Dining Rooms

LIGHTENING AND BRIGHTENING THE DINING ROOM

Published on March 20, 2020

Andy and Leigh Dale Younce bought this 1960s-era home just three months ago. Their sons, Sam and Parker, enjoy the outdoor spaces.

Leigh Dale loves the updated kitchen and Andy likes the openness that’s been added to the old floor plan — but nobody’s crazy about the dining room.

So inside, we’ll add wainscoting and a more appropriate light fixture to the dining room.

We’ll convert the kitchen doorway to a proper cased opening, replace the fluted trim around the pass-throughs and remove the oversized granite bar to the living room.

We’ll also make some changes outside, where we will add a little entertainment to an already ample deck.

Table of Contents

The Projects

Fluted trim is a beautiful addition to any home — but it just doesn’t fit in this room, around the pass-throughs.

So we’re going to remove and replace the inappropriate trim on the two pass-throughs and then we will rework the doorway to the kitchen.

Once we clear out the furniture, the china cabinet and protect the floors, we begin de-constructing things.

Chelsea starts getting rid of the fluted molding, and I begin removing stops on the old kitchen door.

Paint Walls

Andy and Leigh Dale’s dining room already is looking much different and overnight, the couple painted the upper half of the walls to brighten things up considerably.

Isn’t it amazing what a difference some paint can make?

With the cased opening complete and the chair rail done, I can mock-up a molding panel for Andy and Leigh Dale.

While I’m cutting all the molding we’ll need, Chelsea and Leigh Dale start assembling the panels.

Paint Dining Room Table

The dining room table is two-toned, and we will want a solid white table to match the lighter, brighter space we’re going for.

With that in mind, Chelsea and Leigh Dale prep the dining table for paint.

Replace light fixture

We’re installing a new light fixture in Andy and Leigh Dale’s dining room because the old one is just too big and overwhelms the space.

Like the oversized granite bar, the chandelier is nice, but it has to go!

Special thanks to Linea Lighting for providing this beautiful fixture.

Build TV Housing

With indoor improvements complete, let’s turn our attention outside — specifically, to outdoor entertainment!

Andy and Leigh Dale could use a TV cabinet outside so we’re going to build one. The horizontal piece at the bottom of each opening will be a 1-by-8.

I’m using a router to soften the top edges and cutting notches on either end before fitting each board in place.

Once I get the other horizontal piece in place, Andy joins me to begin wrapping the vertical surfaces.

We’re using 2-by-6s around the plywood to form the box of the cabinet before we hang the TV mount inside the space.

Early the next morning, we begin making the doors by layering rough-sawn fence boards in the same pattern used on the fence.

Once we put the roof together, Andy applies a coat of stain to the cabinet before we install the TV to complete the project.

Other Projects

We also:

Replaced dining table legs

Cleaned and stained fence section

After

The previous owners of this house had updated the floor plan by creating pass-throughs and removing doors, but they didn’t do us any favors with the details.

The trim around the pass-throughs was all wrong, the granite bar was too big for the space and the paint job in the dining room was poorly done.

Plus, the dark color and the oversized chandelier made the room feel smaller than it was.

Now, all the areas flow together. The lighter color on the walls brightens up everything and the applied molding and wainscoting .

We added lends a touch of elegance to the dining space, while the new trim around the pass-throughs and cased openings delivers the clean lines we needed at those transitions.

Plus, replacing the granite bar with a simple piece of 1-by-8 has given space back to the living room.

Inside, we spent just under $600 on materials. And, just outside the back door the new TV cabinet we created for about $100 offers plenty of entertainment on the spacious deck.

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Emma Gomez

Content Strategist at Plumber Marketing Company

A mother and lover of all things practical. My blog covers about motherhood by exploring all areas of life. Our tips and tricks help large community to do more in less time so they can spend time enjoying happy, healthy families.