One Room Challenge Week 4 - Doing The Dirty Work
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***Week 4 of the One Room Challenge has been a doozy. It's been said that this is when things get crazy and if this floor is any indication, they were right.
Last we left this tale, our dining room was looking like this on Thursday night. Remnants of Chloe's birthday party were still in the room and we hadn't moved out all the furniture.
By Friday night, we had this pretty sight. The vinyl top layer of wallpaper had been removed, we had covered up the floors, and our electrician had come and installed eight new potlights. Figuring out the lighting layout took a ridiculous amount of time. Don't look too closely but the potlights aren't evenly spaced (dang joists!) but it took us almost two hours to figure out so we're sticking with it.
Next up was removing the glue layer. We learned our lesson from removing wallpaper in the living room and went for the big guns, renting a steamer from The Home Depot. $20 and four hours later the job was done.
Now here's where we got a little ahead of ourselves. While Sean patched up some dips and holes in the wall, I went around painting paint swatches. What we really should have done was clean off the glue residue first (a solution of equal parts warm water and fabric softener did the job) because all those patches and paint just made cleaning the walls a little more difficult. Oh well.
Over the years I've come to realize that I can't live with bold colour on the walls. Muted soft tones that I won't tire of easily are more my style. I really wanted to bring in the blue from the adjoining dining room and picked shades that ranged from a light grey-green to deep robin's egg blue. The winner? You'll have to wait and see ;)
Now lest you think everything has been smooth sailing, here's a look at the other side of the room. Everything in this picture is now covered in a fine layer of dust (we sanded those patches without tarping off the room. Oops). We've been eating meals at the coffee table and I am quickly becoming claustrophobic in this space. But look at how much brighter the dining room is looking already!!
Things are moving quickly now. We primed and painted the walls, we installed the new bamboo blind, and by the end of the week we will have the ceiling smoothed which is something Sean has been waiting for for years. I personally, would have rather spent that money on pretty new furnishings but it's a compromise as it always is. He worries about the structure and I worry about the decor and in the end we hopefully have a room that we both love.
I can't leave you with a messy photo so here is one pretty thing that is making it into the room.
The Let's Go print from Minted adds to the coastal feel of the room. I kind of want to crawl into this photo and see the view through that door. I got it in a whitewashed herringbone frame which really pics up on the natural tones of the bamboo blind.
Only two more weeks left in this challenge. If you're participating too, I'm cheering you on. Let's get this done!
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