Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6
It’s the final countdown in the One Room Challenge, and the pressure is on for a reveal of a space that’s actually painted. Hear me out. We have a complicated paint scheme. It took me about 3 weeks (4?) to nail down. We’ve been painting for a week now in the evenings and over the weekend. And I’d say we’re only halfway to 2/3 done.
Why, you ask? Because this crazy person here decided we need three paint colors, then added in one more for good measure, and added in another order to go bold with the vanity area ceiling. All if the trim is getting painted. And each ceiling. And then there’s the wallpaper. Here’s the actual plan we’re executing after some tweaks, with things that are done in all caps to inflate my personal sense of achievement, because I need all the reassurance I can get:
Primary Bedroom
- Ceiling: Vert de Terre over French Gray (DONE)
- Walls/Trim: French Gray
- Windows/French Pocket Doors: TBD, Slipper Satin?
Primary Suite Bathroom Vanity/Shower Area
- Ceiling: Breakfast Room Green (1 coat done)
- Walls: Slipper Satin (7/8 done – need to finish second coat on shower wall/sinks)
- Trim: French Gray (1 coat done)
- Louvered Pocket Doors: Breakfast Room Green (1 coat done)
Primary Suite Water Closet
- Ceiling: Slipper Satin (DONE)
- Walls: Wallpaper – unprimed, unhung
- Trim: French Gray (DONE)
- Door: TBD, Slipper Satin or French Gray?
Walk-in Closet (the final space – we’ll have to cut back what’s done by reveal time here if we need to)
- Ceiling: Slipper Satin
- Walls: Mix of wallpaper and French Gray
- Trim: French Gray
Wow just typing that out took a long time. I have to say, it’s looking REALLY GOOD. But it is sooo painstakingly slow to paint all of our trim. And we had to fix some water damage behind both sinks, not just one as anticipated, so allowing time for proper drying and sanding and touch ups, and reaching around pedestal sinks awkwardly has added some time. Have you ever hugged a pedestal sink? Because I can now say that I have. I’m not bragging, really.
We have really beefy floor trim – 5 or 6 inches? IDK it was here when we moved in so I didn’t have to figure that out. I’m going to try leveling up my brush width from 1″ to a 1.5″ or maybe even a 2″ if I feel like risking it all as far as drips and control go – I just need to figure out how to speed things up.
So there’s a lot of painting to do. AND MORE.
(Circling back to quickly add some in progress pics. No time for everything I could write about. Be patient, grasshopper. All will be revealed next week)
Here’s our walk-in shower we’re hoping to seal and repair but that’s on the back burner. At present, it makes a swanky tiled closet for our supplies and pool and bath linens…
Ceiling color shifts throughout the day…split by pocket doors, top is primary bedroom ceiling, bottom is bathroom vanity/shower room, followed by general progress:
Week 7 Wins & Purchases
There’s lots of little things happening that I’m sure I’m forgetting but some happenings include testing brass spray paint and rub n buff, repairing a decorative fan, making art decisions…
We have a toilet paper holder! This was a splurge or save decision moment. I am extremely picky about hardware. Agonizingly picky. I wanted polished nickel, and to buy quality pieces, but my favorite piece and final choice without spending $250+ on something that holds…well, you know) goes for under $30 and is a zinc base instead of brass. Hopefully that’s not a durability problem with wet pool hands dripping on it. The polished nickel is not as warm as I’d like, nor expect for this price point. But the cream in the wallpaper will warm it up and the lines are right.
Towel rings were also a hot topic on my mind, and I have to find and open these puppies in our box towers in the garage – we got a lot of packages yesterday. A very large lot. Some also include our custom cut closet shelves from an Etsy seller (I’ll link everything in the reveal).
In case you’re skeptical about what a lot of packages looks like, here’s our garage typically lately, it’s pretty great:
Other Etsy finds include a genuinely French vintage accordion bamboo imitation rack (why yes, I did take the Rita Konig course last Spring winky face or whatever), and hand forged brass swing hooks for robes/clothes between first wear and washing/towels. These things may not arrive in time for the reveal.
I added a linen backing to our thrifted Monet print, I’ll have to share a tutorial. Of course, this took way longer than expected. But it was worth it.
I also knocked the shelf out of our dehumidifier cabinet with a rubber mallet (very satisfying), and found hardware handles commensurate with my plans to knock of Kathy Kuo (see week 6). I doubt I’ll have time to fill and paint the cabinet in time for the reveal. You can see the finishing isn’t great on the cane so I might have to re-do it, and the damage is around the side to the right looking head on, you can’t see in these pics. But like I said last week, it was a major bargain for its shape (the corners are rounded!) and just the size we need.
That’s a quilting ruler (similar here – the new olfa version of mine is frosted, which is a major misstep in my opinion | grip handle here) that’s necessary for efficiently cutting fabrics, and I use it all the time around the house for precision measuring.
Acrylic post photo frames, hooks for hanging some cherished art from a trip to Hawaii that’s never been given its due, OH and a mostly successful floor mirror and buying the hardware required to mount it on the wall instead. Because like I said I’m picky and it had the look I wanted and fits in a tricky space without being too heavy, so I’m creating more work for myself to make it work. I say mostly successful because it’s got a floating mirror sheet and it’s ever so slightly not perfectly cut. I might flip it to put it on the bottom. It’s probably not enough to notice once installed, so I’m sticking with it.
AND FABRIC. Lee Jofa Tetbury stole my heart and all of my money and of course I needed the velvet not the linen. The scale is huge and there’s not a great reference photo so when it arrives (TODAY EEEEE) I’ll see what sort of pillow I’m making as a focal point for our bed. A coordinating abstract became unavailable after purchasing and was unfulfilled, of course. Here’s hoping Lee pulls his weight!
Setbacks/Delays
The sink wall work, and painting trim taking much longer than we expected (and I do mean WE, my amazing husband is behind me 100% on this endeavor and is painting with me every night and sanding/spackling in the AM). Also I tried to sew some roman shades yesterday and my beloved machine wasn’t working, and I genuinely thought I needed a new machine. Then I realized my bobbin was installed in the wrong direction. I haven’t had time to try it out again but I’m hoping that’s the fix. Does a wayward bobbin make a machine click and lose all control over tension, typically??? Not in my history with this machine, but I’m hoping it was just punishing me for not sewing for such a long time.
Our bamboo shade for our vanity area is late, and I need to convert it to a roman, so I fully expect to forego that. We’ll see.
A pleasant interruption happened last weekend – I have a VERY exciting garden update (pics coming later), courtesy of my extremely talented father, who is building a garden house frame to support our garden screening. Not that I have time to garden this week. Stay tuned for updates after this whole ORC thing is over. That took up a portion of weekend painting time (in the best way), but also allowed us to paint the bedroom ceiling with exceptional child care on hand (thanks again, Mom!). So it probably evened out in the overall scheme of things.
Other delays were just my inherent perfectionism in finalizing decisions, but I have to say, every time I’m about to give up searching for that perfect piece, whatever it may be, I FIND IT. Thus reinforcing my obsessive need to search through every thing available for sale ever before purchasing.
But I have this rule: only buy what you love. There are surely things not worth investing any love in (toilet paper holder, hello!), but I do not believe in wasting money, and want things to be done well. I also do my best where possible to support American-made, vintage, and independent makers and small businesses, budget withstanding. This is infinitely harder shopping from home, and I plan to do better once life is back to normal, but I made a very concerted effort for every purchase in this suite.
There’s a lofty sentiment for someone with a week left to achieve the following at all, let alone well…
To-Do List & What’s Next (I don’t want to document this UGH)
We have a happy family occasion to celebrate this weekend. Two, actually, with Father’s Day Sunday. Reuniting in person with my nuclear family is a dream that’s a year in the making that far surpasses my desire to finish this challenge on a scale that meets my expectations. So, I’m fully expecting to not get all of this done. We’ll see….here’s the to-do list:
Need to buy: hand towels, sink rugs
Vanity/Shower Room
- Finish painting
- caulk behind sinks (LOVE doing this actually)
- add insta caulk tape under vanity counter (there’s a solid 1/4″ gap for some reason)
- install mirrors/towel rings/photos by sinks and then…
- make a decision with that context about whether to go brass with the sconces
- hang art and hooks
Primary Bedroom (actually the easiest part. okay except time for sewing. but paint is pretty simple in here)
- finish painting
- bring everything back into room
- bring new things into room (ottoman & rug…is that really it?)
- sew pillows
- sew roman shades????
- hang art – figure out what to put above bed
- I’m also holding onto hope for a last minute nightstand score on Chairish or FB Marketplace. It’s not happening. I need to accept it.
WC
- hang wallpaper
- paint door?
- hang art/towel rack
- hang bamboo roll-up converted to roman, oh and trim the edges
Walk-in Closet
- start/finish painting
- hang wallpaper
- install shelves
- install handles on, and possibly paint dehumidifier cabinet?
- make it not look like the disaster it is
- commit to a life of executing organizational dreams and putting away laundry in a timely fashion
I need to go. Of course I spent this time blogging instead of painting, I thought this would be kind of a quick post, I was planning on blowing it off to paint, if I’m honest (sorry, have you read my to-do list? IT IS LARGE.)
Let me go add some paint pictures – the text will be minimal. But you guys. I’m posting this on time ON THURSDAY. Because there is absolutely NO TIME to do this later this week.
C’est tout
Maura
