In honor of freaky (house) friday-my dining room

I fell in love with the blog hooked on houses at first sight.  It was like finding a 12 step program for house obsession and it made my heart warm to know I wasn't the only one who did this:

I think the best time to take a walk is at dusk–after people have started turning on their lights, but before they have closed their blinds!   (from Julia's quiz "are you hooked on houses")

She does all the snooping for you:  celebrity homes, movie homes, homes for sale.  So, when she announced her "freaky house friday" blog party, I thought I would jump in and share with my dining room. 

My house, just 3 short years ago, was decorated in early 90's mauve, colonial blue and floral overkill.  Just about every room had some sort of stencil or adornment to remind us that flowers are great, really great.  The dining room, though, was really something.  Here's a look at a few of the "befores"

I should also mention that the living room and dining room were covered in mauve carpeting, which we will discuss at another time.  For now, just check out that awesome paneling.  I don't really know which part of it caught my eye first, the irridescent floral  border that was only about 24" from the baseboard or the interesting choice to paint the upper part of it white, and leave the bottom in all its wooden glory. 

Whichever it was, the dining room was now mine.  Even before we had moved in, when I was imagining how I would decorate this house, I wanted a very traditional dining room.  I love toile-love it!  So, in my perfect dining room, it would be toile, chair rail and then a neutral color. 

Because we were very new at renovating and had just spent about every dollar we had on the house, I didn't want to rip out the paneling for fear of what was behind it.  Even now, I am glad I didn't take it out, because after ripping out the kitchen ceiling, I know what I would have been in for. 

So, I... filled in every groove in the paneling with joint compound
every groove
every one
with joint compound

during that process, it looked a little something like this:

I can't show you what I looked like while doing this, but I am pretty sure it was scary!  Even the hulk seems a little annoyed with the whole project. 

The process was time consuming and at times frustrating, but eventually, it looked something like this:

This was before we did the floors and got our new table.  And, judging from the china cabinet, it was also before I owned any dishes. 

Here is the dining room today-pretending to be ready for Easter:

And here is a blurry shot of that same wall and the closet door from the before picture.  That little blur is my son who just got a new scooter. 

I think my dining room has definitely come out of freakiness.  We eat every meal in this room, the kids do their homework, I spend many days working on the laptop at this table-it's our favorite spot to gather.