Finishing the Dining Room Ceiling

When we had the new floors installed downstairs, the whole space instantly felt lighter and brighter. Everything looked fresh and clean. Everything, that is, except the dining room ceiling. You might have noticed it in some of the photos I’ve shared. It had a weird patch of lighter color right in the middle. That wasn’t a lighting issue. That was half a paint job.

For some reason, the previous owners painted just one section of the ceiling and never came back to finish it. Not along a seam or in a neat square either. It was random and very obvious, and once you noticed it, you couldn’t unsee it. It drove me a little crazy every time I walked past it, but I ignored it for a while because the furniture in that room is enormous and incredibly heavy. Most of it came from overseas and was passed down from my grandmother. It is beautiful, but it is not the kind of furniture you can just slide out of the way to paint around.

Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. I hired a guy to come tape, drape, and seal off the room so he could paint the entire ceiling without disturbing anything. It was worth every penny. Watching someone else cover every corner and climb up and down the ladder while I stood in the hallway sipping coffee felt like a luxury I earned. I’ve done enough DIY in this house to know exactly when to outsource.

We didn’t want to cover it with drywall or try to smooth it out too much because this room still has its original tongue and groove ceiling. It’s one of the only rooms in the house where it remains. I wanted to keep the character and texture intact, so we kept it simple and just gave it a fresh coat of crisp white paint. No fancy tricks, just good coverage to brighten the room and tie it in with the new floors.

Now that it’s finished, the whole space feels more intentional and complete. It’s funny how one small thing can throw off a room like that, and even funnier how you don’t realize how much it bothered you until it’s finally fixed. This was one of those quiet little projects that lingered on my to-do list for months, and I’m so glad to cross it off.