One Room Challenge: Week 6 (So Close!)

Normally we’d be at the end of the One Room Challenge, but we have all been granted a one-week extension for the first time in ORC history. Unforeseen circumstances derailed many participants but we’re all moving along toward final reveals next week, and I have to say, the extra time has been nice!

I spent yesterday putting up the wallpaper. Had the deadline been here I would have started sooner, pulling a few late nights and not seeing my family until I came up for air. Instead, I could work at a normal pace and stop at 5:00. Novel concept! I don’t want to pull the camera back too much and give it away (next week, next week!), but it’s all looking so good together.

Pink trim won out over green (or plum, charcoal, or black). I didn’t tally exact votes, but I pretty sure green won as far as numbers go. I was indecisive at first, but I feel strongly now that it wasn’t the right call for this space. The trim is not nice or special. The window is, and the new wallpaper is. The trim just needed to complement it, and the color my Nix sensor pulled from the background (Brandy Cream, Benjamin Moore) was perfect.

I had never worked with paste-the-wall type of wallpaper before. I watched Milton & King’s Installation Video before starting, and then just dove in. I started with the hardest wall first, the peaked window wall, because that’s the one you see from the doorway and I wanted the pattern centered on it.

It was easier to work with dry wallpaper in some ways, but not all. Traditional wallpaper needs to be booked, which means you apply paste and then gently fold the paper in on itself so the glue doesn’t dry while the moisture causes the paper to expand slightly. After about 10 minutes, you would hang that strip. A seasoned installer is able to speed up the process by booking one sheet while hanging another, so there’s no waiting time in between. I am not seasoned. When I do it, I do it a strip at a time and I move slowly.

Working with paste-the-wall wallpaper meant that I could skip that 10-minute waiting time for each strip, so it was definitely faster. It was less messy too, as I didn’t have to have a big wallpapering table (which gets covered with glue overage). The process of matching up patterns and trimming is the same, so there’s no winner one way or the other there. The only thing I found more difficult was in working with the dry paper, it wanted to roll up as I was applying it to the wall — especially as I got further into the roll. I also found that I had to be careful not to crease it. Traditional wallpaper softens up as the glue absorbs in the booking process, so it’s more floppy and pliable. Dry wallpaper isn’t, obviously.

I love the pattern, and it looks as wonderful as I’d hoped it would. The rainbow room is halfway done, and I should be able to finish in one more day. I also have to swap out two light fixtures and hang art in the office before I can call this ORC done. The furniture is all in place, save for the bookshelves (because they’re going in front of the wallpaper).

Oh, and I might move the sconces down a bit too. They’re hung at a perfectly normal height, but they look too high to me because of the room’s angles. Six inches lower or so ought to do the trick. It would be easy enough to make that change since they’re plug-ins.

But then all that’s left is tidying and styling. The fun stuff! And photographing, of course. And writing about it. Whew, OK, maybe I need to get more of a move on than I thought. One more 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