Tag: Interior Paint Projects

We’re DONE! We’re DONE! We did it! We’re DONE!

Here I sit, in my $20 throne chair, writing this reveal post. Someone please bring me a soft boiled egg on one of my beautiful new egg cups!!

If you’ve been following along on our renovation journey, (thank you for being here!) you know we have come a long way in just over six weeks. When we started this one room challenge our house was torn apart and had holes all through the slab for the foundation and plumbing repairs being made to our home & we’re so glad to have her patched up and feeling much better!

If you missed our previous weeks posts you can catch up here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Looking back at the mood board & concept imagery I put together in the beginning of the challenge, the goal was to create a highly emotive space, that was soulful, relaxing, and felt like home. And not to brag, but I think we really nailed it!

The green paint color we used [Jasper by Sherwin Williams HGTV home] has a subtle sophistication and depth that really makes the beautiful features that this room already had absolutely stunning! The chandelier was already here when we bought the house, as was the molding on the walls and unique molding on the ceiling.

The dining room table and chairs were our existing furniture pieces that we refinished as a part of this project. The table was a $130 facebook marketplace find from about a year ago, and the chairs have been with me since I first graduated from college. They were basically covered in paint and dirty from years of use as step ladders for many of my previous projects. Originally, my plan was to go with a lighter/ bleached look table top and a darker base, and the chairs would be painted black with light/unfinished back fins, but once I got the table top sanded and one of the chairs refinished and back in the room, I knew I had to take a step back and re-think that direction.

It’s okay to be wrong the first time! And this just goes to show that even as designers we may not always have all the answers! Taking the time to constantly evaluate your process and critique yourself, and changing course if necessary, are essential elements to success. In this case, going with a dark onyx finish for the table top and staining the chair fins back to a darker color was definitely the right pivot to make!

The dark and moody feel I was going for in the space is only enhanced by the tone-on tone dark finish of the table top and chairs. While I do think a lighter table top would have “popped” in the space, ultimately, I think it would have detracted from the overall emotive feeling that I was trying to create.

Lighting is key to creating a dark and moody space, and that includes candle lighting! I knew from the beginning that I needed candle sticks, lots and lots of candle sticks! But it wasn’t really in the budget for me to buy all of the candlestick holders we would need. Ultimately I landed on “hack” using a 95 cent plumbing coupling that perfectly fits the candlestick and holds it upright. I also love how the warm metal looks in contrast against the dark onyx table top, and the sparkle as it reflects the light from the candles.

In addition to candle lighting, I also added two sconces centered on the panels at either end of the long wall. Since hard wiring was out of the question, I added two battery operated LED lights and stuck them up inside the shade. They give off a very pretty, warm glow when lit, and add to the ambiance of the space.

I also included my DIY lamp on the console table that I created from a piece of vintage pottery that I found on Facebook Marketplace, and a Himalayan salt lamp on the opposite side of the room to create a balanced lighting environment. While the chandelier overhead provides the most light in the room, the ambiance is best experienced with this one off.

I truly had fun styling these shelves this weekend! I mostly used items that we already had from around the house, but did make a quick shopping trip to Marshall’s to fill in some of the gaps. Originally I had planned to get several more of those Ikea baskets to fill out the bottom shelf and provide some storage for the extra pieces of the China set, but of course at last minute they were out of stock, so I went foraging in my attic and around my house to find items to make this bottom shelf make sense.

These Vittsjo shelves from Ikea were so affordable and a must have for this space. There was a good duration of time where they were out of stock at the Houston store, and I almost considered driving to San Antonio to get them and here’s why: I could NOT find any other shelves that were so clean line and minimal at this price point- I looked for HOURS. Everything was either too decorative, farmhousey, or like $500 each…YIKES. I didn’t want to take away from the molding that it sits in front of or the other decorative features of the room, so these shelves were the perfect fit. I love the smoked glass, and that there is just enough height at the top to add some larger plants and items that were honestly sitting in the back of my closet .

One of my favorite things about the room is the price of the artwork. All FREE! I used frames that we already had around the house (except for the one $4 frame I bought) and framed up some special & found items from around the house. One of them being this vintage Joie de Vivre vacation pamphlet that we found in the back of our bar area when we moved in. Anyone else might have called it trash and thrown it out, but it has just been hanging around waiting for it’s moment to shine! Below is a beautiful watercolor rendition of the outside of our home sent by a friend as a housewarming gift.

Up on top is a beautiful original that I bought from my cousin (okay, I did pay for that one…) and robbed from my foyer & below the salt lamp is my little Shamrock Hotel memorabilia matchbooks. We found a bunch of these when we pulled up the blue shag carpet upstairs. At the time we didn’t know what the Shamrock was, until people started telling us how cool it was that we found them! Just a little piece of Houston history right in our dining room!

So now the big juicy secret that everyone wants to know…. how much did you spend on this space? At the beginning of this project I sat down and put a budget together and included everything I thought I would need to get this space completed. Some items I already knew what the cost would be, and others I just put a number to (always overestimate!) Honestly, a whole lot went into this space more than a bucket or two of paint, but I’m happy to report that we did come in under my original budget after scoring a steal on the $40 chairs and cutting a DIY buffet project I had planned (Would I have had time for it anyways?)

Budget Breakdown

	Budget	Spent
Paint & Supplies	150	136
Air Vent	30	20
Curtain Rod & Hooks	35	55
Curtains	176	190
Stain & Paint Supplies for Furniture	80	111
Sconces	200	172
Shelving	240	260
End chairs	270	40
Flooring	420	420
Upholstery Fabric for Chairs	35	60
Sideboard	750	339
Decor	150	200
Misc Supplies	50	82
	$2,586	$2,085

I honestly couldn’t tell you if this is an amazing budget or not…I have no idea what other people spend on their dining rooms, but we definitely didn’t have a whole lot of money to play around with! I’m pretty happy I was able to stay below it, even though I ended up overspending in some areas- and on a bunch of things my budget didn’t include tax or shipping so I ended up spending slightly more (oops!) but I do learn a whole lot every time I do a budget for a space and then finish a project- it definitely helps you learn what to expect for the next go-round! For instance, I wasn’t anticipating this space to take 3 full gallons of premium paint! so now that I know that I’ll be able to save some money on the front room project and just go for the 5 gallon bucket!

Last but not least, please go check out some of the other amazing spaces designers are finishing up and revealing over the next couple of weeks on the One Room Challenge Blog! I have had so much fun getting to know some of these other ladies through the process & have made some true friends! I’m so grateful to be a part of this welcoming, supportive community!

Of course, I don’t want to forget to thank my Mom, who was a huge part of my success in this project, finishing all the tough cuts on the flooring, and doing a lot of painting and wallpaper stripping with me, and of course my super duper mommy’s helper who is racing to those linen curtains in his little red convertible!

Let me know what you think of our finished dining room in the comments! And again, Thank you so much for supporting and following our blog! If you’d like to see what we’re up to next, don’t forget to subscribe & follow our instagram @crazy_stripe_house for daily updates!