Tag Archives: One Room Challenge;

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK SIX

August 1, 2012

Six weeks ago, I joined a group of bloggers with the challenge of finally tackling that one room you’ve been meaning to decorate. The rules were simple, we had six weeks to complete our space and every week we would blog about our progress. If you’re new to this series, start at Week One to follow along from the beginning.

THE PROJECT

For a quick overview, I decided to use the word ‘room’ a bit loosely in choosing my space. I decided on our stairwell, which was at the time boring and beige. As a renter, my goal was make a big visual impact without committing a ton of resources to the project.

Over the past six weeks I painted, replaced the existing track lighting with an amazing vintage chandelier, sourced new art, and hung a gallery wall. Now it’s judgement time. Here’s what the space looks like today!

A gallery wall runs diagonally up the stairs. As you can see, I still need a few more pieces to fill it out but I’ve decided to let it evolve organically rather than rush to fill the space.

The view from the landing.

A close up of one of my vintage nautical charts. Do you like the way the painted mattes turned out?

A few of my favorite pieces in the gallery wall: a chair by Anne Harwell and a vintage Vogue cover.

Just to show how far we’ve come, here’s what the space looked like at week one! Yikes!

Special thanks to Linda for organizing this challenge and inviting me to participate. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along!

P.S Be sure to check out the other participants below!

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK FIVE

July 25, 2012

Yikes, I can’t believe it’s already been five weeks since I started this challenge. My stairwell has definitely come a long way from its boring beige, track lighting beginnings and it looks like I’m on schedule for next week’s big reveal! If you’re new to this series, start at Week One to get caught up to speed.

THE PROJECT

This week’s project was to get busy hanging artwork and create a gallery wall. I don’t want to ruin next week’s big reveal by sharing after photos just yet, but this project is done and I’m loving the way it’s transformed the space.

As I’ve mentioned before, the space has 13ft ceilings, which is a ton of wall space to cover! To tackle this issue, I decided to frame two huge vintage nautical charts. My original thought was to hang them vertically, one on top of the other, but as you’ll see next week plans changed a bit.

  I happened to have an extra can of Benajmin Moore’s Surf Blue and decided on a whim to use it to paint the photo mattes. I think it provides a nice contrast against the seafoam green walls.

After endlessly arranging photos on my living room floor, I finally decided on a configuration that seemed to work. To better visualize how my arrangement would look on the wall, I traced each piece of artwork on paper, labeled the cut outs, and taped them to the wall to perfect spacing etc. After hammering in the picture hangers, you can just tear off the paper!

So there you have it, the beginnings of my gallery wall. I’m still waiting on a few pieces of artwork to arrive. One of which being the Tracey Kafka abstract you all loved last week!

THE GOALS
-Paint, paint, paint!
-Update light fixture
-Invest in artwork
-Create a gallery wall
-THE REVEAL!

NEXT STEP

Photograph the space for its big reveal!

P.S Be sure to check out the other participants below!

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK FOUR

July 18, 2012

We’re entering the home stretch of the One Room Challenge and truth be told, this past week wasn’t my most productive. In fairness, I was vacationing on the Cape so I’m going to cut myself a little slack and work extra hard these last two weeks to finish strong. If you’re new to this series, start at Week One to get caught up to speed.

THE PROJECT

As I mentioned last week, my goal was to expand my art collection. I have a gallery wall planned for the space and 13ft walls to fill!

The one thing I did accomplish is commissioning a quote from a calligrapher that I intend to frame. My inspiration came from one of my design idols, Anna Spiro. Check out her framed Virginia Woolf quote on the beautiful tablescape below.

There have been a few pieces that have caught my eye but I haven’t pulled the trigger quite yet. This Lulu DK print (did you catch my Style Snapshot interview with her last week?) from yesterday’s One King’s Lane sale has been nagging at me. Should I cave and snap it up?

And this abstract by Tracey Kafka reminds me of a Rothko so of course I’m in love.

That’s all I’ve got this week, the promise of a beautifully written quote and some pieces that have me reaching for my wallet. I have to admit I’m getting a bit nervous as we get closer to the reveal. Art is so personal. We love the quirky pieces we’ve collected, but I hope you will too! Fingers crossed…

THE GOALS
-Paint, paint, paint!
-Update light fixture
-Invest in artwork
-Create a gallery wall

NEXT STEP
Get busy hanging all my artwork. Check back next Wednesday to see my progress!

P.S Be sure to check out the other participants below!

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK THREE

July 11, 2012

 I can’t believe we’re halfway through the One Room Challenge! There’s still so much to do, but this week’s update is definitely my favorite so far. If you’re new to this series, start at Week One to get caught up to speed.

THE PROJECT
This week’s project was to update the light fixture. The existing fixture, which you can see below, was pretty terrible. As a renter, I’d normally be hesitant to switch out existing fixtures, but when I stumbled across the perfect alternative I took it as a sign and ran with it!

I found the amazing palm frond chandelier below while vacationing in Key Largo, FL a few months back. Florida has some of the best vintage shopping around! Will you hate me if I tell you that this beauty only set me back $100? I’ve seen them sell for five times as much on ebay and 1st Dibs! Needless to say, I was thrilled with my find. My parents, who had to transport the monstrosity from Key Largo to DC were not as thrilled…

I knew the chandelier would be the perfect statement piece in our stairwell (truth be told, my boyfriend needed a bit more convincing). I had a long internal debate about whether to paint it or keep it white, but ultimately decided to keep it as is. My desire to offset the white chandelier played a big part in last week’s decision to paint the space Seafoam Green.

And here it is in all its glory…

I owe a huge thanks to my Dad who I enlisted to switch out the fixtures on his last visit. I’m pretty in love with how it turned out!

Crossing goal #2 off my list. The light fixture has been updated! What do you think?

THE GOALS
-Paint, paint, paint!
-Update light fixture
-Invest in artwork
-Create a gallery wall

NEXT STEP
Buy some amazing artwork. Check back next Wednesday to see my progress!

P.S Be sure to check out the other participants below!

ONE ROOM CHALLENGE: WEEK ONE

June 27, 2012

A few weeks ago, I was asked to participate in “The One Room Challenge” with nineteen other bloggers (see their links at the end of this post). The challenge is to re-do one room in our house over a six week time period, sharing our progress along the way. I was excited about the opportunity and knew the time limit would keep me accountable! As much as it kills me to post ‘befores’ without beautiful ‘afters’ to share, here we go..

THE ROOM
As a renter, I’m somewhat constrained in the updates I can make to our space. More importantly, as a twenty-something, my decorating budget is a bit modest. That being said, I wanted to choose a space that would make a big impact but wouldn’t require a huge financial investment.

I decided to push the definition of room in “One Room Challenge” and decided my room would be our stairwell. With 13+ ft high walls, I knew I had an opportunity to make this space something special!

THE GOALS
-Paint, paint, paint!
-Update light fixture
-Invest in artwork
-Create a gallery wall

NEXT STEP
Deciding on a paint color and re-painting the space will be the first step I tackle. Check back next Wednesday to see my progress!

P.S Be sure to check out the other participants below!