S.A.D.

So I've been meaning to post this since the weekend we did it, January 6th or so... but that's the way it goes. Anyhow, we decided to mix things up in our dining room a little. Originally we had a rich chestnut brown on the walls, and that seemed nice for the first few months. But especially with the dark days of winter here, I began to notice I hated sitting in the dining room. Plus, we "inherited" some beautiful dark wood furniture from my aunt and it never quite looked as good as it should have against the lighter, but still dark, chestnut.

So, here's the finished product. We placed the center of the chair rail about 36" up the wall, left the old chestnut on the bottom, and then added a nice light creamy yellow to the top. Actually, we saw the combo in one of those idea books at the paint center in Home Depot. It's great for this room, because it doesn't get very much natural light through the day. So it helps brighten it up a little. Also, for those who haven't yet discovered it, there's a program called "ColorSmart" at Behr.com which allows you to browse their color selection and then add it to the walls of one of several pictures of rooms. Back when it first came out, there was only one version of each type of room. But now they've got several different styles so you can probably find something reasonably close to what you're working with. Its pretty neat. As for the chair rail, I used a mitre box and a regular old hand saw. Just make sure when you start your cuts that you get the angle right on the mitre box. They will be 45 degrees, but the chair rail isn't symmetrical so it will matter which side is which. Just take your time. Then use some Bright Finish 1-1/2" nails (yellow label) to nail it in and some wood filler to fill up the corners and nail holes, paint it, and VOILA!

It's a brand new room.