The Steen Style

It was a busy weekend in our house! We had three different contractors here, each measuring and talking options with us so they can give us estimates for new floors! I am so excited that we are finally moving forward with knocking down the wall in the dining room, which will open it up to our living room, and then replacing the flooring in our dining room, hallways, kitchen and second living room – so much to do but so much fun!

This is a view I rarely show you because I hate it. I have always despised this wall with these sconces that are not our style at all so here is what I detest and what will be changed…

I put up the circle candle holder from our old house just to have something on that wall when we moved in but didn’t put more thought into the wall because I always knew we would knock it down…I knew but I had to convince Conner! The outlet at the bottom hasn’t ever worked. We need to add crown molding to the top and the ceiling needs to be painted white. The walls will be painted the same light grey to match our living room, once this wall comes down.

Here is definitely a view you’ve never seen…the other side of the wall! This was taken at 11 a.m. in the morning, when our house gets the most natural light. Isn’t it crazy how dark it is in the hallway outside of the dining room? To the right of the hallway is our main living room with huge windows but you would never know it with how dark this area is. I absolutely can not wait to see this gone!

The light from the dining room is going to flood into our living room and is going to be so wonderful! The overhang of the roof and the big trees in the backyard prevent a lot of natural light from coming in so having the light from the front of the house is going to make a huge difference.

This is looking from the dining room into the front entryway. You can also see the hallway with the gallery wall I recently did and still love!

The wall we’re knocking down will have an opening like the current one in this room. The ceilings are lower in here than in the hallways so I want to keep the two room openings the same and have some balance. The only thing that will change is the addition of casings and moldings around the entry to really make them pop and give some serious detail to them…again, so excited!

(Thanks to Max for modeling his favorite ‘sunning in the front room’ position) I still have some projects that I need to do before we get this whole dining room project started/finished…like finishing Memaw’s chairs that flank our buffet (the gold ones in the pictures above) and this curio cabinet from my grandma. There are several glass shelves as well as a mirrored back that are all so cool in the cabinet. I can’t wait to lighten this piece up by using some chalk or milk paint before displaying some gorgeous serving dishes in here!

So, that is our current plan. What do you think? Most are convinced it is a good idea but when you say ‘remove a wall’ people get weird that you’re making a mistake that can’t be fixed. I know this will be exactly what we need to update and freshen up this part of the house so I’m ready to do it! We have some plans for other rooms as well but for now, we’re starting with this. I will definitely keep you updated with our progress when we finally get started (hopefully next month!).