It may have been the rice paper blinds that reeked of soy sauce. It may have been the hideous chandelier that had tiny black lamp shades and the wrong bulbs. It may have been the black trim and blood red walls. I’m not sure what exactly caused me to dub the dining room the Asian Vampire room. But I stand by it.

Dark. Dark and depressing.

To be clear, I have nothing against Asians, soy sauce, or vampires. I have some serious problems with black trim though.

Black trim can be done well. However, the entire house has white trim. The dining room connects to the living room with huge French doors. These were left white. The transition from one room to the other was awful.

On the plus side, the room was in really good shape. Somebody recently redid the ceilings. The baseboards already had quarter round so I only had to add base cap.

I don’t have during pictures, because I’m forgetful. Here’s the list:

Paint black trim with behr primer

Paint trim with behr “Night Blooming Jasmine”

Remove and replace ugly chandelier

Paint walls with behr “Bay Water”

Add rug to hide the floor that I hate

Add table

Add bar

Add curtains

This room is my favorite so far.

I scored my bar from a girl on Facebook. It’s actually a bakers rack and the glass is tempered. So in addition to using it to display my whiskey I can set hot bread and pie on it to cool.

The light fixture I found on Amazon and I added 3 led dimmable Edison bulbs. They look amazing and I’m really happy with it, though I may add a lamp to the room because they don’t throw as much light as I would want if I was using the table for something besides eating.

The rug was another Facebook score, a piece of staging furniture the new owners of a tybee beach home didn’t care for. I’m a big fan of not paying full price for something you are going to walk on and fail to vacuum often enough.

The baywater color is great, it’s a soft green grey. I was dead set on this color and Insley and John were less enthusiastic, but I could not be talked out of it. I was right.

Please try not to look at the hideous kitchen. That’s next summer.