Welcome back to Week 4 of the six week One Room Challenge hosted by Calling It Home and media partner House Beautiful! For those dropping by for the first time, we're working on our living room in our colonial-style house that we just moved into in December.

On Week 1, I shared my plan to transform this plain and formerly purple room into a preppy and traditional space. Week 2 was about the custom sofa, fabric, and carpet choices, and Week 3 started with a power tool accident (Sean's good & healing nicely!) but ended with some great progress with moulding, paint, millwork, and window coverings.

Now we're here at Week 4 and though I've enjoyed sharing our construction progress, I'm ready to talk about some of the pretty things!


We've almost finished putting up the gorgeous Metrie moulding and Farrow & Ball paint and I am crazy over how much grander the room is looking already. I couldn't resist trying out a few accessories and seeing how they looked in the space. One of the first things I picked out for the room was this shield mirror from ORC sponsor All Modern which I've paired with this muted chevron patterned fireplace screen I purchased from Wayfair. I'm loving how the mirror will reflect the light fixture that's going to hang from the ceiling!



And here's the light fixture, the Hudson Valley Sweeny Four Light Pendant courtesy of Bellacor. Bellacor has a fantastic selection of lighting and home products (like the flushmount lights I used in my entry) so I knew they'd have something perfect for this space. I adore the scalloped shape and thin black detail of the shade and the aged brass which will look great in the cool grey room.  It's a transitional and preppy light but not too sweet - at least that's what I'm hoping it will look like in the room!

I've got a few other warm metal pieces coming into the room including a modern brass & glass coffee table, this gold and black side table and these bronze-ish bookends. Grey walls and gold metals are one of my favourite pairings.


I'm carrying the mix of modern and traditional throughout the room, as in this vignette which I shared on instagram a few weeks ago. The clean-lined blue and gold desk provides a perch for the old ship model we found years ago at an antique fair, while the Polen spindle back chair contrasts with the sharp and modern photo above, a long-time favourite, from sponsor Minted.

Half the fun of designing a space is taking the opportunity to take some design risks. I've decided to go bold and more abstract with some of the other art pieces. These large prints by Minted artist Misty Hughes will sit above the custom Barrymore sofa. Speaking of, here's a peek at my sofa on the bench at Barrymore:



I'm truly amazed at how the sofa is constructed by hand. From the fabric cutting to the 8-way hand-tied coils, the shaping of the foam, and then the upholstery, it's a manual process that has remained relatively the same since Barrymore first started making sofas in 1919. With so much care and individual attention put into my sofa, I know sitting on it will be a dream. The sofa is being delivered tomorrow so follow me on Instagram if you'd like a sneak peek!


And here's a look at some of the other pretty things that have arrived. Yes, I styled them in the room which is still covered in painter's tape and tarps, ha! I'm loving this accent table, the Selby Grey Round table, which sadly is discontinued but you still might be able to find something similar on the Bellacor site. It's got a gorgeous grain and feels nice and solid.

In the foreground are some items I purchased from McGee & Co. Unfortunately, I had a costly lesson which some of my Canadian readers might benefit from. The items arrived quickly and in good condition but shipping cost a fair bit and there were significant brokerage fees ($60!) plus duties ($15) I had to pay when it was delivered to my door. I may order from them again but next time, I'll use the forwarding service Crossborderpickups.ca that I mention in this post. With a mail forwarder you'll not only pay cheaper shipping to a US address, but NO brokerage fee will be charged. Lesson learned!

As you can see, I'm bringing in lots of blue into this room. The Quinlyn Vase from All Modern has a great shape and finish and the Jill Rosenweld x Erin Gates Delft Tall Bowl is just exquisite. It has the faintest mint green interior and gold around the rim. I love the elongated shape too.

We're making great progress but have less than two weeks to get it all done! Be sure to check out these other inspiring projects and the over 200 more that will be linking up on Thursday.