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    • I'm Christina, a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

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You are here: Home / Interior Decorating / Dining room update

Dining room update

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Interior Decorating, The Victorian

The previous vinyl flooring was light-colored and shiny…exactly the opposite of this floor, so once this hardwood was exposed, a lot more of the light was absorbed than before.  So we’re going to need to add more lighting (the lighting should be layered anyway).

Original-hardwood-floor (3)

I don’t plan on staining it.  I love the raw, grayed color, so we’re just going to clean it up and seal it with a matte-finish sealer.

This shag rug used to be in the living room…yes it seems crazy to have a white shag rug in a dining room.  We mostly use the dining table as a desk and eat at the kitchen table since there are only two of us.  I think we might have eaten over this rug more when it was in the living room than we have since it’s been in the dining room.

Original-hardwood-floor (1)

The wingback chairs are new too (a Craigslist score).  They are only in here temporarily, as soon as our new sofa comes in (it’s been ordered!), they will go across from it in the living room.

We do have one square of plywood where there used to be a floor grate (under the buffet).  Unfortunately, the original floor grates were thrown away before we purchased the house, and they are VERY expensive to replace.  (I showed a picture of the plywood square we had in the living room.  To fill that one, we took the hardwood from the stair landing–that was done when we turned the landing into hidden storage.)  This one…we aren’t sure what to do with yet.  Any ideas?

Original-hardwood-floor (5)

To-dos left for the dining room:

  • Sand, touch up and seal floor
  • Replace plywood square
  • Add more lighting
  • Buy dining chairs
  • Buy a new buffet (?)
  • Add larger crown moulding to match the living room
  • Add baseboard to 2 walls
  • Oh, and one more giant project that I can’t tell you about yet… 😉

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  1. homestilo

    May 21, 2014 at 11:26 am

    I really need to learn how to navigate and shop on Craigslist…
    I’m glad you decided not to stain the floor- I’m loving the color too.

    Reply
    • Christina

      May 22, 2014 at 8:41 am

      Craigslist is wonderful. My favorite trick that I learned from another blogger: just search “pair.” The Hubs and I were both searching for “Wingback,” “wing back,” “wing chair” etc for a good 30 minutes one evening and came up with nothing. So I gave up and searched “pair” and these chairs were one of the first results. 🙂

  2. mary

    May 21, 2014 at 3:59 pm

    Do you have any architectural salvage places near you? I had an odd sized floor grate to replace and they had a ton to choose from. Rusty and what-not, but it wire brushed up ok and then I spray painted it black. I think it was $30?

    Reply
    • Christina

      May 22, 2014 at 8:32 am

      Wow, that is an awesome price! We’ll have to check ours out, thank you!

  3. [email protected]

    May 22, 2014 at 8:14 am

    The floor looks great! I can’t wait to see the tricks you’ll use to lighten up the room.

    Reply
  4. Alana in Canada

    May 22, 2014 at 12:53 pm

    Lovely. I’m so glad that after all your hard work you found something you love.

    Reply
    • Christina

      May 23, 2014 at 12:54 pm

      Thanks Alana!

  5. Leena

    May 24, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    I’m interested in the floor grate, what is that for in a position such as that? Actually had to google what a floor grate was but I still don’t get why there ever was such in a dining room.
    Anyway… lovely work and I think it’s marvelous you decided to keep the old paint shade on it. I bet it’s nice to see the history of the house from some floors.

    Reply
    • Christina

      May 27, 2014 at 7:09 am

      Thanks! In homes this age here, they often put the heater (wood or coal burning stove) in the basement. So in order to let heat flow to each floor above, they would put grates in each room that were open to the lower level.

    • Leena

      June 4, 2014 at 2:45 pm

      Aha, thanks!

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Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
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We had three offers the first day, one of whom hadn't even seen the house in person yet.
Surprise! The house is going on the market today. Surprise! The house is going on the market today. (Long story that I'll fill you in on when I have more than 2 seconds.)
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But we're once again with a realtor that calls our house "unique" instead of calling it a Mid Century Modern. 🤦‍♀️
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@little.victorian

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Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventua Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventually finish most of our restoration/renovation projects. I'll share the updates in the coming months as we get settled in to our new place. 😁
House update! The realtor is still confused about House update! The realtor is still confused about why "it's such a popular house." When she arrived yesterday for a showing, there were 8 cars in the driveway. 😃

We had three offers the first day, one of whom hadn't even seen the house in person yet.
Surprise! The house is going on the market today. Surprise! The house is going on the market today. (Long story that I'll fill you in on when I have more than 2 seconds.)
.
But we're once again with a realtor that calls our house "unique" instead of calling it a Mid Century Modern. 🤦‍♀️
.
We can't count how many locals came into this house and mentioned that those windows should be removed and walled up and the beams cut off. And then it would be a "normal" house. 🤯
.
Still can't really identify with people in this area. 🤷‍♀️ SO happy to be going back home to the East coast TOMORROW!
Right? We're getting back into the house restorat Right? 
We're getting back into the house restoration and we'll be working on the powder room in the master bed. 
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And we're going to try to make it pretty with a super tiny budget of $100 in 4 weeks and we're joining the #100roomchallenge to keep us (me) motivated.
The bedroom design is starting to come together th The bedroom design is starting to come together thanks to Craigslist and Goodwill. 
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Roscoe got his (pretty bad) spring haircut today. Roscoe got his (pretty bad) spring haircut today. Good thing he still has a gorgeous face. #baddogmom
@little.victorian

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