Dining room updates

Hi friends! I am, yet again, a bit behind on the blogging front. I hope you can forgive me. I actually have 2 new updates.

The first being the second set of railing dowels. This is the railing dividing the living room from the dining room. I am trying to be consistent with the dowels, so I am having to update them all. This time I think I did things a bit smarter than the ones by the front entrance, so I will be sharing my words of wisdom with you.

Before shots.

I was doing a puzzle as well.

And I forgot to take the pictures before getting out the painting equipment.

Okay, here is a step by step for my process. It ended up working pretty well.

1. Sand down the dowels. I used a pretty high grit paper. You want the surface to be nice and smooth, but one that the paint will grip to.

(You can see this project took a while. Our tree has been down for 2 weeks).

The best method I found for the circular dowels was to wrap the paper around the surface and try to keep the pressure about the same on all sides. If you press too hard the paper tends to grab the wood, so be gentle (Geez, louise, it's making me blush just typing this.)

I used a sanding sponge for the bottom.

After all the sanding, you will have a mess, so make sure to vacuum and wipe down the dowels with a damp paper towel to remove all dust.

2. Use a foam roller to apply paint. This time, I did 2 coats of primer (Kilz no VOC) and then 2+ coats of the semi-gloss paint. The primer really helped to cover the wood (much better than without). The foam roller allows for thin even coats. Make sure not to have too much paint on the roller. You do not want drips.

3. Apply paint with a small brush (not pictured). I show this in my first dowel post. I use an arts and crafts brush to get the ends of the dowels (where they meet the unpainted wood) and in the crevices.

Here is a picture of everything after priming.

After pictures:

Did you notice my second update in the after pictures? We got a new tablecloth! I have been wanting an everyday white tablecloth since we bought the table. J's aunt and uncle gave us a gift certificate to Pottery Barn this past Christmas, and I wasted no time in spending it on this lovely addition to the dining room. It's linen, simple, elegant, and just perfect. (A big thank you to Aunt S and Uncle J!) Now, only 2 more sets of dowels to go. I'll probably just show before and after pics after this post. I think you get the general idea at this point. :) And I will be back with more exciting projects soon.