Spring One Room Challenge - Week Four

Hello and welcome to Week Four of the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge.  If you're unfamiliar with the ORC, it is an event spearheaded by Linda from Calling It Home where 20 Featured Designers and hundreds of Guest Participants, like myself, attempt to completely redo a room in six weeks.

For this ORC, my fifth, I am turning my parents man-cave bonus room into a light and airy TV room...or attempting to at least.  What's new, you ask?  Well, this week was all about caulking, painting, and the search for two flush mount light fixtures to replace the boob lights.

Let me give you a little insight to my Mama.  She is a wonderful woman who lives a very comfortable life.  She and Daddy retired last year and she has since put them on a "budget".  When she tells Daddy that he has a budget for fishing and beer that he must adhere to, he just laughs.  She, on the other hand, takes it VERY seriously, so much so that she started to use the cotton from the medicine bottles for her eye makeup removal...wait, what?  Completely unnecessary.  She's like one of those cheap millionaires that wait on hold two hours with the internet company because she was overcharged by $0.11.

Fast forward to the ORC and me sourcing two flush mount lights.  I sent her a few respectable options that were not too terrible looking and were somewhat easy on the wallet.

One  |  Two  |  Three  |  Four  |  Five

That was the beginning of #Lightgate2018.  She could not believe that we wouldn't find something fashionable for $25 regardless of how much I tried to remind her that It. Is. Not. 1942.  This went on for over a week.  Finally, I decided to be smart and sat her down with the laptop and a large glass of wine and went to the one place I knew I could find discount lighting...Walmart.com.  Two glasses of wine and twenty-five excruciating pages later, she was a converted woman.  We ultimately decided to order these beauties from West Elm.

Crisis Averted

If you follow me on Instagram you likely saw the paint progress that we made.  The room is SO much lighter and I am thrilled with how it is turning out.

Funny story....as we were painting, Mama asked me, "With the board and batten being Antique White and the grasscloth on the ceiling, do you think it will be too much?"  I about wet my pants as I laughingly replied, "You have black walls that are sponge painted with silver and you are worried about THIS being too much?"

Now you understand why this is called the One Room Challenge.  See you next week.

Spring One Room Challenge - Week Three

Hello and welcome to Week Three of the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge. If you're unfamiliar with the ORC, it is an event spearheaded by Linda from Calling It Home where 20 Featured Designers and hundreds of Guest Participants attempt to completely redo a room in six weeks.  This is my fifth time as a Guest Participant.

For this challenge I am working with my parents to turn their bonus room from a dark and gloomy man-cave into a fun and functional TV room.  This was the original vision I had for the space that I shared during Week One:

While I loved everything about it, I still felt like something was missing.  Do you ever get that sense?  When it happens to me I ALWAYS try to trust my instincts because when I listen, greatness happens.  In this case, greatness happened in the loo.  True story.  I was using a bathroom I previously designed in Mama's house and inspiration struck.

As God as my witness, I will get that fixture changed.  If I have to lie, cheat, steal, or kill, as God as my witness, that ugliness will go away.

Le Lac!  Yes.  That is exactly the something that was missing.  Luckily for me, I have about 6 yards in my stash and know just how we will use it in the space.

Now for the progress this week...Daddy finished adding the board and batten to the walls and Mama got all the nail holes filled and seams caulked.  We will begin painting next week.  I was able to take this old Pottery Barn chair from it's shabby before to this fun after (I am not quite finished...still need to skirt it)

I intended on using a $5 vintage brass table as the TV stand, but when I really got a good look at it, I realized it had seen better days.

After discussing options with Mama, we decided on a fantastic finish that is starting to look stellar.

Of course I couldn't get it done without the help of a few friends.

Thanks again for stopping by.  See you next week!

Spring 2018 One Room Challenge - Week Two

Hello and welcome to Week Two of the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge(TM).  If you're unfamiliar with the ORC, it is an event spearheaded by Linda from Calling it Home where 20 Featured Designers and hundreds of Guest Participants attempt to completely redo a room in six weeks.  This is my fifth time participating as a Guest Participant.

For this challenge, I am working with my parents again to redo their bonus room.  Last week I showed you the ugly before pictures and shared the vision I have for the space.

The room does not have a lot of architectural interest, so we decided to add some board and batten to the walls.  When lots of folks add moulding to a room, they place the 1x4 (or whatever size) directly onto the textured wall and then paint it all one color, skipping the paneling.  My parents wanted to do it the traditional (and proper) way by paneling the walls first, and then adding the trim boards.  So, off to Home Depot we went.

Funny story:  I posted this on Instagram and @oneroomchallenge commented and said, "Woah, that's a lot of wood."  I had just enough wine that afternoon to reply back with, "That's what she said."  Sheesh.  Moral of the story?                           Don't IG and drink wine, folks. 

Then Daddy got busy working on the walls.

Then Mama got a call saying the sofa we ordered was being delivered the next day.

Then we had a bit of miscommunication on how we wanted to handle the end wall and we ended up with this craziness which we told Daddy we would need to fix...

Then he decided to go fishing with my boys instead...

Priorities, amiright?  Besides, it's only week two...still plenty of time...said every participant ever before they feed their family cold cereal every meal, don't remember the last time they showered, subsist on no sleep and wine while scrambling to finish in time because suddenly it's the end of week five.  Not speaking from experience or anything.  Be sure to check out the Featured Designers and other Guest Participants.  See you next week.

Spring 2018 One Room Challenge - Week One

Hello and welcome back to the blog, lovelies!  Since we last chatted, my parents have been loving their laundry room that I redid for the 2017 Fall One Room Challenge(TM).  Whenever company comes over, Daddy takes them over and makes sure to show them the laundry room...it is the cutest thing.  Up until that point Mama wasn't even sure Daddy knew they had a laundry room. :)

Enough reminiscing, let's talk about the new challenge we are taking on for the 2018 Spring ORC(TM).  I am thrilled to be participating in my fifth (!!!) ORC as a Guest Participant.

This time, we will be re-creating my parent's bonus room that is over the garage.  Quite a few years (and trends) ago, Mama created the space as a man cave for Daddy - likely to get him out of her hair.  The room is like a D.U.N.G.E.O.N.  Complete with sponge paint and wall decals.  Good stuff.

If y'all cannot tell, we love us some Alabama and Raiders football.  Although my sister went ahead and married a Broncos fan even though I told her during my maid-of-honor speech, "You marry the man, not the team," but I digress.

Even the dog is sad about this chair.  That I nursed my eldest in - the one that turns 18 in October.  Mama doesn't want to get rid of it because it is comfortable and looks perfectly serviceable.  If I get my way, it can go service somewhere else.

It wouldn't be a ORC without having at least one shot of my daddy in his PJ's.  He has on a hat so I argue, yet again, that it is an outfit.  You may notice carpet in this photo, it has been replaced with bamboo wood floors.

We obviously have our work cut out for us with this one.  There is one double window in the space, and we need to add some light.  We plan on adding some architectural dimension with board and batten on the walls and grasscloth on the ceiling.  We have ordered a new sectional and have some fun fabrics in store to create a wonderful and functional TV room.

Be sure to stop by next week to check on the progress of the walls - and the removal of that hideous recliner.  Thank you again to Linda for hosting the One Room Challenge(TM) for Featured Designers and Guest Participants.  Have a great week!