Welcome to week 5 of the 2017 Fall ORC One Room Challenge hosted by Linda callingithome.com and sponsored by House Beautiful magazine! There are 20 professional designers invited to officially participate and anyone with a blog can join in the fun and become a guest participant too. I am one of over 175 guest participants. Please stop by callingithome.com for a whole lot of beautiful decor inspiration!
This is my third ORC, I started last Fall 2016 and I just loved it! We made over our little bathroom and its never been so pretty, so I joined for Spring 2017 and our dining room and entryway got a mini make over and we love how that turned out too, so I’m back for a third time to make over my bedroom.
Please forgive my late post this week friends, it’s been a busy, hard working, happy week and last night everything just caught up with me and my body told me I needed to rest today so that’s what we did.
Mum baked healthy no sugar added treats which are incredibly delicious and I kept her entertained with DVR shows while she baked. It’s so nice having our family room and kitchen joined, so that we can do all things family together.
Anywho, our week 5 make over activities started with some last minute shopping on line and I was able to find some additional fabric, and really nice items on amazon for great prices! I love amazon.com ‘s “used” items. I think they are actually returned products that they resell at reduced prices. Over the past several years I’ve found many home decor pieces this way and this time I found a pretty pink rug, a bedskirt and several other items that I decided I didn’t actually need for now, but I might need in the future!
The “used” white voile bed skirt arrived majorly wrinkled, but otherwise in good condition. Not bad for less than half the cost of “new”, and a steam in the dryer should get most of the wrinkles out. The “used” rug arrived in perfect condition, just a little darker than the online photo. I’m so excited and I can’t wait to start styling the room with everything next week!
The next project to conquer was wallpaper and we spent a whole day wallpapering. I wanted to hang it horizontally to save time, effort and waste, and the floral toile pattern was perfect for doing that. One of the things I love about buying from Amazon.com is all the reviews and answered questions that you can use to help make your choices. The wallpaper I selected had a review that the prepasted wallpapers glue wasn’t very sticky, so I decided to go ahead and use additional wall paper paste and a spray bottle of water to help my paper stick more effectively.
After measuring my walls horizontally and cutting the wallpaper, I applied the paste liberally with a brush and then sprayed the pasted paper again liberally with water from the spray bottle. We then folded the paper, glue sides together, booking it for 15 minutes before we hung it on the walls.
We had two step ladders and we worked from left to right. When I cut the paper I added 1 inch to my measurements to give it a corner wrap. I started hanging the paper by wrapping the wall corner 1/2 inch and snug up against the ceiling then snuggling and smoothing as we went horizontally down the wall. Cutting around doors and windows as we came to them. With two of us it was very easy for one to hold the booked wallpaper, the other to smooth it and when we got beyond our arms reach, one of us would hold the wallpaper and the other would move our step ladder down to the next arms length.
Then on the next wall we snugged the next wallpaper piece on top of the 1/2 inch wrap into the corner so there are no gaps or seams and we did the same routine as before, and so on, until they were all done.
As soon as we got the wallpaper up, before any trim, I could see how the whole personality of the room was changing. It felt taller, wider and prettier already!
The next afternoon was about the trim. We used trim left over from another project so this was all FREE! It went up really easily with our cordless brad nailer! It only took us 2 and a half hours to cut and put up all the trim, and it was a small miracle to do that without either of us having any meltdowns too! Thank goodness for lithium! Haha!
Today I was hoping to get the painting done, but my body had other plans. That’s the way it goes sometimes, and I’ve learned it’s best to listen, rest, regroup and then I can get going again. So hopefully the paint will get on the wall tomorrow!
What do we have left to do?
- Paint the lower walls and new trim white.
- Install and hang the barn door slider closet doors.
- Hang drapes.
- Sew new pillows.
- Sew headboard cover.
- Make bench cover.
- Paint nightstand.
- Install new fan light shade.
- Lay new rugs.
- Style the room!
That’s a lot! Just looking at that list makes me panic a little, but lots of prayer and one thing at a time and I think we can get almost all, if not ALL these things done in the next week. If we can’t, then we’ll go with what we have when the time comes. It’s all about about the joy in the journey!
Well friends, I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week and a beautiful start to your Novembers! Mum and I thank you so much for stopping by and joining us on our decor and life adventures! We wish you all the happiest of happy weeks and we’ll see you next time!
Much love, Mum and M oxo
NEW PAIR OF WINGS 