Dining Room Reno, Part 2: Time to Rebuild

The backstory:  We needed to upgrade the HVAC, which entailed installation of a large duct from the basement through the dining room and up to the second floor. This presented new design opportunities for the room, allowing us to create a dining room cum library and study.

Our initial goal was to install floor to ceiling bookcases flanking the window. Yet after sketching it out on paper, it somehow didn't seem right. The bookcases would be quite narrow, given how large the return ended up. So we opted for a low bookcase that skims the bottom of the window. In fact, the top of the new case replaces the window sill, making the unit look nice and tidy. We also looked at the dismal old window and decided to replace it.

Notice the boxes for the new wall sconces to the side of the window. Rebuilding the wall gave us an opportunity to add more lighting to the room, which faces north.

This also gave us the opportunity to extend the wainscoting from the entry and kitchen into the dining room, as we had planned for a few years. Finally, we could insulate the "new" wall behind the sheetrock (with an extra piece behind the bookcase, for good measure), which we've tried to do in all of our renovation projects in the house. Although the brick holds a lot of heat, even on sunny winter days, the house was built uninsulated. Brrrrrr.

Here's the matching "fake" chase on the other side of the window.

Here we fitted in the pieces of wainscoting. We used Georgia Pacific's Plybead, rather than genuine beadboard. We chose this because it was easy to install on top of the existing baseboard. The downside: each of these puzzle pieces required priming on all six sides (including the back and edges) to prevent them from warping over time. The prepping, priming and painting involved with these pieces probably took longer than any other step in this entire project.

Christmas came and went, as we waited for the new window to be delivered. Then in March of this year, we started up again, installing the new window, trim and the last pieces of wainscoting around the window and bookcase.

Next:  Dining Room Reno, Part 3: Renaissance

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