Dining Room Renovation Demo

Hi there!

It’s time for the dining room renovation demo! This was actually the first room I did a little work in when right before we moved in.

You can see what it looked like before before and what I did HERE

And the pictures below will show you what the room looked like before demo this time.

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Dining Room Design Plan

My plan for this room, as well as the rest of the house, is to stay true to the home’s architectual style and era (1880s Folk Victorian) while also bringing it up to date. I’ll always lean heavily towards what was here originally, but I love a good modern take on it too.

From the ceiling down:

Moulding, Paint, and Wainscoting

I’ll be installing the same wider crown moulding we put in the kitchen. I’m also planning to bring a darker bolder color to the walls and a softer white to the trim details. I’ll carry that color onto the beadboard wainscoting. Yep the beadboard wainscoting will be back! It will be a bit taller and will be reclaimed tongue and groove beadboard planks like those that I used upstairs. Not that there’s anything wrong with beadboard paneling.! We used it in a bathroom in our last home. But since I have a connection to architectural salvage now I want to take full advantage, because why not right?

Floors

The floors will also be replaced. Again, there’s nothing wrong with these floors. They’re pretty but they aren’t original and are only in this room. I actually looked for them when we first moved in, but didn’t have any luck. I’m grateful for that now though because we recently made the decision to install reclaimed wood floors throughout the main level that match the original wood floors I refinished upstairs. And I have to say that’s the MOST EXCITING part of this renovation for me! Eeek!

Dining Room Issues

It’s hard to tell from those pictures all the issues going on in this room, but I’ll share some below to give you a better idea.

The beadboard paneling was installed without removing the baseboards. You can also see the seams in the paneling. The baseboards themselves have bubbles in the paint caused from painting latex paint over the top of oil based paint.

Issues Continue

Several outlets in the room don’t work and one of them was raised up and cut through the chair rail. You can also see a hole cut through the wood floors.  The wood floors also were laid without removing the baseboards, and they don’t meet up properly to any of the doorways.

There were cracks in the chimney and places where it was soft. I was curious to see what was going on behind the plaster when I exposed it.

 

Dining Room Demo Week One

The first week of demo always allows you to see what’s going on and then you can form a plan from there.

Exposing the Chimney

The first week my bestie Jess and I exposed the chimney. The plaster came down like a dream! It had been redone possibly some time in the 1990s based on an old newspaper we found. It seemed like it wasn’t mixed properly and was very powdery.

This was the third chimney I exposed in this house and fourth total. I followed the same procedure you can read about HERE! The chimney actually had a wider beadboard wainscoting around it too! I couldn’t help but feel like we’re on the right track with our wainscoting decision! And I found it so interesting that the original builders had actually inlaid wood in two spots on the chimney for it to attach to.

Flooring

We removed the flooring, which was a ton of work! Just like in the kitchen they were stapled in with some crazy long staples that don’t come out with the flooring…yay! Lol!

Paneling

After removing the paneling we found a layer of very old particle board. Behind that was shiplap. The top 2/3s of the room had been gutted and drywalled. So in order for the new reclaimed beadboard to sit flush with the drywall we’d have to dig in deeper.

Dining Room Demo Week 2

During this phase of the demo we removed the layer of particle board and then shiplap to reveal the brick insulation and studs. I always LOVE to see how the house was constructed! It feels like such a privilege! It’s also nice to be able to check for any issues.

After those layers were removed I had to cut off a section of the drywall, essentially the red painted part, because I want the beadboard to be a bit taller and to sit flush under it. After that came the cleanup, which was a job within itself!

Dining Room Renovation Demo

After week one of demo was over and I realized there would probably be a whole second week I decided to wait to share it all at once on here. I can’t believe what a mess it is, but that’s when you know it’s about to get really good right? 😉 Lol! And I’m happy to report that I’ve started heading in the other direction putting the room back together! Let me know if you have any questions! I cannot wait to share progress with y’all! You can also follow along daily on Instagram @midcounty_journal.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!