Updating Mom and Dad's Dining Room

One of the earliest renovation projects I can remember was something that I ended up getting in trouble for!  I was sitting at home one day (my parents' home) when I decided to tackle a project on my own.  My mom and dad's dining room was quite outdated, so I decided to bring it up to speed.

The old wall before I started ripping things down.  :)

For me, that simply meant ripping off the old wood paneling from the wall.  I have never been a fan of wood paneling, and this was no exception.  I learned that you can get lucky when you rip it off (a solid wall exists behind) or not so lucky (nothing there).  Well, I kind of straddled the two...

For when I ripped off the paneling (easy to do), I found a beautiful solid wall...that had been the recipient of a water heater leak from years ago.  We simply had no idea of knowing what lay behind the walls...but I had a very uneven wall towards the floor.

We found major water leak damage from the old water heater inside that closet.

No worries, I thought.  I'll just mud it myself.  Well, this is when I learned that some projects are best left to professionals.  No matter how many times I tried, I just couldn't get the mud to even out.  What a skill that is!

The wall after being properly mudded by a skilled professional.

This little project would end up turning rather big (mine almost always do).  For I not only took off the wood paneling, but I also took down the old yellow bar from the opposite wall.  We kids have memories of doing our homework here, but it served absolutely no purpose for the current parent situation.  And removing it would give much more size to the room.  The wood paneling on that side of the room was actually the backs of cabinets, so I decided to leave it up.  I read that you could mud the grooves between the panels and then paint the smooth surface.

The opposite wall complete with baseboard heating and a bar...and more wood paneling!

Well, that was sort of true.  I had to sand the glossy wood surface down first to make it rough.  Then you needed to add a skimcoat of plaster (did I mention I'm not good in this area?).  Needless to say, Dad had to unwillingly fork out a few hundred dollars to have this work done by a professional.

Me sanding down the glossy surface to prepare it for mud.

My not so smooth work (in more ways than one).  The grooves were still noticeable.

The completed wall after paint.  Good-bye paneling!!!

The updated room with fresh carpet, too!

The painted wood paneling.  So much cleaner.  No more breakfast bar.

But with that said, I think we can all agree that the home looks much better.

It was a neat project, and it's one that I cut my teeth on.  We had a few setbacks, and I was told to stop being so aggressive in starting new projects, but it's one that I learned a great deal on!  Plus the room looks so much better, too.  :)