Tag: ORC

One Room Challenge: Week 2 (Office Design and Layout)
I have the design for the office to share with you this week! First up, let’s talk layout.

Look how fancy I am! Marvel at that rudimentary animation! I made it myself, and yes, everything is to scale. I’ve leveled up a little with SketchUp and it’s no longer the frustrating exercise it once was to create custom furniture. I even made the lamp on the desk! YAY FOR NEW SKILLS.

Anyway, I have still images too, which are probably more helpful in discussing the space.

The room is all angles, so the layout was a little challenging, but I took advantage of the one long wall by lining it with 7’ of modular storage. The ceiling wonkiness is limiting, so to avoid everything being at the same height, I added a hutch atop the cabinets.

Floating in the middle of the room will be a brass and marble dining table. It gives me extra space to spread out while planning big projects, but it’s also a secondary desk, a homework spot (the kids like to hang out up there with me), and an alternate location for tabletop shoots. There will be four modern green chairs for everyday use, but the table can seat six.

Next, the placement of the desk and chairs. This is controversial?

They can be flip-flopped, and in theory a desk in front of the windows sounds lovely. In reality though, the sun can be super bright there for a good portion of the day and I think it would hurt my eyes to be staring at a backlit screen (and I don’t want to draw the curtains all the time). I also have a window AC there which is very necessary on the third floor of an old house without central air, and I don’t want to sit directly in front of it. And also? I don’t want my back to the room’s main entrance! It feels wrong. My desk has been where it is in the mockups for months now, and I like it. I can also swivel to reach the scanner/printer which I don’t use every single day, but when I do I feel very much in control of my little command center.

Placing the desk in front of the window would make for a pretty picture, but the window nook will also be beautiful with my pair of vintage chairs and sconces on each side.

OK, and the closet. Excuse me, I mean “The Rainbow Room.” My family loves this little space at the very tip-top front of the house with its demilune stained glass window. We’re all pretty excited about giving it an update! I’ll be putting up the most amazing wallpaper with vintage-style illustrations of birds and bugs, and then painting the trim a complementary color (likely green). Four bookshelves will line the sides giving us tons of storage while keeping a clear view of the window at the end.

I’ve got a design board with the major pieces in place to share too. I always start my process here, adding each element layer by layer so I can swap things in and out as I make decisions.

This board isn’t 100% final, but it’s pretty close. The room will need more to fill it out too — more art, accessories, and little styling touches — but that all comes in at the end.
* An asterisk denotes items that have been sent by sponsors for inclusion in the room.
1. Ornithology Wallpaper, Milton & King*
  Birds and bugs! That illustration style! You guys, this is right up my alley.
2. Audrey 8″ Sconce, Cedar & Moss*
  Well these are pretty much perfect, yes? Customizable too. Mine will plug in.
3. Alexa Hampton Basil Small Brass Pendant, The Mine*
  Much nicer than the ceiling fan it’s replacing. I’ll be centering the pendant on the marble table.
4. Globe Table Lamp, West Elm
  There are less expensive options for a simple globe lamp, but I’m picky about the glass. I didn’t want plastic or anything etched/frosted. Beautiful milk glass all the way.
5. Benchwright Hutch, Pottery Barn
  The ceilings have funny angles and I needed something with height. This sits atop my storage cabinets. (Discontinued, but here’s the rest of the collection.)
6. Martha Stewart Living Craft Storage Console, Home Depot / Home Decorators
  Modular, so you can build your own storage solution. Alas, I’m only seeing this one in white now.
7. Martha Stewart Living Craft File Cabinet, Home Depot / Home Decorators
  More modular goodness, but this one is still available in wood, along with white and black.
8. Archive Walnut Bookshelves, Article*
  These have arrived and not only are they sturdy, the walnut is gorgeous.
9. Freer House Slim Keith Vase, Jill Rosenwald*
  Little vases painted on a larger vase! Delightful.
10. Marble and Brass 60×36″ Parsons Table, Crate & Barrel*
  I cannot wait to start covering this table with walllpaper samples and paint swatches. Perhaps its beauty will inspire me to keep a tidy workspace?
11. Ruth Green Dining Chairs, The Mine*
  I’ve been looking for more ways to bring in mossy green, and these chairs excellent in that regard. Digging the modern style too.
12. Vintage Blue Slipper Chairs, Divine Consign
  I grabbed a pair of these and used only one in my first One Room Challenge, but now they’re reuniting in my office.
13. Pom Pom Velvet Pillows, West Elm
  I’ve used these in other rooms, but my pillows like to shuffle around. I think they’ll be happy in the office, at least for a little while.
14. Kendrick Currey & Co Side Table, Bellacor*
  This is the cutest side table and I’m sad to say that it’s being discontinued. I was considering this quirky side table too, which is still available.
15. Pink Curtains, TBD
  I might steal these from another room, but then that would leave that space naked. Find something else? Keep the others and pick up some new ones for this room? (Pink for every window, everywhere!)
16. Silas Round Convex Mirror, Overstock
  Another item I might steal from a different room (the snug). But I think I might like it even better in the office.
17. ‘Emerald Beetles’ by Kate Roebuck, Artfully Walls*
  It’s too good. I had to.
18. ‘Flowers in Vase’ by Ruti Shaashua, Artfully Walls*
  Great colors and an equally great drawing style.
19. Paint colors: White Blush, Benjamin Moore; Simply White, Benjamin Moore; Authentic Black, Dutch Boy
  The second and third floor has white trim and black doors throughout (with just a couple of rooms left to tackle). The pale blush walls are the same as my bedroom — I loved the color that much.
20. Morris 60″ Desk, Crate & Barrel*
  Drawers! So many drawers. I’m going to devote one exclusively to novelty toys just because I can.
21. Minna Vase, Crate & Barrel
  I picked up four of these a while back. I have three children, and not so coincidentally I suppose, I now also have three of these vases.
22. Jane Robert Abbey Table Lamp, Bellacor*
  I’m playing with scale here. This lamp is huge, and it’s going under an angled ceiling. It should work, but until I see it in person I’m crossing my fingers.
23. Bukhara Ikat Indigo Blue Pillow, Arianna Belle*
  Oh my do I love this pattern. My desk area needed a little shot of blue.
24. Liv Upholstered Wingback Office Chair, Crate & Barrel*
  My number one choice for a desk chair. It’s so dang lovely.I’ve written about it before!
25. Coziest Rosette Throw, West Elm
  For chilly days.
26. Ladies Blue and White Fishbowl Planter, The Mine*
  There are touches of blue and white everywhere, and I’ve been wanting to add a planter like this somewhere in the house. I realized the office is the perfect spot to do so.
27. Pink Ikat Genevieve Gorder Capel Dhurrie Rug, Pottery Barn Kids
  An oldie but a goodie. The dusty pink is hard to find in rugs — they’re usually baby pink or much, much brighter.
Everything is coming together and I’m feeling good about it — except for the windows. Am I stealing curtains from another room? Leaving those and adding yet another set of pink curtains to my house? (Not that I would complain.) I’ve played around with lots of fabric patterns, going bold with scale and color, and I keep coming back to the subtle backdrop of plain pink. What do you think?

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Boxwood Avenue • Coco & Jack • Design Manifest • Dwell with Dignity • The House That Lars Built • Little Green Notebook • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Old Brand New • Old Home Love • The Painted House • Megan Pflug Designs • Pink Pagoda • Erica Reitman • Sacramento Street • Simply Grove • Jill Sorensen • Sugar & Cloth • Vintage Rug Shop • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: Hello, Office • Week 2: Design and Layout • Week 3: It’s Curtains • Week 4: Putting it Together• Week 5: What Trim Color?

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways

p.s. Here’s a smoother animation for you.

A post shared by Nicole Balch/ Making it Lovely (@makingitlovely) on Oct 11, 2017 at 8:06am PDT
October 11, 2017
One Room Challenge: Week 1 (Hello, Office!)

This is my third One Room Challenge. Enough time has elapsed that I’ve sort of forgotten the worst of the end rush, so here we are going for it again! Twenty of us designers and design bloggers are each doing a makeover from start to finish in six weeks, and sharing the whole process along the way every Wednesday. (A huge thank you to Linda, the organizer of the One Room Challenge, for inviting me back.) I’ve linked to the other official participants at the end of the post, so be sure to check out everybody’s ORC introductions today!

I was torn between two options this time around. The laundry room in the basement, or the office on the total opposite end of the house up on the third floor? I have big plans for both, and spoiler alert, I’ll probably do one right after the other. The laundry room is going to wait a smidge because the 7′ ceiling height and exposed pipes mean it’s always going to look a little like the basement of a house from the 1800’s. Because it is. I guess attics with weird layouts and crazy angles are inherently more photogenic? Let’s find out! Office, you’re up.

It is a finished attic, so it has that going for it. I had set it up as a playroom for the kids initially, but they preferred being close to us on the main floor or in their rooms, and they didn’t spend much time on the third floor. Not enough to justify dedicating the whole room to toys.

Meanwhile, I’ve tried setting up my office in various places around the house. We have the luxury of space in our Victorian with 3,000 square feet (the house feels huge to us) divided up into lots of rooms. We learned that some rooms are much draftier or hotter than others though. What I thought would be a great office turned out to be freezing cold in the winter, so that’s now “the snug”. It’s still on the cold side even after we improved the heating situation, but you can feel cozy huddled up under a blanket to watch a movie, vs. typing with fingerless gloves because you can’t keep your hands in a blanket for warmth and expect to get any work done.

Side note: I’ve talked about my office shuffle before. And every time I bring it up, I feel like I have to reiterate that our house is not a ramshackle freezing/boiling/awful thing. We added a new, more efficient furnace and thermostatic valves to radiators in the troublesome rooms. There are a few window unit air conditioners. The house is now chilly/warm/character-building. Big difference! All part of that old house charm.

I have the tiniest head start in choosing the office for this round of the ORC because I’ve already done some of the painting (black doors, white trim, palest blush on the walls and ceiling) and added a wall of storage. It looked like this last you saw it, while I was waiting for the backordered filing cabinet for the middle to arrive (which did, months later).

Once I got that setup and had my desk up there, I fizzled. The office is functioning! It just isn’t as nice as it could be yet. Think brass, marble, and wood. Old meets new. Black, white, and pale pink, plus green and blue. I’m not anti-ceiling fan, but I’m replacing this one with the prettiest pendant. I’ll be sewing window treatments once I decide between curtains or a roman shade. I’m addressing the layout, making room for multiple people, and tying it all in with the rest of the house.

And you guys. This is the part of the house with the rainbow room! The room that led my kids to name our entire house The Rainbow House. (There’s embossed stationery and everything. It’s all very official.)

See the stained glass window in the top peak?

There’s a closet tucked inside, about 5′ x 6′ and only 6.5′ tall. The demilune window takes up most of the far wall, and while it’s already kind of magic in there, it’s about to get even better. I’ll be painting the trim and adding the most amazing wallpaper, then lining the sides with bookshelves.

The closet is going to be so good. The whole thing is going to be good! I’ll have all the design details for you next week.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Boxwood Avenue • Coco & Jack • Design Manifest • Dwell with Dignity • The House That Lars Built • Little Green Notebook • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Old Brand New • Old Home Love • The Painted House • Megan Pflug Designs • Pink Pagoda • Erica Reitman • Sacramento Street • Simply Grove • Jill Sorensen • Sugar & Cloth • Vintage Rug Shop • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: Hello, Office • Week 2: Design and Layout • Week 3: It’s Curtains • Week 4: Putting it Together• Week 5: What Trim Color?

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways

October 4, 2017
Choosing Window Treatments for Our Hall and Both Entryways

The big reveal of our latest One Room Challenge project went up last week! We took on the front and back entryways, along with the second and third floor hallways. The wallpaper was still in progress as of last Wednesday and it was finished up on Friday, so now we just have the repair and renovation of our back stairs to deal with. Old houses sometimes throw you a little off schedule with their fun ‘surprises’ (in this case a major plumbing leak that had us ripping open the wall all throughout that stairwell).

I’ll be delving into a few aspects of our project in more detail over the next few weeks, starting today with our window treatments from The Shade Store, one of the official One Room Challenge sponsors. They provided a shopping credit that covered the cost of shades for my ORC design.

I needed shades for five windows: one in the front entryway at the bottom of the stairs and another at the top, one at the end of the second floor hall, and another two at the top and bottom of the back stairs. All five windows had lace curtains when we moved in, and while they were period-appropriate for a Victorian house, they were not exactly my style. I left a couple of them up for privacy and I removed the rest, leaving several windows bare.

The pink wallpaper was one of my earliest design decisions, and it’s the element I looked to when deciding everything else. Paint colors, flooring, and window treatments were all chosen with that wallpaper color and pattern in mind, and the pink linen I ended up going with was not my first instinct! Below, you can see some of the other contenders alongside one of the actual shades.

I thought about stripes. I love stripes! The trim was going white though, with black doors. I figured I already had all the contrast I needed there, so that ruled out black and white stripes and I wasn’t so keen on any other versions. Black shades were also out, in part because of the black doors and in part because I wanted to let light stream through the fabric. Polka dots were another option I had considered pretty seriously. I had actually mentioned that I would be using them when I showed the design plan in week 2, but I changed my mind when I went to place my order. Polka dots are very cute, but I had kind of filled my cute quotient. What I needed was a solid supporting fabric, not another star element.

White is too stark in my house. Even the white paint we chose for the wood trim on the second and third floors is not a super bright white if you look at it in isolation. Ivory works, but that pink linen is subtle enough to read almost as a neutral, and it just looked better than ivory against everything else. If I were making choices for resale, I would have gone with ivory, beige, or taupe, but this isn’t for resale. This is for keeps, for us. Pink it is. (And since this often comes up, yes, my husband was on board with the color too.)

I knew I wanted roman shades (as opposed to a roller shade or curtains), but there were several types to choose from. I liked the relaxed roman and tulip shades because they were feminine and pretty, but the flat roman shades seemed a better balance to all of the other feminine details and colors we were already using. And again, the window treatments are playing the supporting actor role here, not the lead.

There were also several control types to choose from — how would the shade be raised and lowered? There was a continuous loop or cord lock option, but I liked the idea of going with the invisible cordless option. No ball chain or cord to attach to the window frame, and the shades operate with a gentle pull (there is a hidden pull ring sewn in). They arrived about two weeks after I had placed my order — right when all of the final details were falling into place and my workload was at its busiest. I was concerned that they would take a lot of time to install that frankly, I didn’t have right then, but they were super easy! Two screws, that’s it. Insert them into the header of your shade, hold it up and eyeball the placement, mark with a pencil, drill holes, then put the shade up and tighten the screws. Done. You can also arrange for professional installation, but seriously, you can do this.

I wasn’t a fan of the lace curtains that came with the house and I had gotten used to the bare windows, but now that our windows have proper shades, everything feels more polished. So happy with them. They play off of the wallpaper nicely, and they look great against the oak woodwork on the first floor too.

November 14, 2016
One Room Challenge: Week 6 (Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways – Final Reveal!)

Hey, who needs a distraction right now? Today is reveal day for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge! Let’s get into it.

I have been sharing my progress over the past six weeks as I’ve worked on making over our front entry, up the stairs and down the second and third floor hallways, and then down the other stairway and out the back door. There were major setbacks (hello, serious plumbing problems), but we’ve also made huge progress. These spaces touch every other room in our home, and the entire house feels more polished now that they’re (mostly) done.

Front Entry

Let’s begin with the front entry, which needed the least amount of work. The walls were cream when we moved in and I had painted them a silvery blue a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t completely happy with the color. A fresh coat of pink paint (Dutch Boy Sandstone Quarry, 408-2DB) went a long way here. The color choice was driven by my inspiration, the sandstone of India’s Hawa Mahal in Jaipur.

The gaslight-style fixture has been replaced with a modern lantern from Lamps Plus. Brass! Quartz! I’m into it. Then above the door, I replaced the red exit light with a simple white globe. Is it weird to miss the bizarre old EXIT light? We still have it and could swap it back out again. I sort of miss the way it would make our house glow red like a bordello.

The old rim lock on the front door had been temperamental for a while, and it finally broke just as I was about to work on the front entry. Nice timing! I had to bore some new holes in both the door and frame for the Nostalgic Warehouse deadbolt, and the new oval door knob is using the existing mortise.

Our IKEA sideboard continues to work well for us (inside are shoes, hats, gloves, etc.), but the single lamp on top has been replaced by a matching pair by Visual Comfort from ATG. That beautiful faux-shagreen tray normally holds mail as it comes in, but a stack of books is prettier to look at than a stack of mail, eh?

We have an antique hall tree on the wall, but it’s useful to have that freestanding coat rack in the opposite corner too. A boot tray hides out beneath the sideboard for wet/muddy/snowy footwear. I want a pretty entry, but it has to function for our family of five.

The copper chair is by Blu Dot and we’ve had it for a while, I just hadn’t written about it yet. It has a living finish, so the metal will patina over time (and has already started). I would have loved to go with a fabric chair, but this one will stand up to the kids and even improve with their abuse.

The semi-antique rug has been here for a while too. The basics of this entry were in place and I felt good about most of the choices. Including the space as part of my One Room Challenge was more about tweaking and perfecting than a complete overhaul. I saved that for the other areas that needed more help!

Beth from South Loop Loft came over a few nights ago and we played around with some of the styling throughout. She brought an amazing black mirror I’d had my eye on that you’ll see in the second floor hall, and she surprised me with the black candleholder you see poking out from behind the flowers. The perfect masculine counterpoint to the more feminine elements elsewhere.

I had planned on pairing the ‘Mask’ art by Jennifer Ament on the far wall with a more classical Thomas Gainsborough print, but in the end I replaced it with an abstract painting I bought years ago from Michelle Armas. The Gainsborough was moved to the top of the stairs, and I like the way the folds of the pink linen shade from The Shade Store mimic the folds of the dress in the painting.

Ready to see more?

Oh, there’s more.

The Back Entry

The textured plaster walls in the back entry and stairway from the basement all the way up to the second floor were dingy and cracked. We hired Signature Look Painting and Decorating to repair, skim coat, and paint them, and it all looked great! Then we had to cut holes in our lovely new smooth walls to investigate a plumbing leak. Not so great.

Add to that some stairs that were in need of more than a cleaning and a coat of paint after we removed the old carpeting, and the back stairway is just not finished. We have a new plumbing stack, several steps have already been replaced, we’re ripping up and replacing the wood on the landing, and hopefully soon we can move on and get to the fun part. Everything will eventually look like so.

Our Victorian has front and back stairs and we did finish the front, so you’ll see more of that amazing Karastan antelope print carpeting in a moment.

The walls are painted in Dutch Boy White Linen (007W), a soft creamy white, and the windows have pink linen roman shades from The Shade Store again. There’s a mirrored sconce from AllModern just above the back door and a tassel sconce by Crystorama on the second landing to match the others in the second floor hallway. I added black chandelier shades to both.

We’ll hang a black pleated pendant shade from AllModern in the back entry after its repairs are finished.

I’m excited about getting the pleats I had wanted, but I don’t think it’s going to mix well with sawdust and plaster dust! Better to wait a bit.

Third Floor Hallway

Take those back stairs all the way up, ignoring the new holes and general awfulness that has happened, and you end up in the third floor hallway. Behold! Many doors, painted black (Dutch Boy Authentic Black, 437-7DB).

There were 14 doors throughout the second and third floor halls, each taking between 3-5 hours for repairs, prep, priming, and painting. The ones up here are each different, but fresh paint and new brass hardware from Nostalgic Warehouse and House of Antique Hardware unify them.

I would like to replace that carpet, but it’s not a priority. The other side of the hall has space for an old IKEA Effektiv bookcase, which is filled with kids’ toys (their playroom is nearby). The architecture isn’t as interesting up here as it is elsewhere in the house, so I went with a simple brass sconce and I tried my hand at a gallery wall outside of the bathroom. The art is a mix of old and new, mostly from South Loop Loft and Artfully Walls.

Oh what fun it will be to destroy my hand-painted floork there! Plumbing, you are the worst. Well, maybe electrical issues are the worst? I don’t know. We’ve had both! Quick, let’s look at something pretty. Another faux-shagreen tray, a cute little dog, and Jill Rosenwald’s Versailles coping bowl, customized in pink.

All right, down the front stairs to the second floor. That Karastan antelope carpet is something, eh?

So good. As is the wallpaper you’re about to see.

Second Floor Hallway

The hallway is not completely finished, but it’s far enough along that you can get a sense of it. Please pardon any dust I didn’t get to before taking photos — it has been a construction zone for weeks.

The radiator is on wood blocks to protect the floor; those will be removed after it has been reconnected. Above is another tassel and rope sconce from Crystorama on Farrow & Ball’s Tourbillon wallpaper in pink.

Opposite the radiator are the stairs. They looked like this not too long ago, so I’m feeling pretty chuffed about how they turned out.

Brandon ripped out the old carpet and staples, then I cleaned and prepped the stairs before painting them – black treads with white risers. Overall, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s so worth it in the end. The other stairway will get there too. Soon.

Down the other side of the hall, the wallpaper has not all been hung yet. This hall has been through so much in our three years though! A quick refresher…

So much better now. A new drywall ceiling has been dropped down a few inches below the old plaster one to cover conduit piping from our home’s rewiring, and our brass Schoolhouse Electric fixtures are back up.

I have two runners from Annie Selke’s Dash & Albert, but the other is still in its packaging since we haven’t finished working up here. That white dresser from Joss & Main replaces the built-in storage that used to divide the hall. Above is the mirror I mentioned earlier from South Loop Loft, along with a miniature portrait from Chairish, a brass bug, a vintage blue and white jar with a plant, and a wee brass lamp from Bellacor.

There’s more to be done, but I’m pretty happy.

Thank you to Linda at Calling it Home for organizing this event and inviting me to participate again, and thank you to House Beautiful for your partnership and coverage. I’m also grateful for the support of my One Room Challenge sponsors, and for the opportunity to work alongside the other participants, each of whom are listed below.

And thank you for following along! It has been a hectic six weeks. I have so much more to go into about the behind-the-scenes madness and the back stairway is still a mess, but I’m thrilled with where we ended up. The house is closer than ever to my vision for it, and that feels amazing.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Jana Bek • Chris Loves Julia • Shannon Claire • Coco.Kelley • The Curated House • Driven by Décor • The English Room • From the Right Bank • Sherry Hart • Hi Sugarplum • House of Jade • Hunted Interior • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Marcus Design • Pencil & Paper Co. • Megan Pflug • Place of My Taste • Suburban B’s • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by CIH

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• AllModern • ATG • Bellacor • Chairish • Crystorama • Dash & Albert • Dutch Boy • Farrow & Ball • Jill Rosenweld • Joss & Main • Karastan • Lamps Plus • Nostalgic Warehouse and House of Antique Hardware • Schoolhouse Electric • South Loop Loft • The Shade Store

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: The Before Shots • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Work Very Much in Progress • Week 4: Those Stairs, That Hall • Week 5: When it Rains, it Pours • Weed 6: Final Reveal!

November 9, 2016
One Room Challenge: Week 5 (When it Rains, it Pours)

I had planned to finish — completely finish — two flights of stairs over the weekend. The old paint beneath the carpet we ripped up had passed their lead check test, so I did some light sanding on Friday and started cleaning the next morning. I washed the first three steps with Dirtex, then went to empty and refill my bucket. I poured the dirty water down the tub instead of using the sink and before I could get back to cleaning, I heard my daughter Eleanor downstairs.

“Mom!? The bathroom is flooding!”

My first thought was that one of the kids had stopped up the sink to play and left the faucet on, but nope. Water was raining down from the ceiling. The good news is that we use the third floor bathroom more like a powder room and we won’t have any more rain in the house as long as we don’t use that tub. The bad news is that we may have to rip everything apart eventually when we are ready to find and fix the leak. Good thing I lovingly hand-painted that floor, huh? I had to switch to cleaning up the mess in the bathroom instead of cleaning the stairs, but the house is fine and we were lucky that Eleanor had noticed the leak right away. I would have kept going!

Anyways, that was our Saturday. Sunday, the fire department came to our door and blocked off our street. Lights! Sirens! Action! One of our smoke detectors started going off (false alarm) and as I was talking to a representative from our security system, it went off again before I could give them my password for a dispatch cancellation. I felt awful for wasting the firefighters’ time and apologized profusely.

So our weekend was fun. How was yours?

That’s as far as I had gotten on the stairs by Monday morning. As of today, they are painted and ready for the antelope runner to be installed. Hooray! That’s happening on Friday, but the other stairs won’t be done in time for the big reveal next week. Since installation had to be pushed back, we could only keep our appointment for one day this week and the rest will be done later in the month. I’m bummed, but at least I’ll have one set of stairs to show.

I suppose it’s nice to not have to rush on the others? Silver lining! Because we got all the rest of the carpeting pulled up and surprise! Everything is awful.

I mean, I can appreciate the red painted runner. Someone put some effort into that! But what’s not good is the condition of the floor at the top landing. Gap city. And the bottom is vinyl, but I’m thinking I could use a deglosser on it and paint like the rest. Or just go wall to wall in the landing? Both landings? Should I rip out the bad wood planks and replace them? Oh, can of worms. It’s been a little while since I opened you — how have you been?

Let’s talk paint! Dutch Boy is one of my sponsors for the One Room Challenge, and their Sandstone Quarry (408-2DB) is the color I’ll be using in the front entryway. It’s a pink with a lot of muddy beige/brown to it, but I need that brown base to play off of the unpainted oak. On the walls, the paint will read as a lovely pink and it’s also a good match for the background in the wallpaper I’ll be using upstairs. That pink is sort of the star, and I built a color palette around it with Dutch Boy Paint’s Simply Yours Tool.

The tool allowed me to create a custom sharable color palette so I could visualize how my colors will complement each other. In addition to the pink I chose, there are two whites. The trim on the second and third floors and the stair risers will be Brightened Cream (005W) — a nice, warm white that isn’t too stark, nor too yellow. The other, White Linen (007W), will be used in the back entry and the third floor hallway. It’s still nice and light with the same warmth that Brightened Cream has, but with just enough of a difference to be noticeable. The brown in my palette (Olde Metal, 414-7DB) is just there to represent the colors of the carpet runner and woodwork, and Authentic Black (437-7DB) is for the stair treads and all of the second and third floor doors.

The front entry and third floor is done. Wait, that deserves more exclamation points. It’s done!!!

I went with Dutch Boy Platinum® Paint + Primer for the walls, which made surface prep easy. Then for the stairs, we used Dutch Boy’s Porch & Floor Paint + Primer. It’s an interior and exterior paint that holds up in high traffic areas.

The walls have been skim coated and primed from the back entry up to the second floor. The trim and doors on the second floor have also been primed. Wallpaper has not yet gone up and I didn’t hire it out because I thought I could get started by now. Whoops! It’s here though, and it will look amazing once it’s up.

Next week is the big reveal! If you need me, I’ll just be over here cleaning/sanding/caulking/prepping/painting/wallpapering.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Jana Bek • Chris Loves Julia • Shannon Claire • Coco.Kelley • The Curated House • Driven by Décor • The English Room • From the Right Bank • Sherry Hart • Hi Sugarplum • House of Jade • Hunted Interior • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Marcus Design • Pencil & Paper Co. • Megan Pflug • Place of My Taste • Suburban B’s • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by CIH

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: The Before Shots • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Work Very Much in Progress • Week 4: Those Stairs, That Hall • Week 5: When it Rains, it Pours • Weed 6: Final Reveal!

November 2, 2016
One Room Challenge: Week 4 (Those Stairs, That Hall)

Some things look better (the ceiling and the third floor doors), most things look worse (everything else).

It’s gotta get worse before it gets better! It will all come together in these last two weeks. I’m so grateful to my sponsors (denoted with asterisks) for providing many of the physical goods needed for this makeover. That has allowed us to allocate our budget toward labor and hire out some of the other jobs that were either over our heads (framing and hanging the drywall that is literally over our heads) or too time-intensive to finish by the One Room Challenge deadline (skim coating the back entry and stairway, and custom binding and installing stair runners). Knowing that those jobs are being taken care of, I dedicated myself last week to repairs and properly prepping surfaces before painting, and Brandon removed a bunch of the stairs’ old carpeting.

We’re working on the front and back entryways, four flights of stairs, and two hallways, but I think the biggest impact for us will be in the second floor hall. We are remodeling this home slowly as we’re able to devote time and money to doing it properly, and the hall is probably the most visible record of that work.

The house has been through many changes in its 125 years. The front half of the house was separated from the back when we moved in, and you had to walk through the former kitchen on the second floor to get to the back bedroom. We removed a built-in that was probably added in the 30s (which was a little sad), taking the hall back to its original layout and gaining daylight from a window that was blocked off in the process. A doorway was moved, the walls were fixed, and the former kitchen turned into a nursery. We also ripped up the damaged old flooring and replaced it with new hardwood. The hall was painted, and all was well for about two years. Then we rewired the second and third floors, and we lived with conduit pipes and plenty of holes for the past year. Now we have a ceiling again! The holes have been patched! And in the next couple of weeks? All of that wood trim is going white, the doors are getting painted black, the temporary lights will be replaced, wallpaper will be hung, the window will get a roman shade, and sconces will be installed where there were never sconces before. It’s all pretty exciting.

There isn’t much else that needs to happen in the hall as far as decorating goes. I like gallery walls in other people’s homes, but I want to let the wallpaper stand on its own here. There is a spot tucked away next to the bump-out for the chimney that will get a new dresser* for extra bathroom storage (it’s just across the hall and down a few feet). That little brass lamp* will stay with the dresser, and maybe the tray* too if I don’t use it elsewhere. Then something will go above, either art or a mirror, but I haven’t decided what yet.

Here’s how some of the other details look together!

I’m so eager to get those sconces* installed. The tassels relate to the tassel sconces on the first floor, and the rope detail relates to the new hardware* on the third. The trim needs to be painted first and then the walls papered, and all of that’s waiting on the other work that’s underway.

The new stair runners are waiting on that work, too. We’re going to have them bound on-site and installed by a pro because there are a lot of twists and turns over the course of four very old flights of stairs. That carpet is on sale right now for National Karastan Month, FYI, in case you’re looking to do the same. Karastan is holding a big sweepstakes for an area rug and $1000 off, and there’s also up to a $1000 cash back coupon as part of the sale.

I have a lot of stair prep ahead of me before our installation happens! Black treads, white risers, and you know… not gross.

It looks so bad right now. But we’re getting closer!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Jana Bek • Chris Loves Julia • Shannon Claire • Coco.Kelley • The Curated House • Driven by Décor • The English Room • From the Right Bank • Sherry Hart • Hi Sugarplum • House of Jade • Hunted Interior • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Marcus Design • Pencil & Paper Co. • Megan Pflug • Place of My Taste • Suburban B’s • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by CIH

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: The Before Shots • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Work Very Much in Progress • Week 4: Those Stairs, That Hall • Week 5: When it Rains, it Pours • Weed 6: Final Reveal!

* Asterisks indicate that an item was provided by a sponsor.

October 26, 2016