NEW PAIR OF WINGS

Hello friends!! We made it to the finale!!  This week has been full of ups and downs and sideways moments.  There were many times I felt like giving up, but mum kept saying “You’re so close. There’s not much more to do.  Don’t give up!” So I would keep going, mark one more project of the list and slowly but surely we got there!

Is there more to do?  Oh yes, lots of little projects, and some more things we’d like to do, but they will take more time and budget than we have right now, so mostly it’s done!  Mum and I are both so happy with the results and we hope you’ll love it too!

Without any further ado, welcome to week 6 of the Fall 2018 ORC One Room Challenge Finale! Thank you to Linda from Oneroomchallenge.com for creating, hosting, encouraging and guiding us through! And thank you to Better Homes and Gardens for being the official media sponsor of the ORC!

Friends, as you will see from the “before” pictures, these two rooms needed something!  They were a little lack luster and disconnected. We never really liked the flooring and it was damaged in spots too.  Our free roadside craigslist sectional cleaned up so nice but we couldn’t seem to make it fit.  What to do?

My inspiration for these rooms was a coastal inspired, Ralph Lauren meets Serena and Lily and they live happily ever after in a beach house kind of theme. So are you wondering how and if we brought it all together? Well here’s the reveal!

 

 

 

The first three weeks of this challenge were all about flooring.  Mum is 74 years old and kind of a flooring whisperer, and I’m 20 years younger and quite a bit less talented at flooring. 5 years ago these floors would probably have taken us about a week to install. Working long days and into the night until we got it done, but both of us are older now, and things just take us a little longer to do. Fortunately, floating floors are fairly easy, glueing, cutting, a little pounding, lots of bending, but not super physical and it’s easy to pace yourself though the installation, so if we can do it, YOU can do it!

We chose an Acacia veneer from Lumber Liquidators Tobacco Road line.  If we were to be looking for flooring again, after working with this product, we probably would choose something different, and easier to install. There were a lot of broken tongues on the boards fresh out of the box, which was disappointing, but mum finagled the bad spots and used them to cut for edging pieces, and the end result is that the floors really did turn out beautifully!

Week 4 was about finishing the transition and base boards.  We finalized fabric choices and dealt with unexpected issues like not being able to remove the el from the window seat, and deciding not to use our old hutch.

Week 5 was all about wallpaper, lighting and the gallery wall, and week 6 was about fabric, reupholstery, and paint.

The vintage floral Jay Yang fabrics from the 80’s that I found on ebay are so gorgeous and they help feed my Ralph Lauren florals cravings without breaking the budget.

And in spite of not being able to cut out the window seat el, we were able to fit the whole sectional in by moving the lounge to the left side instead of trying to shoehorn it in on the right side. It meant two arms together, but it looks great like this and we didn’t loose any seating by having to leave off a piece.

The new wallpaper makes me so happy!  Everytime I look at this space it makes me smile.  I’m not sure why, but wallpaper has a bad rep. I’ve been afraid to work with it in the past, but after using it in the last three ORC challenges I’m absolutely in love with it and looking for more walls in our house to paper too!

Fabrics played a huge part in this challenge too.  The florals, velvets, stripes, chenille, and linen fabrics are all beautiful.  The cotton florals and linens were so easy and my favorites to work with.  The velvet was a little more difficult.  The nap on the velvet causes it to move around, so when you’re trying to sew a straight seam it needs to be constantly readjusted, and the same happens when you’re trying to hot glue it, which made extra challenges when it came to reupholstering the dining room chairs, but once I got the hang of working with it, it wasn’t too bad and the chairs are just gorgeous!

Except for fabric, wallpaper and window treatments everything else in these rooms are things we already own.  Many are thrifted treasures and family heirlooms like our Heywood Wakefield dining table and chairs, and the old oak table that belonged to my great grandmother.

The tall white dresser that sits in the entryway was an anniversary gift that mum gave to my dad 35 years ago, and the black and gold end table was a garage sale find that has been with us since I was in elementary school.

Mum loves original art. Inexpensively collected or as she says “rescued” from thrift stores and some of these she even painted herself.

Natural elements, beach feathers, driftwood and lots of baskets, wicker and wood help keep the coastal vibes flowing.

We started a platewall when we refreshed the dining room in the Spring 2017 ORC. I’ve been finding pretty plates on thrift store visits since then and they all got added on this week.

Welcoming us home are fresh flowers, and a large basket filled with garden branches and oranges.

A couple of weeks before we started the ORC Challenge I made a black and cream striped throw from 3 XL neck scarves sewn together to make one huge 75 x 80 inch throw.  It’s just the softest, coziest fabric and all of us love cuddling into it.

It’s amazing how decor elements like fresh paint, wallpaper and flooring can give new life to old spaces.

The old dining chairs have been recovered at least 6 times, including cream vinyl and peach chenille, I think they look best in blue velvet. At least for now!

The rooms feel connected now. They flow easily into each other. They are more comfortable and they look so much prettier!

Well my loves, mum and I are knee slappin happy to be done with this challenge and as much as we love diy and refreshing and updating our home, this was a huge, all engrossing project and we’re very much looking forward to getting back into our weekly routine of mowing the lawns, cleaning house and laundry.  But ya’ll know the routine gets old after a few weeks too!

We’ve always got new creative ideas flowing through our heads and I’ve got some plans already coming together for the kitchen and family room. I’m looking forward to keeping the flow going and sharing that journey with all of you friends!

Thank you so much for being here!  We appreciate your kind comments and for following along as we diy our way through life! Have a wonderful day and the best November ever!  Have fun and be good sweet friends!

Much love from Mum and M, oxo