Dining Room Disaster

Just so you know: My intent is to not leave it this way.

My goal is to have it beautiful by Easter.

Mind you, no one will see it.

That's okay.

We'll take treats and filled eggs and drop them off at grandchildren's homes and then their moms and dads can videotape them enjoying them.

We'll go to services online.

We'll have something wonderful for dinner.

And we'll pray for all the sad and sick souls dealing with this virus. Because that's exactly what God would want us to do.

But in the meantime, when I realized I was going to be quarantined for fourteen days, and that my son's job as a substitute teacher ended with the closing of schools, I got the brilliant idea of painting the dining room.

So Beth and Zach got me everything I needed at Home Depot. I even let them pick the colors...

And so it began.

I discovered Zach doesn't like painting.

Farmer Dave only does it when I force him to, and he's been sick, so I didn't have the heart to be mean. Besides, he did the big family room last year.

So I tackled in. First, the room was all based around this:

I found this chandelier online at Great Windsor Chairs, a cool furniture store in Pennsylvania and my youngest boys bought it for me ten years ago.... When i saw this lamp, I knew how I wanted the room to look. Like springtime, all year, but with colors that I could also use for fall and Christmas. No one cares about summer, who is inside during summer??? No one!!!

So this week I cleaned the walls, moved furniture, scrubbed baseboards, painted baseboards, cut in around all the edges in this room, then painted the walls.

PHEW!!!!!

And I wrote a lot.

So that was good because no one pays me to paint!!!

But I love painting.

I do not love the MESS....

But I find painting peaceful and rewarding, which is good because there's always something to be painted!

Table is one of my dumping grounds......

I realized I need to coordinate all of my electrical sockets/switches. I got matching wall plate covers in white wood, but the outlets need to be changed. And two of the switches are black.... So that's a bad combo.

I will order them and get that taken care of next week.

 Mindy, remember going through all this? It's like a mom version of the Never-Ending Story!

Today I'm rolling the ceiling. It's funny, you don't realize how quickly a ceiling 'grays' until you put fresh paint on it. Zach cut in around the ceiling, and I'll roll it and we'll have two major parts done.

THEN THE FLOOR.

We move all the furniture out of the room and paint the floor.

Then we move all of the furniture back into the room.

The bookcases are a puzzle to me.  I'm not sure if I want them white or yellow. I've already painted the scalloping yellow, but I'm wondering if a bright white might not make the yellow stand out better, rather than submerge it all into the one tone.... I welcome your thoughts, and I might test it out to see what I think.

I probably won't get the rose-toned trim done before Easter. That's okay. I can live with that until next fall, because once farm season stops, no one worries about the inside of the house. There's just too much to do outside!!!

But that's what I've been up to this week, getting this project underway and feeling good about how it's coming.

The mess will disappear and I will love this room again, but right now it's a jumble... which means I've got my work cut out for me!

Wishing you all a safe and happy and healthy weekend. God bless you!

USA Today Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne is often tackling projects and then guilting her husband into helping with them. She figures she's helping him avoid a life of inactivity, and it's the least she can do for him.  Find Ruthy's books at retailers and Amazon.com (and her newest book just released yesterday!!!! HOORAY!!!!) friend her on Facebook, follow her on the unfriendliest social media ever, AKA: Twitter or visit her website, ruthloganherne.com.