The DR wall treatment - the 1st step to a new room

My big goal for the month was to get the kitchen installed by Thanksgiving - done!  Now if I can just find time to put all the dishes back in the cupboards.  I decided while I had taken some time off the week of Thanksgiving, I would see how much I could do in the DR.  Mind you it was a pool table room, which was never used and looked like this:

There was a chair rail in the room, but it was just plain underneath.  The room has great proportions, it is big and has a lovely window seat.  So, after being inspired by so many blogs that show inexpensive wood treatments that look great once painted - I thought, what the heck, let's give it a try.  In progress, the cheapo wood treatment goes up:

We left the chair rail and the base trim and just added the thin 3" flat wood stripes in between the two.  It made the project go fast and fairly easy, that is after I did my math on each wall to determine what spacing would work on all of the walls.  And because I am on a stripe kick these days - some gray and white vertical stripes were added above the new wood treatment.

 

It looks really good and has completely transformed the room from a bit plain to something a bit more finished looking.  Confessions: 1) I was super motivated to get this room done because I had ordered DR furniture that arrived ahead of schedule and 2) I had the trim installed and the stripes painted by a pro.  No DIY on my part other than telling him what I wanted and walking in to see the finished end result....which I loved.  While I love the projects I do myself, my time is now extremely limited (aka kids, job, laundry and life!), it was very nice to walk into the room and just have the project done in a matter of a few days. 

 

My thought was - hmmmm, I wonder how many other bloggers have pros come in and poof - post the finished product.  I'll bet there are a few out there :)  At least I admit it.

Woo-hoo ...Progress on my Kitchen and DR goals!

When I look and see that my posts seem to be once a month, vs. several times a week or even daily, I always smile and think to myself, well that's pretty pathetic.  Then again, some bloggers post 1 event in the room at a time, like "I painted a door".  To each his/her own, but for some reason I want to post major progress.  So, I now actually have something to finally share.  My goal was to have the major work in the kitchen reno done by Thanksgiving and with a little luck, also some progress in the former man cave that will morph into a DR.

Kitchen progress first, however not remotely complete. Let me remind you of the slightly boring before shots:

And now some afters, right after the workers cleared out and before being styled.

 

 

Still missing a couple doors and without island finished or new sink installed.

 

 

 

And not that I had time to really style the room before Thanksgiving, I did at least throw a few things in the room....most importantly wine in the wine rack.

 

 

 

Dining Room progress tomorrow - feeling the need to pace myself.