Room By Room: The Dining Room

Today I'm going to talk about the dining room!  The space was formerly being used as a family room, and was dominated by a large woodburning stove, which was nice but rather outdated.  Since we now had a gas fireplace in the living room, the odds of us taking the time to set up and use this stove when we could just flip a switch and have instant fire in the other room were not very good.  Also once the kitchen was expanded it no longer made sense for the roomto be a family room, as it was really too small to fit a couch or television in.  Finally, if I wanted a library the dining room had to be moved somewhere.  So we said goodbye to the family room, and trust me; we're not missing it.  Check out a slideshow of the construction progression after the jump.

The room was already fairly accessible, though the sliding door out to the deck was too narrow for Jer to fit through and had a substantial lip up, making it impossible for him to access the backyard, and of course the carpet didn't help.  The new sliding door is currently being adjusted to allow Jeremy full access, and a tiny ramp up (yet to be installed) will eliminate the problem of the height of the sliding door track.  The original room was very dark, with one overhead light, so lots of can lighting and that lovely chandelier were installed to brighten things up.  The new layout makes a lot more sense, as we can easily and quickly transfer food to the table from the kitchen rather than Jeremy having to balance it on his lap all the way into the living room area, and the space is now ideal for entertaining.

Our old kitchen table was a trestle table with a support that ran right under the middle, making it well nigh impossible to roll under in an adult wheelchair.  The new table is not only easy for Jer to use, but it (along with the chairs) is made out of earth-friendly bamboo.  New paint, millwork, floor and china cabinet finishes out the room.

I'm in love with the paint color (Sherwin Williams' Halcyon Green) on the walls.  I'm such an amateur photographer that I don't think I'm capturing it very well, but it seems to change color from blue to green and back again depending on the time of day and the weather.  My grandmother just gifted us with her blue-and-white Rice pattern china set, and by a lucky coincidence it blends beautifully with the walls! 

Tomorrow, the mudroom!

~Jess