you can happily continue on your new journey of wedded bliss." OK, maybe I have never spoken so sweetly to anyone in my family, but if I did, well, let’s just say they'd want to know where the drugs came from. So, I met Miriam out in Acton Massachusetts at Calico Corners to choose the fabric for the dining room. We were looking for something to use to cover the dining room walls above the wainscoting. Now to answer the question as to why upholster the walls rather than use wallpaper, the answer is very simple: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO WALLPAPER. But I do know how to upholster walls, and I have a staple gun, and I have a compressor, and I have staples!!! We took home an armful of fabric samples to try out on the walls because you HAVE to see the fabric in the space where it is going to be used. We narrowed it down to three options, from which his majesty could choose. The absolutely amazing thing is that both Ross and Miriam liked the same sample, ah wedded harmony!                                                                                                                                                                   

Then I used my trusty level to apply tape to the walls to give them an idea of how the new wainscoting paneling detail would look. We plan on doing a similar application to the one I used in the West Palm Beach bungalow dining room. The reason for using the same treatment is that I am very old and have run out of ideas.

This time when I went to Miriam's I brought my camera, so I could take better pictures!! But I left my film chip in my computer, so my camera had no film, so once again I was left with the crummy phone pictures. Oy.

Then it was time to paint the sideboard! So I asked Miriam to open up the drop cloth I had her buy for this project. Now just let me point out at this juncture, that my niece is a very smart young woman, at the peak of her intellectual prowess. The sideboard is 60 inches long. The drop cloth she bought was MUCH shorter than 60 inches. OY, OY, OY VEY. She said "Don't worry, we could use a sheet!" So she ran upstairs to bring down a sheet. She only has fitted sheets. THEY DON'T LIE FLAT!! So Ross (super husband) went to get a drop cloth while we sanded. Now I'm not pointing any fingers, but it seemed to take an awful long time and he came back drinking out of a Duncan Donuts cup. We applied one coat of primer, and then I started playing around with a second coat, and we decided we liked it like that! It looked old and beat up and worn, just the way I felt after a full day of manual labor. Next weekend I will add some striping detail and maybe wax it.

The Before

After two coats of primer.

After choosing the fabric, I felt the draperies we had bought from Pottery Barn wouldn't work, so Miriam has to return them. I have now added another project for my sewing machine. I am going to make window treatments out of the same fabric we are applying to the walls.

Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Aunt Betsy and Niece Miriam in the pursuit of a gorgeous dining room.

P.S. The reason the fonts keep changing, is I am having lots of trouble with this blogging program. It's free, so I'm not going to complain. (Much)