Dining Room Progress

We've moved the furniture back into the dining room! Doesn't mean the room is done, just done enough to move the furniture back in. The picture above is a bit of a sneak peak at what it looks like and also a plea for help on picking a paint color for the radiator. It's not a beautiful victorian radiator with lots of detail, it's pretty utilitarian in design, but I'd like it to look nice even so. I'm planning on removing the paint from the knob and the pipe that connects it to the system, but I'm not sure what color to paint the radiator itself. The most obvious choice is white like the trim, but since the rest of this room is so neutral, I feel like something more interesting could be done here. I thought maybe a dark bronze color, but that might look cheezy. I love this yellow one here but I don't have the guts to do something that bold. I don't want to have to repaint the radiator down the road because I'm tired of the color (though I think a green could look really cool).

Checklist of what's left:
patch hinges and paint door trim
sand and stain patches of the floor
scrape and paint radiator (color suggestions?)
scrape and paint window sashes
strip and install sash locks
hang Mucha print
hang light fixture
install missing picture rail, trim
pick fabric for seats, install

Yikes, that sounds like a lot!
At least now there is less pressure to spend every moment working on the room since we can use it now. Before there was no table to eat on because both this table and the kitchen table we're covered in tools and paint cans. Now we have a place to eat and it's just aesthetic things that need to be done, not functional ones. Hopefully over the next few days we can get the mucha print hung on the wall and maybe the light fixture too!

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm not sure what other colors you have in there, but it looks like your chairs are either a dark brown or black. I think the radiator could look cool, and sophisticated, in black or a chocolate brown, or even a charcoal! good luck!
Bromeliad said…
Would bare metal look nasty?
Elissa said…
I'm not sure I'd be able to get all of the paint off. Though parts of it are shedding paint like my cat sheds fur, other parts it is still firmly adhered and hard to reach. I'm not sure I can afford to have it removed and sandblasted. Maybe I should price it out.
day at a glance said…
you might think about a radiator cover. Then you could use it as a sideboard as well. I just found your blog. Love it. Keep up the good work.
I don't know if you've taken any action on your raditors yet or not, and I certainly wouldn't reccomend disconnecting them at this time of year, but I'll tell you what we did.

I had all eight of our hauled out, sandblasted, and repainted with high-heat tolerant engine paint. We chose a utilitarian silver, although I have seen some in bronze that look *spectacular*. My feeling is they are what they are, don't try to disguise them. We wanted something we wouldn't need to change the color of when we repaint the walls. So, it's a radiator, make it look like a radiator.

I had difficulty finding someone in our area who deals with these, but we eventually found an auto restoration shop willing to take on the job. They turned out beautifuly, and cost us a little over $100 apiece. Well worth it in my estimation.

All the layers of gunked up paint (more on the fronts than on the backs)were completely removed. Not to mention that was wall paint, not intended for use on radiators, that has a lot to do with why it flakes off in the first place!

Asthetics weren't even my primary reason for doing this. All those layers of paint act as an insulator, trapping the heat, preventing the radiator from doing its job. They are more efficient now with just one layer of the right kind of paint.

Anyway, that's just one girl's opinion. I tried to find one good picture of our finished raditors, but mostly they are in the background of our "after" photos. http://oliversbungalow.blogspot.com/search/label/After

-Christine

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