Dining Room Refresh – Ceiling, Wall Paneling & Table
Here we are, week 3 of the One Room Challenge — knee deep in spackle and sanding dust. After the electrician moved and added some new wiring to replace the old lights (see this post from week 2), the ceiling literally looked like Swiss cheese.
Goggled and masked up, I did A LOT of mixing spackling compound, filling holes, sanding, mixing some more spackling compound, smoothing over uneven areas, sanding some more–then wash, rinse, and repeat for good measure–I’m finally ready to paint the ceiling. To be honest, the dust wasn’t too bad since I attached the vacuum cleaner to my DeWalt orbital hand sander (that little guy has earned his keep over the years!)
In the meantime, while I was waiting for the spackle to dry…
I decided to outline my wall paneling in blue painter’s tape first to get a feel for the layout. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cover all the walls, but after living with it for a couple of days, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for the gold!
My Bosch laser level come in REAL handy to keep all the lines straight.
Just as a reminder, this is the decadent Geishas wallpaper by Manuel Canovas that I’m going to wrap around the room, inside those wall panels. It comes in 8 different color ways; naturally, I chose the MOST VIBRANT of the gang — FUCHSIA.
The whole room is going to look something like this…
I was going to leave the grayish-pink (I mixed this color up myself years ago), but now I’m rethinking the whole thing and decided to pick up some peachy-gray and grayish-lavender paint swatches and paint testers, too. (Disregard that purple paint on the wall; it’s too bright and I’m in hot pursuit of something more muted).
(Also, did you notice the bottom pedestal section of my marble table on the bottom of this image?)
Yes, yes, my Angelo Mangiarotti Eccentrico marble dining table (sourced from @nue.modern ) is here. Why am I not ecstatic, you ask?
Get your popcorn out…
Believe me, I was doing cartwheels for a while. But things went south pretty quickly with this vendor. I won’t go into all the details, because I’m still traumatized and my eye is still twitching from the turmoil that ensued.
Very, very, very long and chaotic story short, sh*t hit the fan in a major way once it arrived: 1) the pedestal is 180 kg and isn’t stable enough to stand erect without being fastened to the floor (so when I invite people over for dinner, I’ll have to tell them to wear steel-toed boots — no bueno); 2) the table top has an actual crack in it, so if someone puts any weight on it, it could break off (another safety hazard); and 3) the delivery people just dropped it off expecting us to erect it. Can you guys believe it?! Sure, we have an extra engine hoist lying around to lift 180kg. C’mon!!! WTAF?!
Umpteen emails, calls, texts back and forth, I finally got my money back and now I’m working with a local marble specialist to help me figure out how to make a functioning table out of it without having to worry about it crushing people’s feet or edges breaking off.
Stay tuned until next week as the table saga unfolds…
On a lighter note…
What is THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, you ask?
As a widely anticipated biannual event–every April and October — the ORC #oneroomchallenge #ORC is only THE BEST place for interiors-related inspiration, ideas, and encouragement!
Anyone with a blog, Instagram, or TikTok account can join the challenge by linking their own room transformations up during the next 8 weeks. Starting Wednesday of each week, we report back and flood the interweb and social media with the latest and greatest news, updates, trials, and tribulations of our room transformations.
So, thank you to Linda Weinstein, the creator/owner of the ORC who started all of this fabulousness, and Apartment Therapy ORC’s official media partner, for the support and holding us accountable!
You can get more info about the ONE ROOM CHALLENGE and how to join, click here.