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Dining Room Prep | ORC Week 2

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Last Updated on February 7, 2023 by lindseymahoney

Week 2 of the One Room Challenge is all about dining room prep! This week is all about prepping the room – making it ugly so it can look so beautiful at the end of this 6 week challenge! Specifically, I am focusing on removing wallpaper, moving the chandelier & repairing chipped paint.

If you are new here, welcome! This is my first time participating in the One Room Challenge and I will be transforming my dining room in our new home. My goal is to modernize this formal dining room and create a more relaxed feel in the space.

Here is a reminder of what my dining room looked like at the beginning of this challenge.

Dining Room One Room Challenge
Before photo of the dining room

Week 2 Progress:

Prepping a room for paint is definitely not the most exciting part of a project, but in my experience, it makes all the difference at the end of a renovation!

Moving the Light Fixture

First I hired my electrician to move the chandelier over about 8 inches. I had two options for the chandelier – centered in the room or centered in the doorway to the living room. To improve the flow of the room, I decided to center the table and light in the doorway.

Next, I hired a drywall expert to patch the hole in the ceiling. If you can find someone to take on a small job like this, I would recommend it. I hired an expert who completed the job in half the time for a reasonable fee.

Removing Wallpaper

It is always a gamble when you remove wallpaper because you never know what you are going to get. If wallpaper is not sized before installation, it can be a challenge to remove. Another challenge you may come across is if the wallpaper was installed directly on the drywall without a coat of paint. When wallpaper is harder to remove, there is a higher chance to scrape up the walls.

The wallpaper in the dining room was applied directly to the drywall. I was careful during removal but had to make a few repairs to the wall afterward.

Removing wallpaper from the dining room walls

The walls need to be as smooth as possible – once the paint is applied you can see all of the imperfections. I promise, taking the time to prep your walls will be worth it! I have had my fair share of wallpaper removal in our previous homes and I am grateful that this was not the most challenging to remove!

Dining room walls prepped for paint

OK so not the most exciting stuff in terms of transformation photos but now I get to focus on the fun stuff! Now that the dining room prep is complete, next week I will be painting the walls and making more purchases for the dining room. Wahoo!

Thanks for checking in and don’t forget to pop back in next week to see the big transformation for week 3!

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P.S. Have you checked out any of the other guest participants for the One Room Challenge? There are over 300 of us and you can check out all of their projects on the OCR blog.