It has been a few months since I’ve had a total room revamp in the house, so I’m delighted today to talk you through my plans for redecorating the dining room! The dining room, which is joined onto the kitchen, has needed some love for a while. The walls are stained, the skirting chipped and the ceiling has all these wipe marks on it after an incident with my young son and a glass of apple juice. When B&Q came to do some filming in my house a couple of months back, they wanted to paint a room in a vivid colour so I told them to use the dining room. The dining room then became a lovely blue shade, but as the room is in the basement of the house the colour was just too dark for the space (and yes I know I say to embrace dark rooms with dark colours but we use this room as a ‘doing’ room, I did not want to create a relaxing feel in here.) They also did not paint the ceiling or skirting for the filming, so this room was marked down as next in line for a complete decorating overhaul.

I was going to leave this room until the New Year when I had a bit more time, but after attending a really lovely event for Sanderson Paint a few weeks back and seeing this gorgeous display above of Fich Ceramics painted in Sanderson paint colours, I was itching to pick up the paintbrush! So, let me talk you through what the room looks like now and what my plans are for the room revamp.

So first of all you can see that the blue colour is lovely but does nothing for the space. It contrasts too much with the white low ceiling and the cream fridge, while the two best features in the room - the expensive Heal’s walnut table and the period fireplace - get ‘lost’ in the colour. A massive issue is that the kitchen units are also painted blue, so there is just too much blue in here!

The arch which separates the kitchen and the dining area just has an undercoat on it so that needs to be sorted out. While in the picture below you can see the marked ceiling which always captures the light and drives me crazy! Plus the radiator, shutters, door and fridge just look awful against the blue.

So, what’s the plan? My idea is to create a much lighter, brighter space with a bit of a California feel. I want to use light pinks and warm whites to brighten up the space and have it feeling fresh and fun. All the same furniture and the fridge will remain, but I do want to upcycle this drinks cabinet that I purchased on Ebay; it is the perfect fit for this space but I don’t like the creamy colour so I’m going to re-paint it. I also purchased some gorgeous marble and gold handles in Zara Home recently and I’m going to swap them up in place of the existing knobs:

The walls are to be painted in a white - but not just any white. I want a warm white with no yellow undertones (no ivory colours), which is a bit grey (but not grey) with a hint of pink. Luckily Sanderson have a huge range of shades and tones to choose from and I’ve got 13 tester pots on the go at the moment! I’ll also be painting the ceiling in a lighter shade of white, but the woodwork will all be painted the same colour as the walls to lengthen the height of the room (this is a top-tip for rooms with a low ceiling : make the walls feel taller by painting in the skirting the same shade as the walls).

Once repainted I’ll be adding in a range of new accessories, the most prominent being a large Vogue print from King & McGaw to complement the new paint colours. Ideally, I’d like to have some new dining chairs but there is nothing wrong with the Ercol ones I already own (purchased from the local charity shop) so they are going to stay for now.

I plan to have the whole room finished before the end of October, so stay tuned for the full reveal!