Our dining room is at the center of our 1860’s Italianate home. It is a large room with tall ceilings, and I couldn’t help but envision what it was like in it’s original glory. This era of homes often had murals on the walls either hand painted or in wallpaper form. It felt too risky to try at first, but after going through countless paint and wallpaper samples I kept going back to this idea. Today we are sharing a break down of our dining room renovation step by step – the elements we used, paint colors, and process.
A blank slate is my favorite to work with. The first thing we did was think through the colors and overall look and feel. Our family will gather here for meals and celebrations for years to come so we wanted it to feel warm and inviting as well as tell a story. Since this room only receives minimal natural light from the side windows we were careful with not going too dark and moody.
I know due to the size of the room we needed to add some decorative chair railing and molding, and I considered so many different types of wallpaper. After finding this pastoral wallpaper mural, I worked with the etsy seller to create a mockup of a wrap around design. It took me a while to bite the bullet, but I knew I would regret it if we didn’t go for it. The pattern was mirrored all the way around the room. We found a wallpaper install team to help us get the wide panels up in one day, and the room felt like it had come to life! (I shared a whole post on where to find scenic wallpaper murals here.)
After testing several blues and greens, Gabe suggested I pull an old favorite color from the paint deck: Pigeon by Farrow and Ball. The same color as our old kitchen. It is the perfect calm and peaceful green that complimented the mural as well as the rooms it will stand between.
The chair railing was a flexible molding which made it much easier to install around some of the bevels in the wall. Gabe used his trusty rusty laser level to align evenly and secure with a nail gun. (We spray painted these in our garage first!)
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Total cost for 6 chair railing panels: $78.00
We found these pre-made decorative box moldings that would save us a significant amount of time to install. We found the cost to be well worth the time saved. They can be applied with a spray adhesive, but we chose to use a nail gun to make sure they were smoothly and securely installed over some of the uneven parts of the wall. Gabe and I took shifts hand painting over once installed and nail holes patched. We found this process easier than painting before hand and having to touch up several patched nail holes.
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Total cost for 20 panels: $415
We got a peek at the original crown molding of this home and it was an ornate plaster. It isn’t easy to find contractors willing to install crown molding as it is not an easy task, and is time consuming. Gabe has always been a self learner, and after researching for a bit he decided to give it a try. We chose a flex style oranate crown molding that was similar to the original plaster crown molding! We had some interesting corners and some uneven walls since this is an old home, but after some trial and error he was able to install using a good laser level and nail gun.
We pre-painted these before installing with a spray paint gun. I chose School House White by Benjamin Moore to add some visual height back to the room and blend it with the ceiling. Since this room gets minimal natural light, color flooding this room would have made it a little too dark and gloomy.
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Total cost for 12 crown molding panels: $492
I had been scouring FB marketplace for an antique chandelier for months and one day stumbled on this beauty. I couldn’t believe the price and it was just what we were looking for to match the elegance and timeless beauty of the room. (There are several similar French Empire style chandeliers here if you are looking for one!)
The ceiling medallion was relatively easy to install thankfully! Also used a nail gun for this. It is incredible what the ornate details can do to a room!
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Total cost for ceiling medallion and chandelier: $145
There a few updates we still have to make like painting two of the doors Pigeon green, painting in some details on the mural, and getting some new chairs! We have loved using this room though, and have no regrets after going with this wrap around mural. It was so much time invested, but we know we will make the most of this space for years to come!
Room sources:
Pastoral wall mural
Paint Colors:
Pigeon by Farrow and Ball
School House White by Farrow and Ball
Chandelier: FB marketplace (similar)
Ceiling medallion
Dining Table
Rug
Box molding
Chair railing
Crown molding
Door knobs
Light switches
Vases and Florals
