My Dining Room Renovation

I wanted to share with you our Dining Room Renovation for my RRR House. The moment I stepped into our rescue house, I fell in love with the Zuber paper in the dining room. I couldn't believe that there was hand painted french paper in a home that I could rescue. If the truth be told, it was THE REASON why we bought the home. Zuber wall paper was originally introduced in the US by Jacqueline Kennedy

To give you a little history on the paper, Zuber & Cie is a company which claims to be the last factory in the world to produce woodblock printed wallpapers and furnishing fabrics. The company was founded in 1797 and has maintained their production in France. During JFK's presidency, First Lady Jackie on recommendation from Henry Francais du Pont, had an antique copy of the panoramic wallpaper Vue de l'Amerique du Nord installed in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House.

Zuber Wallpaper in the White House

Even though the paper was fabulous I knew that we were going to have to tear the wall out to the kitchen and open up the dining room and small kitchen to make it one large room to entertain in. 

Before: Dining Room

In Process

We tore out the wall in between the small kitchen and dining room

 and decided to make it one large room to entertain in

We soon found out that the walls were solid plaster with lathe and plaster and all the pipes were lining the walls behind the wall paper. That was a pretty large undertaking to say the least. 

We were fortunate enough to remove the paper and saw it that was on the wall we removed.

I decided to pull out the darker gray green color in the paper and paint all the trim and panels and kitchen cabinets the same color. That way there would be a flow to the room. 

It would also accentuate the paper even more. 

The white trim made it look so much more common.

After

I also went with a beautiful cotton drape the same exact color as the paint. That opened up the dining room that much more. Because of the size of the dining room, we had to go with a round table. So we made our Capri dining table out of solid curly maple and gilded it in solid 22K gold leaf.

The dining chairs are linen and made to look as though are slipped covered with button closure. I didn't want anything to compete with the walls. 

However, I do like the cut geometric velvet fabric on our Gustavian benches in the windows. I am still deciding on a demilune design to put between these two windows.

We have enjoyed the elegance of the room and how well it flows into the kitchen... we will unveil it next week.