The Interior DIYer
#DarkRomanticLuxe

One Room Challenge Spring 2022 – Week Five!

I will admit I don’t have a huge update for this week’s One Room Challenge. My MIL arrived from Ireland this week, so leading up to Week Five I got next to nothing done in our home office. A few things arrived that I had ordered online, so that was exciting! Here are a few of the things that came in …

I ordered a magnetic doorstop and holder from Lee Valley for the back of our bathroom door. Since our house is old and hasn’t been level of plumb in about 50 years, the door to our upstairs bathroom will flap open at a strange angle. Up until now I had been using a gift bag [full of nail polish] so keep the door wide open when it’s not in use. Instead of doom scrolling one evening I started looking into some alternatives to door stops and I came across magnetic doorstops and holders.

I installed the magnetic doorstop and holder up quite high toward the top of the door. This was so, a) no one destroyed their ankles when walking by it, and, b) I overthink things and I was terrified Zelda might unscrew the magnet and then eat it somehow. So I placed it way high up.

The other order that came in this week was our EKBACKEN white marble effect laminate countertops from IKEA:

I got the idea from Christine Dovey when she updated her son Malcom’s bedroom to include a desk, which she created by adding a countertop on top of two drawer units. Pretty amazing if you ask me. So we’ll be working off of a similar vibe in our office, except I’ll be reusing the legs off our old dining room table [painted black this time around] to aid in supporting the desk [along with hidden support along the walls]. I will of course detail that process as soon as I’m finished it [which I’m excited and nervous to start].

Because I didn’t get much ORC stuff done this week, I feel I should share what I did do to kind of prove that I was super busy?

THINGS I DID THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ORC:
– Painted the hallway
– Painted the main staircase
– Painted the skirting boards, doorframes, window frames and doors throughout the house
– Paint the kitchen
– Wet vacuum / deep clean the sofa
– Painted the 2nd hallway
– Moved all of Zelda’s furniture into Cora’s room
– Rearranged Cora’s room to accommodate both girls
– Set up Zelda’s room with a double bed and furniture for my MIL

As for the ORC, below is where I stand at Week Five, and as usual you can catch all the Guest Participant’s Week Five progress here!

ORC SPRING 2022 TO-DO LIST:
– Skim coat / patch ceiling
– Skim coat / patch walls
– Paint ceiling
– Paint walls
– Replace / upgrade banister at top of servants stairs
– Update and reinstall handrails
– Repaint stairs [not super necessary, but I might as well]
– Install desk system
– Update secondhand tufted office chair
– Source chandelier / remove the boob light
– Source storage cabinet[s] for office items
– Possibly source and hang curtains [not sure though for either window]
– Decorate / hang artwork / overkill the space

Week One – Week Two – Week Three – Week Four – Week Five
Week Six – Week Seven – Week Eight

#DarkRomanticLuxe

One Room Challenge Spring 2022 – Week Four!

Oh my god Week Four, we are half way through the One Room Challenge! It is with absolute unbridled pleasure for me to type that I am FINISHED PAINTING OUR HOME OFFICE. In case you missed some of the drama that unfolded last week, I bought the paint for our office in the wrong finish [eggshell instead of a matte / flat paint. Please refrain from asking me why because I do not know] and all the lumps and bumps I tried so hard to hide by repairing the walls during Week Two were just made very obvious via Kardashian-levels of dewy looking eggshell walls.

So. many. imperfections. being absolutely highlighted by the eggshell paint. I had purchased a large tin of eggshell Army Green paint by Sico paints and wasn’t about to waste it all, so I soldiered through and painted 3 coats of eggshell across the office and down the kitchen stairwell. Once that was finished, I lightly sanded one wall, wiped it down [let it dry fully] then painted the matte / flat finish paint on top. And it was a massive success!

I don’t have any photos of the matte goodness yet [since it was getting pretty late], but as you can see in a lot of the photos, the eggshell paint was way too shiny and no for this space.

My MIL will be visiting us next week for the fist time since we moved to Canada, so my to-do list has been significantly longer than just my ORC list [paint two hallways, paint both stairs, paint all the skirting boards, doorways, doors and windows]. To say my hands are tired from painting would be an understatement. Yes, I am my own worst enemy, but I feel I’ve gotten over the worst of the ORC as the walls [and ceiling] were giving me the most gruff.

It really doesn’t seem like much has been struck off my to-do list this week, but it’s been the worst of it. Now the fun stuff begins! Make sure to check out all the Guest Participants this week over on the ORC link-up.

ORC SPRING 2022 TO-DO LIST:
– Skim coat / patch ceiling
– Skim coat / patch walls
– Paint ceiling
– Paint walls
– Replace / upgrade banister at top of servants stairs
– Update and reinstall handrails
– Repaint stairs [not super necessary, but I might as well]
– Install desk system
– Update secondhand tufted office chair
– Source chandelier / remove the boob light
– Source storage cabinet[s] for office items
– Possibly source and hang curtains [not sure though for either window]
– Decorate / hang artwork / overkill the space

Week One – Week Two – Week Three – Week Four – Week Five
Week Six – Week Seven – Week Eight

DIY

One Room Challenge Spring 2022 – Week Three!

Week Three can be a fun week for many people undertaking the One Room Challenge. I say ‘fun’ in massive exaggerated italicized letters. It’s when little problems come sneaking out of the literal and figurative woodwork. Week Two lures you into a false sense of confidence. Week Three makes you question why you even decided to improve your home.

It wasn’t all bad though. I finally finished the ceiling! Considering the amount of work that went into updating the ceiling to make it look like a … ceiling … is very anti-climactic, but it’s finished!

The above photo is what the ceiling looked like when I was finished flattening [levelling? repairing?] the ceiling [you can see what I mean by flattening in my Week Two blog post].

I ended up doing three coats of paint and the ceiling looks miles better [below is showing only one coat]. I actually didn’t get the ceiling looking as perfect as I had wanted it to, but I could easily see myself spending all eight weeks of this just sanding small patches of ceiling and adding “just one more layer!” of pollyfilla. So I decided it’s an old house and has character, and accepted it’s little quirky bits. Because otherwise I would have driven myself insane.

I haven’t finished flattening [again, levelling? I’m unsure of the correct terminology here] all the walls in the office just yet [by using the same treatment as the ceiling, but I have finished repairing the tape on two walls, so I jumped in and started to paint.

PLOT TWIST: I bought the wrong paint finish. Welp. Don’t ask me why, but I bought eggshell finish paint instead of matte paint, so all the tiny imperfections I’ve been working so hard to hide are now essentially in 3D thanks to the eggshell finish. But all is not lost. I’m going to continue painting the room [as I bought 3.75L of eggshell paint] in two coats of paint, I’ll lightly sand the walls, wipe it down, then paint one coat of matte paint of the same colour on top [I’ll detail this further in next week’s blog post, as I will have hopefully finished the steps by then].

I’m not the only one running into difficulty when it comes to Week Three, as you can see by all the other Guest Participants here. It’s a good week to check out if you find you have some time to browse everyone’s progress as there are big changes across the board. I’m also slowly making my way through my to-do list. I’m hoping to have at least two more items crossed off my list by Week Four:

ORC SPRING 2022 TO-DO LIST:
– Skim coat / patch ceiling
– Skim coat / patch walls
– Paint ceiling
– Paint walls
– Replace / upgrade banister at top of servants stairs
– Update and reinstall handrails
– Repaint stairs [not super necessary, but I might as well]
– Install desk system
– Update secondhand tufted office chair
– Source chandelier / remove the boob light
– Source storage cabinet[s] for office items
– Possibly source and hang curtains [not sure though for either window]
– Decorate / hang artwork / overkill the space

Week One – Week Two – Week Three – Week Four – Week Five
Week Six – Week Seven – Week Eight