Farmhouse Renovation - We're Starting Here...

Brynwood Needleworks - Dining Room Renovation

This is going to be the first room for our farmhouse renovation. I'm standing in the living room side of the arch to take this picture.

The doorways in our farmhouse are 7' tall, and in all the other rooms of the downstairs, the ceilings are 9' high. This room and the living room have dropped ceilings, likely because the lathe and plaster were damaged or cracked. We'll know for sure early next week when these ceilings are torn out.

We have a trio of beautiful casement windows along the southern wall, a built-in china cabinet on the west wall and a large picture window that will welcome every sunrise. The carpeting is hiding maple plank floors, and will go away. The harwood floors will be refinished and sealed. We're choosing not to stain them so their natural beauty will show through.

Brynwood Needleworks - Dining Room Renovation - Radiator Cover

You'll notice that there's a radiator, covered like this one, in the dining room. This one is in the living room. We're going to leave the covers (and the radiators), with a few changes.

Brynwood Needleworks - Dining Room Renovation - Jeanne d'Arc Living Image

I'm inspired by this image I found in a 2010 issue of Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine. The legs on this cover are beautiful, however, their radiator is wall mounted, whereas ours stand directly on the floor. Some of our radiators are painted brown, so they'll all be painted white.

What we'll do is remove the punched metal inserts on ours, add a center support and one across the top (right below the removable top), and then make frames just like these with fly screen over the openings, so the radiators show through. The ends of ours are solid wood, so we'll likely do the same treatment on the ends to allow more heat to escape through the screens.

Brynwood Needleworks - Dining Room Renovation - Choosing Paint

I've been putting paint samples on the wall, too. It's the only way to tell what the color looks like. These are the colors I'm leaning toward at this time. (I think I still have one or two other colors to try before I'm sure.) All the woodwork would be painted in Sherwin Williams - Fundamental White. At least in the downstairs, all the walls would be the very palest grey of Sherwin Williams - First Star. I tried "Passive"(on the left), but I think it's too dark for these rooms. The ceilings will be bright white.

The only other options I'm considering right now are Sherwin Williams - SW 7008 Alabaster for the woodwork and SW 7015 - Repose Gray for the walls. I still love SW 7057 Silver Strand, which we used in our Florida Master Bedroom (See THIS post), but I'm not sure it would work in the farmhouse here. Decisions! Decisions!

Brynwood Needleworks - Dining Room Renovation - Dining Room Chandelier

The UPS driver brought this fixture today. I ordered it through Overstock.com. The copy said that it requires some assembly, so I guess I'd better do that soon to make sure the quality is up to snuff. If it is, it's going to be a beautiful chandelier to hang over our dining room table.