Week Four

 As we hit week four of the Better Homes and Gardens One Room Challenge, I wanted to step back and compare where we started from to where it looks like we are going to end up. Our "design plan" was more "design ideas that are very very fluid" or "what if we .. ." but good, bad or indifferent, it's gotten us where we are, with a lot of sweat and work from my moltobene husband.

Our must list:

1) A new, brighter, lighter wall finish DONE - Glimmerstone is a beautiful, textural lime-based finish. You can actually vary the amount of "Glimmer" in this finish and we dialed it way down.  We also gained an excellent side benefit of helping keep humidity low! Air quality is a big deal these days, and there has definitely been an improvement since we put up this new finish.

2) Inexpensive dressers that don't look cookie cutter. DONE.  Our Ikea Malm dressers got a nifty two-tone paint job, but still looked like, well, Malm dressers with a nifty paint job. I wasn't finding any drawer handles. Leaning a broom against the dressers one day gave me an idea - what if we found molding that we could attach as trim to the drawer fronts? Kevin didn't like vertical, so he suggested horizontal.We purchased 3/4 inch oak strips from Home Depot, sanded with 220 and 320 sandpaper and then used MinWax Polycrylic satin sealer for a natural finish, after testing it to see if the color was right.   Our friend Larry came and gave us a hand with cutting the strips and attaching the trim to the drawers. 

 

Broom handle inspiration

 

The final version with trim added

3) Bedding refresh. DONE. My original idea of a taupe/blue/offwhite minimal color scheme went out the window almost immediately (insta agreed!) so I had to go back to the drawing board on bedding. I spent many hours scrolling through all my favorite retailers not finding the right thing at the right price. When I stumbled across Zara Home, I knew I had found the right place when the latest campaign was shot in the home of Master Artisan Eddie Dankers who does beautiful plaster walls.  I found great variety, materials and prices at Zara Home.  Here was the perfect tropical duvet cover on sale, and colorful pillowcases which served as a springboard for my current color scheme.  I ended up calling their customer service since I was concerned about ordering sale merchandise that might not come.  Real people answer the phone, answer your questions and check stock for you so I was able to pick my items with confidence. The shipping was fast -- everything arrived within a week for me.  I filled in with this simple white bamboo bedding set, comforter and skirt from Amazon. 

 

The bedding we chose

Our "what about if we tried" list:

The rest of our projects evolved as we reviewed budget and thought about how to get the most bang for our dwindling pile of bucks. We freshened the trim with a pretty latte color, and after some feedback from insta, decided to extend it to our doors/closet doors.  We are re-using our dark bronze drapery rods and moving around our bronze hooks for storage, The color pops nicely against the walls. Overall, the backdrop will allow us to refresh/change up the bedroom easily in the future.

1) Nightstands. ALMOST DONE. When we switched from a queen to king a few years back, we knew we were pushing the size limits in our small room. This meant that the nightstands had to be small, no more than 14 inches wide. Our old ones were tired and clunky looking, but new ones turned out to be a real challenge to find at a price we wanted to pay. We finally found the right size and price at Lowe's, and painted them three coats sanding in between with Benjamin Moore Cabinet Coat in Ancient Burgundy.  

2) Lighting.  ALMOST DONE. The bedroom was far too dark, with only an overhead fan/light and bedside lamps our cats took great joy in knocking over. I had read that one way to tie lighting together was by shape.  We had existing oval rattan lights that weren't doing much for us in another room, so I brought them in to provide some background light and looked for a similar shape for our bedside lamps. We found these similar shaped lamps at Target, and liked the thought that the metal shades were unlikely to break (like the last two did) when our cats decide to parkour.  It's neat that both sets of lights throw off a grid pattern, giving more texture to the room at night.  Finally, our overhead fan/light, a necessity in Florida, got replaced with a newer, sleeker version from Lowes.

 

Bedside lamps from Target

goodbye old fan

The air flow is great with our new Fan

The "what's left" list

1) Headboard.  Since we moved our bed to under a window, we wanted to keep any headboard low.  Long searches through retailers and second hand didn't turn up a good option. We finally decided to build a simple oak plank headboard, using the same finish of the trim we placed on our dressers.

2) Art. With one long bare wall to fill, we have a concept we wanted to try, using a combination of plasters and paint. This is probably the most ambitious of our projects. We will be working on it in this coming week.

3) Curtains. We are thinking simple white semi sheers over our existing blinds.

4) Bits and pieces . . .

 Wrapping up

I took some time to link up purchases and supplies used, but we have received no compensation. More importantly, we have been checking out the other participants you can find here on the BHG ORC One Room Challenge, and gotten plenty of inspiration from all the creativity happening out there in these turbulent times. 

There will be more on our Instagram stories & feed, so check us out there too ---

-- the moltobene wife