Fixin' Up Friday: Painting the Dining Room

Remember last week? I left you with a cliff hanger.  

cliff·hang·er  (klfhngr)

n.

1. A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense.

2. A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode.

3. A contest so closely matched that the outcome is uncertain until the end.

(Definition from here) 

(That first one is my favorite. :) ) 

My mom taught me about those when I was in about 3rd grade. Anyway... Back to the blog. Oh yes, I left you with a cliff hanger. Member I had a bit of paint left in my tray and HAD to use it up and then Brad said, "Hey, that looks good, why don't you keep painting?" So I did? Do you remember that? Maybe a picture will help refresh your memory:  

 

To best explain the transformation I thought I would provide you with a few before and afters. 

Before, front room looking into the dining room:

 After: front room looking into the dining room

 

Before, dining room from the french door:

After,  dining room from the french door:

 

If you can tell from this picture, I continued the top color into the kitchen above the cabinets. 

Before, dining room from the kitchen:

After, dining room from the kitchen:

 

(Way) Before, back corner of living room looking into dining room:

After, back corner of living room looking into dining room:

As you can see in the before pictures, the color on the bottom was very UT orange (which I LOVE! on t-shirts.) and the color on the top was pretty peach (verging on pink). I was happy to get it covered up - even if the results now are a little "sterile." No, I don't love it, but we are hoping once I get the trim painted a crisp white (it is "cream = looks dirty" now) it will help. If not, I may try painting it a little bit darker.

Hopefully this color swatch will help, Manor Stone (third from the bottom) is the color of the living room wall and the bottom of the dining room. Chowder (the top color swatch) is the color of the top of the dining room and kitchen. I am thinking (maybe) of painting the top of the dining room and kitchen Ancient Stone (second from top) to bring a little more warmth into the space. But I will paint the trim and possibly wait until we have better lighting in the kitchen and dining room (good-bye florescent!) before making the final decision. (Oh, before I forget - the colors are from Valspar)

So that is our Fixin' Up Friday post for today.  I think the after shots are definitely better than the befores, even though I am not thrilled with the final product. Thankfully paint can easily be changed. Have you ever made a bad paint color choice? Was the second, or even third try a charm?