My Dining Room Make Over

I am NOT a do it yourself-er by choice. I am a do it yourself-er out of financial necessity. I can't see paying $400 a wall to have a professional paint when I can buy a gallon of paint for less than $35 and have $1565 left over to do something else with.

Note to self: Wear gloves.

That said, I am seriously one of the world's WORST painters. I not only get paint on myself but on any adjacent surface whether its been taped, covered with a drop cloth or wrapped in paper. The paint can and will seep under or through any attempts to protect other items in the room. Still, since I apparently can't paint a straight line I cover and tape. Naturally, that means that when I remove the covers and tape I have missed large spots of the wall that needed paint.

Which leads me to go in and retouch. Which means that I get paint on the adjacent surfaces...which means touch up paint of another color...which means I get that color on the wall.... That $1600 quote looks so much more reasonable after I spend nearly a week painting and repainting and in the end, frankly, it looks like my 5 year old painted it. (Which, in truth, she probably did because I figured "why not?")

My dining room has a white chair rail. Above the chair rail is red wallpaper covered with (of all things) palm trees. Below the rail is an odd shade of Army green. Not my taste.  I do like the hardwood floors. It also has one feature that I love - a gold faux finished ceiling. Really cool and unusual. The room originally had a brass chandelier that we replaced years ago with more contemporary lighting, but I never dared tackle the ugly wallpaper and dark paint. 

Until last weekend when I saw this photo. I wanted that room!

Having never repaired or repainted Amanda's room after removing her wallpaper border 6 months ago I decided to commit the ultimate crime of home ownership and paint over the wallpaper. Go ahead, cringe. I know it was wrong, but it was quick  and it made me so happy.

A gallon of oil based Kilz - two coats to cover the wallpaper;  a gallon of Lowes' allen+roth Natural paint and about a week's work equals happiness! The hardest part was painting over the fake wainscotting. Brushes left streaks. Regular rollers created drips. Kevin finally discovered a set of small Whizz rollers designed for painting cabinets that painted all of the indentations and corners of the trim beautifully. Too bad I didn't have them for the first coat...

We removed the plantation shutters to bring more natural light into the dark room. The look is not identical to the first photo. The paint is a little lighter. The goal was to bring the space to a more neutral, contemporary palette.  I didn't substitute new ceiling lights or furniture, but worked with what we had. To finish it off I moved things from other rooms, bought a $70 lamp and some inexpensive artwork from Target. It is not a professional job. There are drips, smears and missing patches. However, the total cost of my makeover including accessories was less than $200.

Now - what can I do with the rest of the money that I saved by doing it myself?