Our French 1880s Dining Room MakeOver!

In this video Mark and I share our 1880sdining room transformation from last year when we re-decorated it back to its former colour!

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Love Annabelle & Mark x.

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This channel follows the adventures of Annabelle and Mark in our 1880s French home in the beautiful countryside of rural France! We will explore our garden and grounds, any renovations we carryout, cooking and gardening and anything else!

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hi there everyone hello welcome back to
the channel really nice to have you back
with us if you’re new then thanks for
joining us and if you’re returning back
to the channel thank you so much don’t
forget to subscribe please that’s really
appreciated yes hey so today we are
showing you around our dining room
following lots of work and lots of
painting and lots of blood sweating
tears I think getting us to the position
where we are now yeah absolutely so
today is a renovation update as we
promised isn’t it it is it is and it is
quite the update and quite the change I
think you’ll agree definitely and it has
been a long time because it’s taken us
like six months to actually get to this
point with this room so there’s been a
lot of like it hasn’t just been
decorating has it it’s been renovating
more them decorating yeah I mean it’s
taken us a lot of time just
because life is going on around it so
you know we had lots of stuff to do in
here anyway we had lots of removal of
the ceiling to an extent a lot of the
panels had to be taken off and we had to
fill the walls and yeah generally do a
lot of work in here but it’s turned out
amazing no well we’re very happy with it
so we we have yet as Mark’s saying we’ve
had to take all the
poyene um squares whatever they’re
called those squ that they put
everywhere they used to put in the
houses so we’ve taken that off the
ceiling actually looks really good it’s
not perfect it’s not completely smooth
or anything but it’s looking really good
it certainly looks better than 1980
styrofoam I’ve got to be honest and it’s
a lot safer as well because they are a
bit of a bit of a health hazard bit of a
fire hazard to say the least it is
absolutely and it actually makes the
room feel big
it does higher I mean we’ve probably
gained about this much Haven we yeah we
probably gained an inch I would imagine
cuz they’re quite thick actually Sur
it’s got high ceilings anyway but um it
feels definitely even even higher it
just feels it feels like we’ve got the
room back to how it used to be how it
should be basically and that’s what we
really wanted to do was really just um
you know just really get a feel of how
the room should be not how we think it
should be but how just get the feeling
right and um yeah you know cuz we agree
what I mean by that is I just wanted to
take it back to how it should be
basically bring them bring the old life
back into it because it had been
decorated as houses had been you know in
the’ 70s and ‘ 80s in a style of that
era but we wanted to take it back
to when it were well kind of closer to
when it was first decorated first built
so yeah we’ve gone with quite an
authentic color um yes so this is a
color that actually when we were taking
the paper off so yes so we um took off
all the squares then we were taking off
all the paper and I think that was
probably I mean I helped with the taking
off the squares did we shared it we
shared all the it wasn’t fun it wasn’t
easy but I think you did most of the SC
but I did I think I did nearly half not
quite half of it but and then you just
finished the rest didn’t you yeah you
did you did it really fast it took me
ages but you took it you did it really
yeah I just went crazy with a hammer and
a spat and that was it they all come off
and then it was all glue that was left
on there so then you have to sort of got
to take all the glue every single Square
had at least five or six dots of glue it
like 35 No each one was like one in the
corner yeah there’s three along and then
yeah every single tile and it was the
whole ceing it was the whole so as you
take the tiles off it leaves the glue
behind so you then got to take all the
glue off um we could have taken the
ceiling back and skim the ceiling but
um it was a big expense to be honest it
was an extra expense and we wanted to do
it on a budget so we’ve been doing it on
a budget we’ve been doing everything
ourselves as much as possible so we
haven’t got any help in really we did
this completely ourselves oh no help and
it’s literally sort the walls out as
much as we can sort the seiling as much
as we can and then decorate it ourselves
yes so my job was really to take the
paper off so I just went around peeled
it off and then you’ve got two layers so
the first layer came off uh pretty
easily really and then the second layer
is like a bit more stubborn so I had to
really get like a nice warm soapy bucket
of water with a big sponge and just go
all over it and let it soak it up and
then scrape it off basically as you do
with taking paper off and that’s how I
did it the whole room so I went around
like that and um I didn’t have a
wallpaper like SE or anything and then
it was a case of it worked it worked
well and then um fill the cracks fill
the holes fill the ceiling holes and
then sand it all back cuz I had once i’
done the ceiling well I had to sand
everything back and that was a messy job
but then once that was done it was down
to choosing paint and painting once I
took the paper off we started to uncover
the old paint color that was actually
the original color of this room probably
one of the very the earliest paint
colors that were in this room so all
around the window and I found it on the
back of the doors was this lovely green
and they call it a ver okay like a
ver and um so I was I love this color so
but I couldn’t find the color anywhere
like we couldn’t find it Dulux won’t do
it you know your your local DIY Shop
being Q won’t do this color it’s old
paint so yeah exactly so we had to go to
as like a paint specialist we’ve got one
actually luckily I I knew that we had
one not far and uh and I asked them and
I said look we’re looking for this
Val
valree and I just can’t find it
anywhere and um luckily they do pharaoh
and ball paints yeah yeah yeah they do
and they also do yeah pharaoh and ball
and I was like oh I know this paint this
is British paint you know really high
quality paint and then she gave me all
the nuances you know sorry all the um
yeah all the variations of color yeah
she gave me the color Ward and uh and it
was just heaven cuz then I could see
there was just all the colors I could
have wanted to see were there and then I
brought them home and we looked at them
and we tried to match the green to the
what was originally in this room and we
found it pretty close this is the
ver for the yeah ver it’s called and I
just love the color yeah I love it a
greator I love this and it’s so right
for this it just you know when you paint
a and you’re like it just is the color
for this room it looks right it matches
the room what the room should be yeah
I’m really happy so I’m very happy with
the outcome of it and as soon as we
started putting it on I was just like oh
yeah this is it this is the color it
should be and then um we went for the
gold trim around the doors and around
the skirting boards all the way around
the room yeah and so that’s turned out
yeah it
very yeah very Posh I think is the
phrase cuz you see you see that in a lot
of the Shadows we’ve been to and we got
you know you got ideas from the lot of
the Shadows
visiting been inspired obviously with
all these visits and it just looks good
it really adds to the room and brings
out the doors and brings out all the it
just brings it out looks really nice
yeah we’re really really happy with it
so we’re still in the process of
finishing the painting at the moment and
then um doing the door handles yeah that
you you’ve been removing the paint doing
the door locks door locks we’re moving
the the we’re going to go around the
room in a minute we’re going to just go
around and have a little look excellent
um but
uh we have been getting a lot of
inspiration that’s for sure and we did
go through a few different ideas before
because at first I was like yeah it I
don’t know why but I just see this room
green it’s got to to be green it’s you
know it’s been green before but I I was
like I was like yes this has got to be
green me and the boys did think of blue
blue was an option I think yeah it was a
big it was an option it definitely was
an option but and I love the blue idea I
thought I could really see it blue as
well blue and with the gold you know but
I I agree with what we’ve done I mean I
think it looks amazing there’s still
some finishing touches let you say we
still got the um the coing to put up or
get to put up and we still got a light
to put up or to obtain a light work in
here and but otherwise it’s it’s there
and it looks yeah it looks a million but
you you said to me oh I want to feel
like the room is special that we have a
special grownup you know like a really
somewhere that’s really elegant and
somewhere where you’re you nearly feel
not afraid to live in but you sit down
and look at it and go oh yeah this is
this is nice I think the words were I
want it to feel like I shouldn’t be
sitting there that’s what I said it’s I
want to be sitting in a room where it
feels so opulent that actually is this
really ours and yeah we’ve done it and
it looks and I was okay then but I said
to you in that case we can’t just go
beige we can’t just go cream or not
going white with I think if we’re going
to go special we need to get some color
because color really creates an
atmosphere osphere and it really does
you know it’s so lovely to have your own
house where you can actually paint it
the colors you want it’s G crazy and um
we’ve actually literally painted all the
walls and the skirting boards in here so
we didn’t leave anything white it’s just
all the same color really the only
that’s white and the ceiling and that
will stay white um even with the coing
yeah we willon put the coing up
eventually so there’s still things to
you know that will get done over time
because like I say we are r a budg
we are doing it on a tight budget by the
way you know we can’t we can’t just like
you know can’t just go out and just get
it all done that’s why that’s why it’s
taken so long is we’ve had to do bits
when we could do bits so we’ve you know
we done the ceiling the ceiling the
preparation work was you know that that
was just time that wasn’t and I was
happy to put that preparation time into
it because then it meant that we could
really take our time getting it right so
when we got to the the painting the
paint would just it would just go on
beautifully like Silk you know and it
did and it did it really the preparation
was actually really important made a big
difference made a big difference but
then you yeah you chose a different
color also in the coverboard as well
which so should we take you around
should we take everyone around come come
see come see come take you around come
you can see here
that yeah you’re in the process of top
finishing doors doors yeah they are
quite High aren’t they these doors
they’re big doors so we’ve got these big
double doors that do
come go connect to the lounge so I’ve
just painted these ones haven’t I so
this is just literally been finished
yesterday and yeah there’s still bits
that need to be just touched up and
obviously the gold I need to do the gold
I haven’t done the gold spits yet
actually you need to do didn’t notice
this
yeah I didn’t I just realiz I need to
Tien this up as well at the handle and
and take that back off but then you’ve
done all all the gold already done
around the friends which I amazing looks
great
yeah it probably needs a second coat
though on all the gold in here I think
it does some part on a lot yes it does
it does I’m going to go around and do
that now this is furniture that came
with the
the house that we with the house we
bought didn’t we with the we included
house we said yes we keep it it’s
exactly what we like isn’t it yeah it’s
it fits in the room nicely and it’s
actually we used it as like glass
storage so it’s a nice nice big mirror
probably something for a bedroom I would
thought at some point I think that’s
more no I think they use the
multi-purpose we multi-purpose I believe
you know but it’s great it works so do
you want to open it we’ll show what
we’ve got in there
we have a little nose have a nosey
around so yeah that’s it you it’s a good
size so we’ve put all our glasses it it
just it just works well for what we need
ice cream cups and just it just works
well works well for what we need it’s
perfect actually for the glasses it is
it is and then we’ve got um this lovely
big window in here I like it lets a lot
of light in here it does it does yeah so
we’ put these curtains up that we all
already had from years ago so we had
them a long time oh yeah we’ve had them
about 12 years and I’ve never been able
to use them because they’re so long say
and and now they’re a bit short and now
they’re a little bit too short but
they’re just right actually they are
they they look really nice yeah they
work in here finally we’re making use of
these curtains and they we do need to
finish I think I need to finish around
the
window finish around the window cuz it’s
been an awkward it’s hard get to the
back of the radiators isn’t it you can
actually see some of the green that’s
left there yeah I don’t want to have to
take these radiators off just because I
don’t want to have to take them off
they’re big radiators and the original
they’re heavy a lot of effort a lot
radiators really want to actually have
to do really have to see and as you can
see we went all around the room with the
gold around the the skirting boards all
the way
around all the way around yes and then
onto the doors so this is the built-in
cupboards yeah this is our yeah
storage
and should we open it up you want to see
the color Inside Yes because inside oh I
I also just to add this was actually
painted this lock so I’m going done all
the locks in the house oh yeah we’ve
taken all the paint removed all the
paint of all the locks because I love
the old it looks better without it and
in here you’ve gone for a bit of a bold
bit of a bold color I love it I love
ited bold color I just love though I
love the way it just brightens and Pops
in the room I mean with the red it looks
amazing I love it really I’m so happy
with it I mean I don’t know what
everyone else thinks but I think it
looks great against the Green it looks
good it looks good and you know in these
homes you’ve always have to have a bit
of red somewhere oh absolutely don’t you
think I think authentic it’s authentic
typical red it just brings the house to
life I mean it’s either going to be red
or a real royal blue if you weren going
to go royal blue for the walls you’re
going to go royal blue for something
else so it works well with the I think
it look because we also had holes didn’t
we in in oh there’s holes everywhere
yeah and then we had to repair all that
obviously like as you do and then just
sealing things up so there’s less drafts
coming out so there’s less but you can
see how much it holds in here yeah I
mean this is like an extension of the
kitchen really isn’t it it is it is it’s
it’s a huge C everything we can’t fit in
the in the kitchen yeah it’s it’s a
minimalist string no no do you remember
I did some videos on minimalism M and
you can go back on my channel and you
will think hang on a minute she’s been a
minimalist and now where’s all this
stuff from all this stuff but can can we
just go over this just you can I need to
clear the air on this absolutely okay so
during that time we were living in a
very different place a very different a
different country we had a different
house we’d collected up a lot of things
over the years of things that really
were our life was cluttered it wasn’t
ordered like that and I I was always
cleaning always tidying up trying to get
the house ordered you know and I could
never quite get it how I wanted it and
then I just don’t know how old but I got
interested in Mar condo Mar condo right
yes also and she’s brilliant okay so
she’s a Japanese lady I think I she is
Japanese Chinese no Japanese Japanese
Japanese she is and she’s brilliant and
I I listened to the whole audio book
that she wrote on minimalism and I just
thought this is it like this is exactly
what I need right now in my life
and it just lifted off so much pressure
and stress it allowed me to order things
in my mind and in the house and I I was
just hooked on her methods of having a
minimalist life and it’s not about
getting rid of everything but it’s about
letting go of the things that don’t
matter that you don’t care about that
you’re just holding on to for some
reason but you don’t really you know you
don’t really need it so so I just
started to purge through all the stuff
that was just there and that we didn’t
need and you know that I didn’t even
like really you did more like be honest
it’s more the the bags of clothes that
you got rid of lots of clothes I started
with my wardrobe yeah which which that
was that you done well there that that
was some well but did because why not
and the kids do everything the whole
house the whole house was minimalized
yeah and and and we were moving like the
whole point of that time in our life was
to reduce the amount of amount of things
that we owned because we wanted to make
a big change in our lives and we
couldn’t we knew that it was going to be
expensive we couldn’t drag around things
that we didn’t really want because it
wasn’t going to be beneficial it wasn’t
going to be cost effective for us it’s
all about preparation so Letting Go
letting go of all the old allowed us to
bring the new chapter of our lives in
and it really did and it it’s like it’s
like the laws of the universe you let go
of the old and it allows the new to come
in and replace the old and that is
exactly what happened to us and now look
what happen we we didn’t know what was
going to happen in France we didn’t
there was no guarantee about any any of
this happening no and it’s just allowed
it just feels like the universe has just
opened its doors to us to allow to do to
make some our some of our dreams come
true you know and the the new has flown
in like it’s flooded in you can see it’s
flooded in and the universe has said
okay you’ve got rid of all this stuff
well here’s a
whole like you can have all all these
new things can fly through your door
yeah a lot of a lot of things exactly
exactly true because but it’s
interesting because a lot all of most of
this stuff that’s in here came with the
house yes it did they left it with the
house a lot of it came with the house I
have been out collecting because then
I’ve had my Etsy shop and I’ve been also
like really just embracing and loving um
being it back in France picking up some
bits and um the beautiful things that
are in the broons so yeah I suppose and
it’s allowed me
to to Really um keep or buy if I buy it
it’s what minimalism taught me was um to
be more careful with when I buy to
really think about what it is I’m buying
why am I buying it you know and I have
slow it down immensely and if I do buy
things we don’t buy a lot of new stuff
anymore it’s because I really no it’s
always because I really really love it
it’s no but I have to really love you
have got to really love it otherwise I
won’t I mean in Hest you do really love
your light fittings I do regardless of
what the light are you do really love
them I love them you Ponch for them but
um but yeah so minimal as you can see
but this is organized and it allows me
to organize my life and to think right
well how do I want it to be what are the
things that we actually really want in
our life that we really want to use that
we want that bring us joy and that’s Mar
condo okay does it bring you Joy well
there’s only things in here everything
here brings us joy so when I open this
and I see this I go you know I’m so I’m
just so happy with and I feel blessed
that we have what we have absolutely and
um there you go and it brings us joy
yeah and if you if at that moment you’re
not feeling joy for it cuz it’s too
much well you have beautiful doors and
you can’t see it anymore it’s great I
love it I love it so yes and then you
don’t have to look at it it’s not
so let’s move back let’s move around
okay so then we’re going to come around
the room to the shimy area what we got
there and um we’ve just kept it simple
we’ve just got this nice chimney that we
love you um oh and I’ve um we’ve cleaned
up a lot of the the brass fittings I
think they’re brass copper fittings they
look great yeah it’s the the original
vents on there on the chimney and they
they all both sides one on this side
yeah there both sides but it didn’t they
were just really dirty and not looking
very good and they kind of fit really
well they’re so cool they look really
cool and they fit really nicely with the
the color scheme this yeah and and the
surround of the fire it looks really
nice it looks really nice really happy
with it really happy with
that and then this came with the house
so this is this is always in here so
we’re just reusing it and it’s very BR
looking isn’t it oh it’s now where it is
now I think it fits in the house far
better because before it was don’t know
if you can see my hand just over here
next to the fireplace on this wall here
and it was in this yeah it it and it
looked obtrusive it squeezed it in it
looked obtrusive for the room and you
couldn’t appreciate the chinney No No
you could there was too much going on
absolutely and now the cuz that’s a
feature within itself isn’t it it is it
is yeah yeah absolutely and then um we
have this lovely singer this is a Singer
sewing machine actually it is that is a
sewing machine I won I won’t get it out
now because it takes a bit of work to
get it out but that opens up and that’s
beautiful it is it’s a old singer 19th
century singer machine Singer sewing
machine you open it and it comes out and
it’s all still in working order oh
absolutely it’s got a little table it
becomes a table with all up one day we
will we’ll show everyone but my nanny
used to have one like this because she
was a a cout my English Nanny um she was
a a fashion
designer and um yeah she was born and
bred in London but yeah she used to have
one like this so she be happy that we’ve
got one of these they they just work
they last a long time they last forever
and they work really well work really
well yeah and then we have this this uh
table and chairs which I love I really
love this table are you all right yeah
yeah I love this table and chairs um
this is really French typical French
style table what did Mom say this wood
was again don’t don’t remember what she
said it wasn’t I I can’t
remember terrible can’t remember but it
does have an extension yeah it has it
has a double extension actually has a
double extension it comes out it go it
does the whole length of it will seat
about 15 people or or not it’s it’s huge
it could but I like the the shape of the
legs on the table and yeah it just it’s
really it’s a really nice table and it
was a bit of a bargain as well so and it
fits in BR it was and it fits in really
nicely with the room I we still got our
roll table but that’s now upstairs in
the Attic which is being used as a art
arts and crafts area so yeah because our
sons do a lot of sewing and sculpting so
they use the uh the old kitchen table
that we love that we have um yeah but
this is more Dy than dining style table
whereas that was the other table’s very
Farm housy I love it love it very
Farmhouse it’s it’s been our table
forever and it will always be our table
but it it just doesn’t fit quite right
now in our dining room but we’re very
blessed cuz then I found this is on a
bargain total bargain and then we have
these lovely wooden floors Mark that
need we need to clean them up a little
bit yeah our wooden floors are a bit
dirty at the moment the shed yeah Chev
style it is and it’s a oak so it’s a
really nice flooring really nice
flooring but just to show you quickly as
well this is what I’m doing to all the
door locks you can see here this is now
being taken back to bare metal from
where it once was so I’ve got a bit of
work to do on the rest of the locks and
the rest of the house but it’s going to
they come up really
nice ni with that alongside of the gold
and it just look well it’s like we’ve
done we did in the kitchen y absolutely
we wanted to carry on doing it
throughout the house so you’ve got the
other one to put on there I have put
that on later on I think that that goes
there’s the kitchen one in there Y and
it’s very this this design of this house
we have said it before but it is a
chatau architect who actually designed
this house and you can tell because of
the big double doors here
and these are giveaway signs because
it’s very like and how each room
interconnects with big doors so that’s
why we’re very proud of of this house
and we just want to just really respect
it and bring it back to life
and uh and we’re having so much fun with
it I mean it just loves it loves the the
attention it’s soaking it up isn’t it
and we even have over here we mustn’t
forget Mark oh this is true this we must
forget I mean we may be in
France we are in France but we have this
beautiful Elizabeth I first portrait
it’s one of my favorite portraits of
Elizabeth
first and she has all the eyes and ears
on her robe that she’s wearing and all
these beautiful symbols with the serpent
here and it’s just full of symbolic
meaning and I think it’s one of the most
amazing portraits of
it portra saw house it quite impressive
beautiful but that picture looks really
nice in this room in our in our French
our French home but we got that at
Hatfield house in
England where Elizabeth the first grew
up it was her childhood yeah home and
Hatfield house and I recommend it for
anybody to go there The Gardens and
everything are just amazing amazing and
the actual house itself is just
beautiful so we’ve been doing this for a
very long time going going to castles we
brought up I mean I was brought up since
little going to castles and uh just
historical world heritage sites and
things like that and this is nothing
nothing new at all and Mark you I’ve
done the same we’ve been to a lot of
them as well so it’s yeah it’s really
nice really nice yeah and um I don’t
know if there’s anything else to with
still need to put the light fitting up
oh yeah light fitting still needs to go
up but that’s really yeah that’s not we
have got one we’ve got a
few we’ve got a few we could choose from
I know find the one the one we want yeah
but we need to rewire it needs to
rewiring needs to rewiring that’s the we
need to rewire the light fitting cuz I
think we have that one that we’ve got is
going to be great it’ll be a great one
but it needs a complete Rew and that’s
that’s great yeah it’s not impossible no
no no no not impossible just need to
find the right person to do it
personally I’m not an electrician I can
change a light I can change light
fittings but I don’t fancy be wiring a
whole entire light without without the
chance of it not being right no that’s
true but we will get round when when we
do put the light fitting up we’ll do a
little update because I think that will
just finish the room off and as I’m
crazy on light fit
I think it will be worth we’re doing
evening nocturnal visit of the dining
room with the
chandelier excellent yeah it’s that be
nice like Med they’ve got one coming up
they have I am tempted to be done I’d
love to go but I don’t know if I’m going
to be able to go or not we’ll see we’ll
see if time allows we’ll see we’ll see
if we do we do a video on it yeah I
think it was going to be amazing and
anyway so that’s it this is the DI din
room update yeah that we promised you
this is what we’ve been up to this is
what we’ve been doing it is and uh I
hope you enjoy what you’ve seen uh
please you know add a comments love to
hear what your views are and you know
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do yes please do I’m just going to say
thank you so much for joining us today
we hope that you’re all having a lovely
day that you’re all enjoying your week
that whatever you’re doing wherever wh
you are and um thanks for joining us
again today we love you all and we send
you all a lot of love and we’ve got some
shatow I’ve got shatow visit coming up
you have I do I’ve got a nice shatow
visit um so I’m really excited to share
that with you very very soon excellent
well thank you so much everyone have a
great time thanks again and we look
forward to seeing you next time take
care everyone bye everyone