It's week THREE of the One Room Challenge.
It's hard to believe this would actually be the first week of the challenge within the standard, six week timeline but, due to Covid-19 and stay-at-home orders, the ORC was generously extended to eight weeks. We're three weeks into it now...and despite the two week buffer, I'm starting to panic slightly!
A super quick recap of the last two weeks: after deciding to makeover our master bedroom, I've made some progress on the list of "must-haves" by finding some items on local resale sites.
Not gonna lie -- it's been nerve wracking developing a concept in real-time and, with a tight budget and social-distancing, it feels like I'm at the mercy of whatever becomes available on Craigslist or Marketplace to fill in some of the key pieces.....or taking a stab at online orders and hoping for the best. I realize this is a terribly un-tragic problem to have right now, so no complaints, but it's for sure keeping me on my toes.
I've been continuing to pull together a concept, and started with a few pieces I know will be incorporated into the final design.
What I started out with:
And what I've added:
I'm starting to hone in on the general feel I want for the room -- a backdrop of moody, dreamy, monochrome blues that feel timeless and layered, with a few bursts of bright colors and a lux mix of textures.
Now it's just a matter of plugging in the exact finishes. I mentioned I've been leaning toward black for the nightstands I found, so I added into my concept a similar, black nightstand as a visual placeholder. I'm still not sure about color for either dresser (check out the bedroom "before" pictures to see the dressers), so I've left those out for now. I'm still working on metal finishes, but am less concerned about this because I know I want a mix of metals.
I've been on the fence as to whether I want (A) darker walls with lighter wallpaper, (B) lighter walls with darker wallpaper, or (C) maybe even a monochrome, tone-on-tone look (from left to right, respectively):
And to back things up for just a minute.....
I mentioned in week one that I'd like some sort of feature wall element. I was nervous about taking on wallpaper since shipping is slower right now (in the best of circumstances, it takes time to order samples, decide on an option, order rolls and, for E-tailer and box store options, hope the color in the rolls matches the sample you chose from) and wallpaper feels like sort of a huge, scary commitment to be locked into when the rest of our house still needs so much work.
Oh, and also we're DIY'ing everything. Let's just say wallpaper does NOT have a small margin of error.
But I've been forever coveting wallpaper for my own home, even though we "inherited" wallpaper in our powder room from the previous owners -which I actually really love, even though it's showing wear and tear - but despite this, there's just something special about choosing your own. It's such a fun way to incorporate pattern and color and I've wanted to use it in my own home for so long, so I decided to 100% embrace the idea of putting it in the master bedroom.
Since 1) we're not a couple of professional wallpaper installers and 2) the room is really wide, without a lot of depth, and the bed is substantially off center of the wall behind it, wallpapering the entire wall will only emphasize the width of that wall and slight awkwardness of the room's footprint.
The perfect solution: picture frame molding around panels of wallpaper.
A beautiful example of this is in this exquisite bedroom by Holly Hollingsworth Hempstead of The English Room.
This is a darker wallpaper but, as you can see, the room is still light, bright and airy.
Framed wallpaper can add so much visual depth, drama and pattern - but without the pattern overtaking the entire room.
It also allows for incorporating vertical elements that break up the length of a room and help define focal points, such as in the case of our own bedroom.
Getting back to the concept I've been pulling together...
I really like both wallpaper options and am torn on whether I want a darker or lighter print. The blue option, by York Wallcoverings, shown here again, was the first to catch my eye for its quietly-bold, antique vibe.
I'm thinking it may help the wall to feel more visually anchored - especially when contrasted with the light colored headboard - but without being too, too dark.
I ordered samples of this and the lighter, grey toile shown in my concept, and will probably browse a few more options as I gather paint samples to try out and begin dimensioning out the molding boxes.
I have yet to measure out exact dimensions for the molding boxes, so the wallpaper repeat sizes, pattern types and where these will fall in the molding will also be a determining factor for which paper I choose.
Stay tuned for more MP purchases, finish samples and hopefully some actual progress in week 4!
For a week 2 refresher, click here or on the image below.
Comments