This project officially kicked off back on December 10, a short seven months ago. At the outset, the dining room had yellow drywall on the walls hastily covering original plaster, a 25 plus year old fruit and floral wallpaper border, outlets falling out of the walls, a weird section of repainted ceiling, haphazardly applied molding, and a collection of holes in the ceiling and walls where things like ceiling fans, lights, and thermostats once lived. This is what the room looked like on the day we moved in, October 2014.

Way Before: October 2014

Since 2014 this has been our living room then our dining room. And though we were using the room as a dining room with all of our furniture, every time we were in the room the only things my eye could see were the border, missing fixtures, or problems with the room. I was thrilled when we decided to finally move forward on our renovation of the room!

Before: December 9, 2017

We counted it up and our seven months of effort actually spanned about 35 actual whole or partial days of working on the project. Seven months may sound and feel like a long time, but when you look at the number of days we were actually working on the room, we took just over a month of time start to finish. The end result is a room that not only makes me smile, it makes me downright emotional!

After: July 8, 2018

Yes, December 10 was the day that we decided to lay down some flooring protection and launch into the dining room renovation, removing the yellow layer of drywall. 

Over the subsequent months we took care of the residual problems in the room. We repaired and skimmed the original walls with a fresh coat of lime based plaster...

...either restored or installed historically accurate door, window, and baseboard trim...

...installed two part crown molding...

...and searched for many one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and accessories for the room. Like this antique machine shop cart that will make the perfect drink cart.

After all of our effort it's been wonderful to see the whole room come together over the last several weeks.

When we take a step back to look at the room as a whole, it's easy to lose perspective when considering everything that goes into an overhaul like this. At first glance we just have different color paint, new lighting, different furniture, and items hung on the walls. But when we really get down to the effort and detail that goes into a room like this, my heart starts to smile at how everything has come together.

One of my favorite accessories in the room is the boat painting hanging on the wall by the kitchen. This artwork was a gift from my mom several years ago. She painted it for us back in 2014 as a housewarming gift and I've been looking for the perfect frame and the perfect spot in our home since we received it. 

We ended up ordering a weathered grey wood frame to embrace the waterfront theme I'm going for in the house. The frame is meant for canvas paintings and it was very each to mount the painting in the frame.

When it comes to hanging anything on these plaster walls, we don't want to leave anything to chance. Driving nails into plaster can easily cause cracks due to the pressure the nails tend to put on the wood lath behind the plaster. As a result, Alex likes to mark our holes for hooks and then drills a pilot hole for each nail (all the while ignoring basic common sense when it comes to ladder safety).

On the other side of the space we hung two antique broom drying racks from a broom factory. These both came from Forge Industrial Works in Old Town Alexandria, and were an anniversary gift from Alex. We'd been looking for champagne riddling racks for this section of wall, but when Alex saw these they seemed so much more unique and he thought they might work well in the room. 

These drying racks are old, cracked, crusty, and have a beautifully worn patina about them. To hang them we simply attached a picture wire to the back and hung it on hooks rated for up to 30 pounds.

Since this is a dining room, the focal point of the space is also one of our most favorite new pieces of furniture. We'd been searching for the perfect antique table for some time. In the interim we'd been using a table given to us by Alex's parents, that was used in their home throughout Alex's childhood. As you can see, when we had it temporarily in the room it was a little too small for the space.

Though we'd been expecting to search for our perfect table for months more, we lucked out and found our new table at European Country Living in Springfield, Virginia. This store used to be on King Street in Alexandria, but it recently opened in a new warehouse space in Springfield. The store's owner makes several trips per year to Europe and sends back containers full of amazing antiques. Our particular table is about eight feet long, was built around 1910, and is from a Monastery in Antwerp, Belgium. 

We'd initially thought we would cut the table down slightly, reducing the overall length by about a foot. However, once we had it in place, we changed our seating plan and bought ourselves four new X back chairs, forgoing the seats at either end of the table. This makes the table's current long length work really well in the space.

The other corner of the room is home to an antique cabinet given to us years ago by Alex's parents, and a mirror we scored at a yard sale in Alexandria last summer. 

We softened the space up with a few inexpensive white IKEA drapery panels hung on black metal rods from Target. These are the same rods that we used in the living room, and the hardware for these rods work well with the metal accents on the hanging light fixture in the center of the room. We hung the curtains at 96" high and then used our wallpaper steamer to steam out the wrinkles. 

When I look at this relaxing dining space I ignore the items in the nearby rooms that are unfinished, such as the plastic hanging in the doorway to the hallway (our ongoing project), or the kitchen just behind (that we hope to tackle later this year). Instead I just appreciate how far this room has come in a relatively short amount of time. And we can't ignore the thing that really makes this dining room amazing. The view out the French doors over the back porch and onto the water.

This view, no matter the season, is a stunner! The setting for a meal is so wonderfully picturesque and I feel like we've done a good job of embracing the calm and nautical feel of the setting with the decor of the room. We've attempted to layer in antiques, personal items, and eclectic accessories give the space a very relaxed and comfortable vibe.  

Most of all, the dining room, along with our living room renovation on the other side of the house, and our light office and bathroom renovation at the back of the house, have me excited for what the entire first floor will eventually be. If we're able to finish the main hallway and the kitchen later this year, as we're planning, we will have finished all of the first floor living areas. 

What do you think of our overall renovation? How about the table and its length, does not having a chair at either end of the table work for you, or are you a head of the table person? 

Source List

Here's a brief summary on our sources and selections for the items in this project.

• Lime Plaster: Master Of Plaster
• Primer: Benjamin Moore Advance
• Walls: Sherwin Williams Matte - Agreeable Gray
• Trim: Benjamin Moore Advance High Gloss - White Dove
• Floor Color: No Color - Antique Pine with Pall-X 325 Sealer + Pall-X 98 Matte
• Rug: HomeGoods Wool 8' x 10'
• Rug Pad: Felt and Latex Non Slip Rug Pad
• Table: European Country Living
• Chairs: Modway Gear Modern Farmhouse Cross Back - White
• Curtains: IKEA Plain White LENDA Panels
• Curtain Rods: Target
• Machine Shop Drink and Wine Cart: Lucketts
• Chandelier: Restoration Hardware Outlet - Cruz Burlap Pendent
• Frame for Painting: PictureFrames.com
• Painting: Gift from my mom
• Broom Rack Wall Hangings: Forge Industrial Works
• Antique Cabinet: Gift from Alex's parents, originally from Avon, Ohio
• Small Lamp: HomeGoods
• Cement Based Candle Holders: Target
• Ceramic Table Bowl: HomeGoods

If you've missed some of our other posts on this project and want to get caught up:

• Starting Our Foursquare's Dining Room Renovation - Farewell Fruit and Flowers
• Our Foursquare's Dining Room - Where We Started and Where We're Headed
• Our Dining Room Electrical and Plaster Restoration is in Full Swing
• Plaster Like a Boss: Tackling the Plaster Weld Prep & Structolite Base Coat Steps
• Our Second Time Using Master of Plaster Restoration Plaster
• Two Part Crown Install Tips & Tricks
• Hacking the Length of Our RH Outlet Bargain Cruz Burlap Pendent Light

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Our dining room has taken quite a journey and has seen some major change over the years. When we bought the house in 2003 the previous owner had been using it as a pass through siting area.

Back in 2004 we had it set up as a weird hybrid dining room/living room extension with massive television and speakers. Looking back on it we have very fond memories of these days, but it was far from functional (or attractive, for that matter).

And after our initial renovation efforts we settled on a room that served as a formal dining room, and we absolutely loved it for many years.

But back at the end of October we shared our first steps in making over our row house's red dining room. I really wanted the red walls, chandelier, and faded toile curtains to go! In the span of a few days we'd replaced all of it with a few fresh coats of Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige, some new lightweight subtly pattered curtains, and a big geometric chandelier from Arhaus. 

While the new wall color and chandelier certainly breathed new life into this dining room, we were not yet done with our efforts to refresh the space.

Though our old rug had served us well for over 13 years, I have been ready for a new look for a little while. The room color change may have been the catalyst of this actual makeover, but I had been searching for the right rug for this room for months. Every trip to HomeGoods I was always keeping my eye open for just the right thing, but I finally found the look I was really hoping for while looking through Pottery Barn's website.

I wanted something muted, gray, and wool for the room. I'm a big fan of wool rugs due to their ability to clean pretty easily and the fact that it's a natural material (versus those made with polypropylene, for example). We needed an 8' x 10' and the one I found just happened to be on sale. (Okay, let's be honest, I would only buy it if it were on sale since I love a deal.) So we rolled up the old rug and put down the new.

In a matter of just a few minutes the room transformed again, almost as substantially as it had with the wall color change.

Even Lulu was getting in on the action, wearing her favorite squirrel sweater to match the new color theme of the room.

Another step to our little makeover was to re-cover the dining room chairs. The red plaid had served us very well since I originally applied the covering back in August 2004. My hair was big, my skin was young, my legs were white, and I was wielding an electric staple gun. Watch out world!

But like the red walls and rug, these chair covers had run their course and it was time for them to go. I had found a gorgeous gray and cream herringbone fabric I loved and I felt would be perfect for these chairs. 

Lulu felt she needed to give the new chair fabric a test drive as I was cutting it up for the chairs.

This time around we used an air stapler, which turned out to be far more effective than that old electric gun. Apparently when you buy a tool that's meant to do a specific job (like stapling fabric for furniture), it tends to work better than one that's not. Who knew?

We were very careful to line the pattern up the same on each chair. Before we knew it we had ourselves a complete set of re-covered chairs. I really love the way they look compared to the old coverings.

I also picked up a couple new accessories for the buffet. I found a gourd shaped lamp with gold lined shade and two brass and glass candle holders at HomeGoods, and a friend gave us the beautiful white orchid after Mel passed away. (I'm trying my darnedest to keep this orchid alive.) These few new touches also helped change the room to a fresher look.

With that, the room's relatively quick refresh is complete. With a lot of searching for the right items, and a bit of effort in our overhaul, we had what felt like an entirely new room that feels bigger and brighter.

We still plan to eventually replace some (or much, if you ask Alex) of the mid-century dining set we have in the room with some antique pieces that fit better with the scale of our house. But that's going to be a search that will probably take a while. Until we find those perfect pieces, we'll certainly be using this room to the fullest.  

We even threw a little dinner party to christen this new room. It was a Scottish Whiskey tasting Christmas party, so we picked up new tartan napkins and a matching table cloth that would work perfectly with our new color scheme.

The party, the room, the food, and the whiskey were all a huge hit. Our guests loved how we'd changed the room and kept commenting on how much larger it looked with the lighter color. It was satisfying to hear that our hard work had paid off, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the end results.

I find myself staring at the dining room while sitting in the nearby family room, and I keep telling Alex just how much I love our new room. I'm really looking forward to making some changes to the living room and foyer to continue the lighter, more neutral look I'm after. But that will have to wait until after the original windows are restored. Knowing our speed, I might have to wait until 2022.

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Yes, it's true, this ongoing, on again, off again project has been in its final stages for some time. With our post about the finished custom cabinets we essentially checked the last big box on our punch list before we could really consider this room done.

We've wanted to share the overall end result of this room so many times, but we never allowed ourselves to call it complete and write this blog post until we actually achieved the milestone. Considering our bathroom looked like this when the project started...

...I'm sure you can understand our excitement at the fact it looks like this today.

Can you believe that's the same space? I can't describe to you just how happy this before and after makes us.

The photos we took during our home inspection are some of the only photos we have of the bathroom in its original form.

The angles are bad, lighting is terrible, but it can give you a sense of what we had to work with.

It was a "fine" master bathroom for a while, but we always knew what we wanted it to be. But before we could get there, we had a long road ahead of us.

As we share more photos of our journey, let's take a little trip down memory lane to revisit where we were and how far we've come. Maybe I can even sing you a little tune, as I apparently like to do while working on joint compound and plaster.

When we purchased our home in 2003 the bathroom left something to be desired. It was an odd room that combined a pass through closet with an oversized jacuzzi tub shower...that had no shower curtain. We ultimately put up a makeshift curtain on a copper pipe for a little while.

The homemade plywood vanity with blue tile top was a breeding ground for bacteria and mildew where water would collect in crevices. There were two small and poorly functioning drawers with  open cabinets below where everything would end up piled on the bottom of the opening.

There were more issues than just the vanity. The walls and ceiling were cracked and crumbling in places, the room was always too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and the floor tile was so old and scratched it could never really get clean. There was even a weird ceiling drywall box concealing attic duct work above the toilet that always left us a little perplexed.

Needless to say, when it came time to tear this bathroom apart Wendy and I had no hesitation whatsoever, and she looked forward to its timely demise with tremendous enthusiasm.

Throughout the on again off again efforts in this room, we never stopped daydreaming of the bathroom we would ultimately build. We had a few simple goals in this room, all hopefully achievable. Like so many of our projects, our ultimate goal started life on a napkin sketch while out for drinks and dinner one night.

This bathroom was easily the biggest undertaking of our DIY lives, and we had a lot of wants we hoped we'd be able to fulfill. Looking back on those early days, it was daunting. But in our lives, *super* slow and steady ultimately wins the race. The key was sticking with it while trying to accomplish each of our project wants, along with all of the project needs.

We wanted to make it look beautiful, bright, and appropriate to the age of our home. This meant using marble hex on the floor and white subway tile on the wall of the shower, and white Victorian beadboard around the room.

Our sourcing process was extensive and we probably spent as much time looking for the right fixtures, materials, and approaches as we actually spent working on the project. We found our floor tiles from Amazon, our beadboard from our favorite mill in California, Mad River Woodworks, and subway tile from Renaissance Tile & Bath in Old Town. The list of places we ultimately ordered from is probably longer than my overly wordy blog posts!

We wanted to use the antique cast iron claw foot tub we'd found on eBay (for $150!!!) and picked up from another house in Alexandria in about 2004.

It sat in our basement for over 10 years, then we hired movers to lift all of its cast iron weightiness upstairs and into our bathroom. After a serious cleaning with some miracle stuff we had ourselves a beautiful antique clawfoot tub absolutely perfect for the room. Today it looks right at home like it's been there all its life.

We wanted to turn a vintage piece of furniture into our marble-topped double vanity. We ultimately found the perfect piece in an antique store in Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood.

Then we slowly transformed it (and by that I mean we essentially rebuilt the internal structure to support a marble top) into what we had hoped it would be.

We wanted to solve the heating and cooling issues with radiant floor heat for the winter, and have better ducting for the summer.

We wanted to restore the original 1880's window, fixing the broken sash cords and making the upper sash functional again. We even found historically accurate red dot Samson sash cord to do the job!

We wanted to build custom cabinets completely from scratch to flank the vintage buffet turned vanity. This part of the project took so much longer than expected, but we're completely thrilled with the outcome!

The list of our wants in this project goes on and on and on, which speaks to the overall scale and number of steps in this project. As we carved out little slivers of time in our evenings and weekends we slowly saw our bathroom taking shape. We even had a little help from our friends.

From start to finish this project was massive, time consuming, challenging, fulfilling, tedious, enjoyable, and one that I'm so glad we took on. It tested our patience and let us build our skills and confidence in taking on larger projects in the future.

Every day when I wake up to take a shower, I look forward to the experience. The large and very luxurious frameless glass shower has a panoramic view of the bathroom (so we can look at everything that took us so very long to build), and a great view out of the window into the canopy of the tree off the side of our house.

We're both so very proud of the many small details we know most people will never really notice, but they combine to make a wonderful room.

One of our favorite features of the room ended up being one you can't even see. The radiant floor heat is so wonderful on those cool mornings that would otherwise be painfully frigid on your feet. In the middle of winter I've even found myself standing in the bathroom to warm up a little. Temperature-wise it's the most comfortable room in the house.

We feel that all of our efforts were very well worth the outcome. While Wendy certainly would have liked it to have been in a much shorter timeline, those years of a non-functional bathroom have begun to slowly fade away. 

I look forward to using the confidence, skills, and knowledge we've acquired while working on this room and applying it on other projects in the future.

And to those of you that have been patiently reading along since the early days of our blog six years ago, thank you for sticking with us while we slowly and methodically worked on this project. It's crazy to think about how long this has taken us start to finish, and it's even crazier to think about everything else we've worked on and finished in that time. I'm sure there are some people that thought we'd never be able to say "we're done" with our bathroom project. Honestly, I think one of those people is actually Wendy. But if there's one thing about us that's good to know, it may take us a while but we'll eventually get the job done. If you'd like to run through all of our posts about the Master Bathroom project, we've tagged them all and have them available on the Master Bathroom page.

What's the longest you've ever worked on a single project start to finish? And how would your spouse feel if you exceeded your original estimate on completion by about 1000%? After this I'm starting to think that chronic DIYers might want to add a new section to their wedding vows, "In sickness and in health, regardless of timeline, 'til death do us part."  

.

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As the years have passed, I've learned to better appreciate the approach of curating a carefully selected mix of both new and old. Working in vintage finds, souvenirs and art from our travel adventures, and pieces passed down to us from family and friends along with new pieces creates a more layered, inviting, and less cookie cutter look. It's ultimately a formula that I've found results in the successful completion of a space that is comfortable, interesting to look at, and reflective of our personalities and who we are. 

Now that the majority of our focus is on renovating, decorating, and projects in our new home, my approach to its decor is to heavily use these lessons I've learned over the years. While many people's first reaction in a new space is to run out and buy as many news things to fill it as they can, we're taking a much more measured (and budget friendly) approach to our home's decor. We've been extremely fortunate to have many friends and family members gift furniture and accessories that they could no longer use. So last year when our neighbors offered us a pair of vintage garden chairs that didn't quite work in their home (and couldn't be returned), we jumped at the chance to become their new owners.

As you can see, this pair of vintage metal arm chairs have a beautiful patina and I loved the blend of several shades of green and turquoise. However, they were pretty rusty, so I knew I wanted to clean them up while still preserving much of the original paint. The goal was to both seal them to better protect them from outdoor weather while preserving their patina, and also preserving the pants of anyone that might choose to sit on these beauties. 

My friend, Sarah, and I tackled this project together, and I have to say not only did it go much faster with a second set of hands, but it was a lot more fun too. We set up the chairs and supplies outside, enjoyed the sunshine and each other's company, and got to work giving each chair a good once over with steel wool. You can see the dramatic difference in the photos above and below after just a good scrubbing with the steel wool pads.

We used both "0" and "00" steel wool to knock off any loose rust. The process was a little slow, but the transformation was incredible. I thought that the longer we scrubbed, the more paint we risked removing. But instead, as the top layer of rough rust was removed, much of the original paint became more visible and more vibrant.

Instead of mostly brown with a little aqua and turquoise, now we had mostly green and turquoise with a few brown areas. We were thrilled with the result. We scrubbed and scrubbed until we were satisfied with the color and our efforts to remove the bulk of the rust. We then wiped each chair thoroughly with a clean rag, and prepared to move onto the next step of the project. 

We opted to seal each of the chairs with Penetrol, a paint conditioner for oil based paint. It's a paint additive that allows oil based paint to dry more smoothly and without brush marks, and it's made for exterior oil based and alkyd paints. We had a commenter several years ago suggest using this on the cast iron grate in door of our home in Old Town, as it would seal the patina while still protesting the cast iron. This approach works well for an outdoor application since this product is formulated for outdoor use. One thing to note, it's really important to use Penetrol and not Flotrol, as Flotrol is water based and would actually rust the chairs (or any bare ferrous metals) when applied.

We applied a coat of the Penetrol with foam brushes, and the work was quick and easy.  I do have to say, the fumes are really strong so I would recommend working with this product outside or in a well ventilated area.

The difference in color after applying the Penetrol was amazing. The color of the original paint was further intensified, and we were now left with a rich, saturated matte to glossy finish. 

A big storm then started to roll in, so we moved the chairs indoors so they could continue to dry. 

For good measure, we left them inside for the next couple weeks (since we weren't going to be at the house anyway). I think we could have called them fully dry after about 24-36 hours. Our next trip back we moved them outdoors onto the front porch where they'll now live. 

I love how the chairs pick up the light aqua of the front door as well as the darker green hues of our home's roof. Here's a look (at an old photo) for reference.

With the arrival of spring, are you doing anything to spruce up your home's curb appeal? Do you have any ideas for making our porch area more welcoming? If so, I'd love to hear about it the comments.

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That's right! We've been slowly working on this project since early 2015 and can finally say we're done! (Well, okay, 98% done.) But more importantly, we can also say we absolutely love it!

I mean, just look at the before from the very same angle!!

What a difference!

Over the last several weeks we've been sharing the major progress we've made when it comes to those final punch list items. All the while we've been loading in the furniture and decor that we've been patiently waiting to put to use. But this doesn't mean we haven't been sneaking peeks along the way.

Way back in late 2015, after the floors had been refinished but before we started work on the plaster, we actually moved the couch and rug we'd purchased into the shell of the living room to get a sense for how the space may end up looking.

Like any good long running project, we've both had a vision all along, and that little glimpse was just enough to confirm that we seemed to be headed in the right direction. And it was also a sufficient test to tell us that the small gray chairs we'd picked up for either side of the fireplace were going to be way too small. We knew it right away. Heck, Lulu even knew it right away.

Since that early test we kept working away on the room as well as several other projects. In that time we trudged ahead in the living room, we also finished the small downstairs bathroom and office, worked on many outdoor projects, and even started the hallway. But all of our work in the living room finally came to a head after we wrapped up painting and were able to move things into the room for real.

In these photos you'll notice that the fireplace mantel was a work in progress while we were getting the room ready. This was the plan all along and it was primarily because we really just couldn't wait any longer to start using the room.

On the day we finished painting I could not wait to start loading things into place. The faint smell of freshly dried paint hung in the air as we started moving in the first of the furniture destined for the room's "entry" area. 

The fact we have an "entry" area in this room is one of the interesting things about this room, simply because the dimensions of the room feel pretty massive. At 13 feet wide and over 30 feet long, it's the single largest room I've ever had the pleasure of decorating. But it also means that it can't really be treated as one room. Here's a reminder of my plan for this room.

As I mentioned in my room design post, we're actually treating this as three separate spaces. After the room's "entry," we have the main central living space, and then the reading nook with views out over the water. All of this space meant that I'd need my fair share of decor and accessories, a small hoard I'd been collecting over time. 

On the side opposite of the pine dresser, I placed a large plant in a natural basket and a large lantern that was a gift from my aunt. It certainly softened the space quite nicely. In truth, I really wanted a fiddle leaf fig for this corner, but after pricing them out (at almost $200 for a large one!), I decided that this $17 palm was a much better fit for my budget and my black thumb.

We also have two windows in the room on either side of the fireplace, and I wanted to layer my window treatments since they're south facing and get a lot of sunlight throughout the day. Here we used some lined bamboo roman shade blinds hung in each window.

The blinds I chose are one of the new offerings at Lowe's where you can have them custom cut to size right there in the store. I purchased the box, we made sure they looked good by holding them in the windows, then we packaged them back up exactly how they'd been packed before and took them back to the store to be cut. This is the first time I've used this service, and I must say, it was pretty cool how it works. We specified the measurements and the clerk in Lowe's put the whole box into a cutting drawer.

The machine then moved the box to the right locations based on our measurements, and a small circular saw made several small passes, cutting the ends of the box off and making the blinds exactly the size we needed.

It was a great way to get an inexpensive but still custom sized set of lined bamboo blinds.

To add an additional layer of softness to the windows I opted to hang inexpensive white IKEA panels on black target curtain rods. This gave the windows a layered look and added a good amount of texture in the room.

The day we were loading in the furniture was simply beautiful when it came to the weather, and we absolutely made the most of it.

The area near the French doors is a nice spot for a reading nook, so we placed a large chair and ottoman from Ballard Designs, a floor lamp from Target, and a cute side table from the Pottery Barn Outlet.

I hung a beautiful original painting in a lovely grey frame from HomeGoods of all places (who knew they sell original art?), and just love how it looks hanging above the chair on the wall. 

Everything about this room feels so wonderfully calming. We used a few of our own photos from around the house printed in black and white, hung in pre-matted frames also from HomeGoods. 

This is one of the most fulfilling projects we've ever completed. Everything looks just how we'd hoped back when we decided to remove the dividing wall from the room.

The openness of the room and natural light it receives, along with the views of the water, make it such a wonderfully peaceful setting. We also decided to replace the existing ceiling fan in this room with one that would better blend into the white ceiling. We looked for months to find the right one, and finally landed on this one from Hayneedle. We purchased an outdoor dining set from this site a few years back, and were really happy with their prices and quality of their merchandise. This fan is no exception. It's one of least offensive looking fans I've ever seen (I think we can all agree that ceiling fans aren't ever the design star in a room's design), and the color is a perfect match for the room.

The center sitting area against the shiplap behind the couch feels perfectly suited for the room. Just to the side of the couch is a marble topped antique table with cast iron base, a beautiful gift from a client of mine given to me when her Dad was downsizing. 

Behind the couch, the shiplap addition to disguise the support posts was the perfect decision for the room. Not only does it do a good job of covering an undesirable aspect of the room, it also breaks up what would otherwise be an expanse of grey wall.

I found the calming print hung above the couch at HomeGoods, and the antique trunk was a gift from Alex's parents. Alex grew up with that trunk in their living room, and when they recently redecorated this room, they were no longer using it, so we jumped at the chance to add it to our house.

The fireplace looks wonderfully at home in this room now that the mantel is a better size for the room. We're still shopping for the right chairs for either side of the fireplace (the reason the room is only 98% done), but we're not in a rush. We already purchased the wrong pair on final sale, so we've decided to take our time to ensure the next purchase is the right one for the space.

As you can probably tell from my description, we're very excited with how this turned out, and we absolutely can't wait to go back to the house and enjoy the room each weekend. 

This project has energized us for the work we'll be tackling this summer. We need to be sure to make time to relax and enjoy the home in addition to charging ahead with projects, but this is just the burst we need keep moving to transform the whole house into a relaxing getaway on the water! 

If you want to get caught up on our past living room posts to understand how we got to where we are today, here's the whole list.

• Removing a Load Bearing Wall to Create the Room of Our Dreams
• Ripping Off Drywall in Favor of Original Plaster
• Installing Shiplap Walls for Interest and to Disguise Unsightly Structural Support
• Mantel Madness: Choosing a New Design
• Plaster Restoration Next Steps Part 1: Base Coat with Structo-Lite
• Plaster Restoration Next Steps Part 2: Master of Plaster's Beautiful Lime Base Coat
• Plaster Restoration Part 3: Master of Plaster Finish Coat with No Sanding!
• The Art of Coping: Installing Reproduction Molding to Match the Original
• How Installing Two-Part Crown Molding Nearly Ended in Divorce
• Paint: How It's Never as Quick and Easy as the Television Shows Lead You to Believe 
• Our Living Room Design Plan
• A Custom DIY Fireplace Mantel Beneath Our Shiplap

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