One Room Challenge Week 5: American Evolution

Welcome to Week 5 of the Fall 2018 season of the One Room Challenge. I hope everyone survived, and maybe even enjoyed Halloween. I am personally just dead tired. Mid-week Halloween is brutal. This is the point at which ORC things should be *almost* done. And they’re really not. But they will be. Like, today.

They have to be…my photographer is coming tomorrow morning.

In case you haven’t been following along – I am transforming my 4-year-old son’s nursery/toddler room into a bona fide big boy bedroom. And also taking the opportunity to improve the back staircase and hallway that lead into his room. Here are your catch-up links…

Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4

As I mentioned in my post last week, today is actually my install day, as I wanted to plan to give my stuff as much time as possible to arrive at my receiver. There are only a few things being delivered today – the daybed/trundle/mattresses, nightstand, and the demi-lune console table going right outside Eamon’s doorway. I know the bed and nightstand are in, but I haven’t heard about the status of the table. I’d say there’s a very high likelihood that it will not make it in time for the shoot. It’s not an absolutely vital piece, but I had a really cool shot planned looking into the bedroom for the hall that wouldn’t be possible without it. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

The stair runner was installed on Monday, and it is awesome! I love the way it looks, but also the way it feels underfoot. It may look like sisal, but it’s Merida’s wool ‘ Brussels’ carpet. It provides really great traction on a steep and narrow staircase. I feel like everyone is safer – especially Eamon, who is seriously accident-prone – and the house is prettier. Talk about a win-win! I’ll share the final product next week in my reveal :).

Yesterday, the new cordless, blackout woven wood shades were installed. A simple change but, again, safer and more practical. I went a little darker – what do you think? I love them!

Eamon got to help, too!

Things have been so busy, even on the weekends, that I just had a spare hour and a half yesterday to start hanging artwork along the staircase and in the hallway. I did some planning to lay things out, lots of measuring, laser leveling, and a boatload of frustrating nail pounding into 120-year-old walls with lord knows what behind them. I may have been trying to drive them into galvanized pipe for all I know.

After laying out the longest wall in the hallway on Sunday, I realized I was a little short. Specifically, I needed another piece of art – a vertically-oriented one. And I wanted to incorporate a canvas – something without a frame and matting to add interest and variety, and, ideally, something a little more modern and/or abstract. As she has many times, art consultant Libby Silvia came to my eleventh-hour rescue!

I shared with her what I was looking for, and some things I liked from her website, and she found the perfect piece. It was overnighted by the artist, Stephanie Henderson, to arrive yesterday, and will be hung, along with the rest of that wall, today. Nothing like the last minute. Sometime today, I also have to find time to go pick up my custom bedskirt from the seamstress who whipped it up this week, as well as the antique prints of the phases of the moon from the framer.

I told Eamon last night it would be his last time sleeping in his toddler bed. He is very excited for all of the changes happening! Today is going to be a whirlwind – especially since I have limited time, with a site meeting on the Cape in the morning, and an industry event in Boston in the evening. But, it will all get done – it always does! It might be painful, but I know it will be worth it when it’s done – it always is! I am reminded of that every day as I look around my own home at all of the projects and rooms that were completed over the years, thanks to the One Room Challenge.

That’s about all I’ve got for now. I hope you’ll come back to see the reveal next Thursday! Here, and all of the featured designers and guest participants. Week 6, here we come!