Ever-changing dining room wall

This dining-room wall has an interesting history.

First (back in 1976), it was a simple cheap-material, paneled wall, such as you find in typical tract homes. My wife hated it, so she had me install walnut paneling over it. For this job I used finishing nails and lots of carpenter’s glue, and of course a good circular saw and good saber saw (for the electrical cutout), to make the wall seem decently stiff. I also installed a crown molding (miter cut, of course) and finished up the trim and wall ends better than they had been with the original. The original kitchen cabinets were cheap vinyl covered jobs with a fake walnut finish, so the paneling kind of matched. However, several years later I installed new oak cabinets in the kitchen and the walnut wall had to go.

So, I then installed really nice oak paneling over the walnut, but only at the bottom. I installed a chair rail in the middle, and then, after filling in the grooves in the walnut paneling with plenty of wood filler and priming the surface to lighten it up considerably, she and I put wallpaper over the walnut area at the top. This satisfied her for a couple of years, but then she got tired of the wood and walpaper look and so I ended up priming and painting the entire wall. (Fortunately, the paint did not cause the walpaper to bubble.) She also wanted sconces, and you see those I wired and installed in the picture, and of course I had already installed a crown molding.

This wall looks fine now, but she had an interior decorator over yesterday and it was suggested that we paint the wall a different color. This is the wall that refuses to stop chainging. I am sure that many of you here have had similar experiences.

PS: the two later pictures show the wall as it is today (June, 2009), painted and looking better than ever.

Howard Ferstler