A Peacock Blue Dining Room

July 25, 2017 / 40 Comments

All of the Peacock Blues

Yes. I know. It’s been a while. And where the hell have I been? Don’t I know people are waiting for a post? Do I even care about their disappointment? How selfish am I that I’ve deprived my followers of… well, of me! For months?! Turns out, pretty freaking selfish. I haven’t even thought about you guys… like, at all. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of my summer. Consequently, I haven’t done all that much on my crappy house. Lucky for you, I did finish my pretty, Peacock Blue dining room before the summer even started. I was just too lazy to write about it.

Hey, remember this?

peacock blue swatches painted all over walls

You can call that indecision. Or pickiness. Or psychosis. Whatever. I found it! The perfect shade of Peacock Blue!

paint can lid with custom formula for peacock blue color

That’s not just a paint can. That’s a custom mix. My secret perfect shade. That I just shared with all of you. (Shh. Don’t tell anyone.)

But, before we get to the color portion of this post, we have other stuff to discuss.

stairs to basement with no railing and brick wall

Five years with no stair railing: Zero fatalities. Zero paralysis. I’m happy about those stats. Especially since, statistically speaking, I would have most likely been the dead/paralyzed person, being the one who lives here and all.

I drew up plans for exactly how I wanted my railing constructed. All I needed was a welder who didn’t think that two day’s labor was worth two thousand dollars. I finally found one, but it was not an easy task. Seriously, though. I may be in the wrong line of work.

stairs to basement with iron railing and brick wall

So, that’s done. Next was a whole lot of crappy prep work. Spackling and caulking and priming.

peacock blue paint swatches with spackling all over to prep dining room for painting

Dining room walls primed for painting

My Fancy Dining Room

Next, let’s talk about my plans for molding. Of course, crown molding (duh), but I thought it would also be cool to do fancy panel molding too. Because, you know. I’m fancy. I did two layouts:

a drawing of different layouts for picture frame panel molding on dining room walls I chose “B”, and then went and bought some long ass molding…

long crown molding loaded into car and poking out of window

And then I installed it. Like a bad ass.

crown molding hangers in place to help hang molding

Those red things are hangers to help a person install crown molding all by themselves. A person with no friends to help them. Or, more likely, a control freak who won’t let anyone help them. (That’s me. I’m the second one.) (And whether you’re also a control freak or just unpopular, you can get your own hangers here.)

Installing crown molding with the help of hangers

I addressed this support post too…

support post with trim added to cover it up

And then I installed the panel molding.

Panel molding installed on dining room walls Pretty.

(In case you’re wondering, installing panel molding sucks a lot and then caulking and painting it sucks some more. You can try it yourself, but don’t hate me when you realize how much it sucks. Remember, I told you. It sucks a lot…)

But, pretty.

Painting a Dark Color Sucks

Finally, the paint. I sprung for Benjamin Moore’s most expensive “Aura” paint. I had my doubts, but the salesman assured me even a dark color like my beloved Peacock Blue would cover in one coat. Yay!

one coat of peacock blue paint with poor coverage on dining room wall

So, anyway, he’s dead to me. Here’s Egor modeling in front of two coats…

a cat on a ladder in front of a peacock blue painted wall

And here’s three freaking coats. Three.

Dining room painted peacock blue with white primed trim

I kind of feel like I might have ended up doing four, but I’m not sure. I can’t remember. I’ve already started repressing the memory. Painting sucks.

Anyway, the trim is only primed in that photo above. I just wanted you to see how it looks ‘white’ because I just know someone’s going to ask me why I didn’t paint the trim white, so this is my answer. It looks crappy white. See? I wanted something darker and richer with this deep blue. I went with Seal Skin by Sherwin Williams. I’ve used that color before here in my bay window. So here’s the darker trim:

Painting a dining room peacock blue with dark trim

I’m loving how the trim looks with the Peacock Blue. I’m going to paint the radiators too. And, of course, I now have to repaint the trim in the living room to match. All of you white trim people should prepare yourselves. That’s coming. You have plenty of time to get used to the idea though. You know me. Snail’s pace and all… Trust me. It’s gonna look awesome.

Anyway, here’s the almost finished dining room.

Peacock blue dining room with picture molding and chandelier

Seriously, guys. The color is perfect. I could not be happier with it. Totally worth the psychosis. I didn’t take a close up pic of the chandelier, but this is the one I got if you’re interested:

OK, so I hope that we’re friends again. This was a pretty good post, right? I mean I put lots of pics in there and stuff. You still like me, right? Yeah, you know you do…

I’m working on a post about my trip to China. (BTW, I went to China!) It was an amazing trip and I think it needs to be documented and shared with all of you. Something to look forward to… Eventually…

Happy summer, friends!

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40 Comments

  • Missy

    July 29, 2017 at 10:11 am Reply

    I’m glad you’ve FINALLY given the people what they want. It’s beautiful – everything about it – and I’d love to have a nice steak dinner on that table. I know you know how to make it just perfect…

  • foo

    July 29, 2017 at 10:17 am Reply

    I pinned the heck out of that “semi” finished dining room. Love the dark walls and painted trim. I love that you are not a follower of the all white trim trend. Do people not look at historical buildings? The trim was not all white.

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:04 pm

      Right? I don’t mind white trim – I actually really do like the white with my gray walls in the living room, but I HATED it with the peacock. I’m looking forward to seeing how the dark will look in the rest of the house. Not looking forward to doing the work though…

  • Marilyn

    July 29, 2017 at 10:47 am Reply

    Well. Finally! I’ve been waiting like forever! It aS worth it though, it looks amazing all together and YOU are so damn talented and such an eye for unique STYLE! Love you V

  • Em

    July 29, 2017 at 12:17 pm Reply

    I think I’d be pretty flipping proud of myself if I were you. That looks super cool. One coat…ba hahahahaha. I fell for that with Valspar… fell for it a second time with Benjamin Moore…as in moore than one coat.

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:11 pm

      I didn’t think I’d get away with ONE, but I didn’t expect it to look like I painted with watercolor! Grrr! lol @ Benjamin Moore… than one coat…

  • Barbara H.

    July 29, 2017 at 12:25 pm Reply

    I have only one thing to say after looking at your spectacular dining room. Have your started thinking of possible new names for your blog since this is not looking too much like a crappy house anymore?

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:12 pm

      I need to show you guys the outside. Oh, so crappy out there… It’ll be a while before I have to think about a name change

  • Jill

    July 29, 2017 at 12:30 pm Reply

    Just the other day I was wondering what happened to you and hoping you didn’t fall down the railingless stairs. You’re alive! Yay! And the stairs have a beautiful railing!

    Wow!

    Love the paint color. (BTW paint salesmen lie worse than Satan.)

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:17 pm

      Haha yes, I’m alive! I survived the gaping hole in my floor! It’s comforting to know that’s not how I will die.

  • Linda Theodorou

    July 29, 2017 at 6:03 pm Reply

    I was so excited to see a post from you.

    An absolutely beautiful room, everything is gorgeous. You are quite the designer/decorator. Can hardly wait for more posts, I’ll sit here quietly waiting!!

  • Black Beauty

    July 29, 2017 at 7:52 pm Reply

    Oh! My goodness! where the hell have you been! I have checked my emails for a while, to keep up with your progress! Oh! i love you! a woman after my own Intelligence! You have splendid remarkable taste, It’s breath taking what you have done with your crappy house!

    Kudo’s

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:22 pm

      You’re so nice! And perceptive! I DO have splendid remarkable taste! And it sounds like you do too

  • sharon turner

    July 30, 2017 at 4:03 am Reply

    Looks terrific, and it’s all coming together. I’m curious about the status of the kitchen. We left off with the installation of the countertops, so you must be finished by now. Or not?

    • My Crappy House

      July 31, 2017 at 12:48 pm

      Thank you! The kitchen is about done, but I still have to install the backsplash. I want to have that done for my final kitchen post. Once the summer is winding down and the weather gets a little cooler. That’s my plan, anyway…

  • Nyree

    July 31, 2017 at 10:37 am Reply

    I was super excited to see this post, as I check every week for a new one! Your dining looks great just like everything else you do—you and Egor soooooo ROCK!

    • My Crappy House

      January 3, 2018 at 2:08 pm

      I don’t know why I’m only seeing this just now, but that tile link is awesome! I don’t know which post it is in response to, so I don’t know if you were recommending it for me or for you, but it’s really pretty. I ended up using an arabesque tile for my kitchen. I’ll be posting about it this coming year. Eventually. Happy New Year!

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