Looking for ideas for a dining room?

For the past few years my dining room has been a combination of red and a light wheat colour, and I decided it was time for a new look, especially as turquoise is this year’s (2010) - and my favourite - colour. What better excuse to pop into my Prominent Paints store and grab a couple of tins of paint.

 

During the process of painting - and luckily before I painted the one wall in question - I decided that the room needed more light. The sliding door and kitchen windows on the other side of the room are the only sources of light for the space and it can be dark and dull. To solve this problem I decided to install two glass block windows on either side of the sliding door.

I chose glass bricks because I unfortunately have nosey neighbours and they let in a lot of light without losing privacy. Glass bricks are very affordable - priced from around R11.00 each at your local Builders Warehouse - and available in various designs. I selected the Ripple design as I also have these bricks in my lounge and entrance.

You will need:

Glass bricks
Fibre cement board
Plaster mix
Mortar mix
Chisel and hammer or a Bosch Hammer Drill
Tape measure
Spirit level
Straight edge
Timber offcuts
Trowel
Plastering float
Wheelbarrow
Spade
Hose pipe
Sista F130 acrylic sealant
Gloves
Goggles
Dust mask
Drop cloths or tarpaulin

 

 

Here's how:

Installing glass bricks is fairly simple once you know how.

1. Start by measuring up where you want the window to be. Make sure that there are no pipes or electrical wiring in the wall before you start knocking out. You can use a Bosch PDO detector to do this. Decide how many bricks wide and high you want the windows to be and add an extra 60mm to this figure on the side and top measurement.

This extra allowance is for fibre cement board and finishing around the glass blocks once installed.

Cover everything with drop cloths or tarp - and I do mean everything!

2. Before you can start knocking out the window you need to create an opening for the lintel. A concrete lintel is used to provide proper support for brickwork above windows and doors. The lintel needs to be longer than the width of the window opening in order to provide proper support. Once you have cut out the opening, the lintel is placed inside the hole.

3. Once the lintel is in position you can safely remove the bricks underneath to open up the space. The bricks need to be cut as cleanly as possible to prevent having to fill in afterwards. Use a Hammer Drill or hammer and chisel to do this. Cut fibre cement boards to fit the sides and bottom of the opening - you can easily do this with a jigsaw - and screw these into the wall. Using fibre cement board gives a perfect finish to the opening.

4. Use plaster mix to fill in around the lintel and boards - packing in as much as possible in any openings, and use a float dipped in water to smooth the surface. This will need 2 to 3 days to dry - so keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain! Now it’s time to start laying the glass bricks. Make sure that the bottom, sides and top are level before you start as you won’t be able to fix this later on. For the first course, spread a layer of mortar mix on the bottom of the opening.

5. Butter the bottom (holding bottom up) and sides of each brick with a liberal amount of mortar mix and lay into position. Repeat until the bottom row is finished. Apply a liberal amount of mortar mix to the top of the first row and repeat this for every following row.

6. One side finished! Now it’s time to start on the other side of the door, using exactly the same method. Once both sides are finished you need to leave for 2-3 days until completely dry - this all depends on the weather.

7. To match the existing plaster finish I used Prominent Paints Ripple in white to create the rough plastered effect that I have on all my walls. Apply a liberal amount with a paintbrush and then go over the top with a roller. Repeat the process until the old and new plaster look identical. Leave to dry overnight before painting.

Now it's back to finishing the painting project that I started in the first place! I must admit to being one of those people that are easily distracted - I often get a bee in my bonnet. Anyway, at least now the dining room has been really transformed.

All the walls were given a light sanding with 240-grit sandpaper. I prefer to do this rather than wash with sugar soap, as it gives me a chance to work on blemishes on the original plaster. A quick wipe clean, lay down all the cloths, mask off what needs to be covered (light switches, plug points, etc) and I’m ready.

I selected a turquoise colour for the feature wall in the dining room, and the other walls would be painted white - in contrast to the black and dark wood furniture for the room. Using Prominent Paints Satin in Turquoise (S2050-B50G) I applied two coats of paint over the existing red. This paint offers very good coverage and no more coats were needed once the paint was dry.

To finish off the makeover, I added new skirtings around the entire room. The old skirting were only 5cm high and the new ones are 15cm high. I also used skirting to frame around the glass brick windows - combined with the skirtings it adds a lot of architectural detail to the room.

I used a mitre saw to cut the corners for the skirtings. Use a carpenter's square to check the corners before you cut. No More Nails was applied to the backs of both skirtings and window frames to attach. The new formula has plenty of 'tack' and they will instantly stick to the wall.

Both skirtings and window frame were sealed with Woodoc 10 with an imbuia stain concentrate added. You need to lightly sand with Woodoc steelwool between the first and second coat, and again between the second and third coat if you want a matt finish.