Victorian Home Tour: Entry and Dining Room

This post is the first in a new series, Victorian Home Tour.  I can't get enough resources that feature decorating a Victorian home so I wanted to add to the collection for the next person who buys a dollhouse. :)  I've posted some pictures but this is going to be a fairly comprehensive look at the befores and afters.  Let's start at the beginning:  the entryway!

The Entryway

Before

Ick.  Dingy, stained wallpaper and lots of holes...not so inviting!

The closet under the stairs:

After

My adorable handyman:

Pretty new tile:

A cool, inviting, textured gray-blue:

The decorating hasn't happened yet, but there's no hurry.  We like it better already!

The Dining Room

Before

Mauvelous.

The walls were covered with sand texture that would scratch you big-time if you so much as brushed up against it.  It had to go.  So, handy Adi spent one evening sanding down the walls.

Our contractor started the new texture work:

which leads us to:

After

I was going for a French country look.  I don't think I made it.  This is the one room in the house where the colors on the tiny cards were misleading and I think I may be altering these colors sometime in the future.  I plan to make curtains for the windows, which could help, but it could really go more butter than lemon on top and more navy than whatever shade matches painter's tape on the bottom.  

I love the natural lighting but it's not doing me any favors on the color combo.  Hey, look, it's the unity candle holder from our wedding that was once a Halloween decoration that may dad changed from black to white!

We chose many colors throughout the house--we pretty much covered the rainbow.  Stay tuned each week as we go through a new room (or two) of the Victorian!