Porpoise in the Dining Room

Josh has really been wanting to get the dining room done so that we can have his brothers over for a nice dinner when they're in town in August. The off-white and mauve color scheme we moved into just wasn't cutting it.

We really want something more elegant and formal, like this:

Okay, maybe without the lucite chairs, but you get the idea. We'll eventually do full wainscoting on the lower half, but it doesn't make sense to do it when we plan to put in hardwood in the next 1-2 years since we'd just have to take it out again. So, while I was out for a girls night last weekend Josh painted the wall below the chair rail white:

 

See those two paint swatches on the wall? The lighter one is Sherwin Williams Dorian Gray and the darker one is Sherwin Williams Gauntlet Gray. After I read this article on picking a gray on Houzz, I decided not to go with either and switched from the "cool neutrals" to the "warm neutrals". The winner ended up being Sherwin Williams Porpoise:

It's a gray with a hint of brown and I love it. Here it is on the top half of the walls:

You may be able to tell that the window casing has been removed, which is another part of the redesign. I'll be switching it out for something a bit thicker and more formal and adding crown molding. For now, that's about all that I can do since any other molding elements would be affected by the flooring change.

Hopefully this will be completed in the next two weeks, but there is definitely a lot more to be completed:
- putting another coat of white on the lower wall
- changing brown electrical outlets out for white
- painting base molding and chair rail white
- installing, caulking and painting the new window casing
- installing, caulking and painting crown molding
- putting in a new light fixture

Curtains are also on the docket, but choosing a fabric has been challenging. I'm hoping that as the room comes together the decision will be easier.