A Modern Family Makeover

Photo by: Photo by: Bob OConner

Easy Does It

One of Jessica's favorite tricks for an inexpensive update: Add paneling. Besides giving the dining room walls some texture, the white paint reflects light, making the space appear brighter. She cut low-cost sheets of medium-density fiberboard from Home Depot into 2½"-wide slats to attach vertically to the wall, then finished them at the top with scrap 5"-wide pine wood and caulk. "You can't tell

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Photo by: Photo by: Bob OConner

Easy Does It

One of Jessica's favorite tricks for an inexpensive update: Add paneling. Besides giving the dining room walls some texture, the white paint reflects light, making the space appear brighter. She cut low-cost sheets of medium-density fiberboard from Home Depot into 2½"-wide slats to attach vertically to the wall, then finished them at the top with scrap 5"-wide pine wood and caulk. "You can't tell the MDF isn't solid wood once it's painted," she says. "It cost about $30 to do the whole thing."

EASY CHAIR REDO
Jessica was bored with the fabric on a pair of wingback chairs she's owned for 15 years, so she reupholstered them herself with a staple gun and fabric from Calico Corners. (Hues in the pattern-from deep red to cornflower blue and lemon yellow-inspired the color palette Jessica and WD used in the dining room and kitchen.) "You can see a couple of staples on the chairs, but it would have cost more than $1,000 each to have them done," says Jessica. "If you do it in sections, it's not that hard."

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