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Welcome back sweet peas! It’s Week 3 of the One Room Challenge™ and I’m just tickled you’re here! The last 7 days have felt more like 17, but in the best way possible! We’ve gotten so much accomplished it’s blowing my mind!
Before I jump in, I’d like to invite y’all to grab a cocktail and celebrate a handful of mini wins with me this week; Will you indulge me for a sec? This One Room Challenge™ is stretching me, challenging me and forcing this rusty old brain to shake out the cobwebs and flex some creative muscles. I have thoroughly enjoyed problem solving and experimenting ways to bring some crazy ideas to life. It feels dang good to step out of my comfort zone a little bit, to take a risk on something new (to me), and to stack up all the little victories along the way! Cheers love bugs! Ok, here’s what we’ve been up to since Week 2.
FABRIC WALLPAPER INSTALLATION
I installed a shower curtain as wallpaper for our Guest Room Remix feature wall and It. Freaking. Worked! It wasn’t without a fair bit of drama, hardship, swear words and loads of skepticism, but there was no way on God’s green earth I was going to be ‘had’ by a shower curtain, gravity be damned! I storied the process on Intagram, saved it to my highlights, and you can add ‘DIY Fabric Wallpaper Tutorial’ to the list of blog posts I promise to deliver after the big ORC reveal on November 7th. In the interim you should know that there is so much liquid starch soaked into these fibers that if a tornado spun through and my house fell to the ground, these fabric panels would still be standing.
Still drying but all in all, a smashing success
As always, I learned a TON about what not to do with the first panel I installed so I was basically pro by the second. As such, there was a significant difference in the end result. Fortunately I was able to backtrack, re-soak the first panel with additional liquid starch and smooth out all the bubbles that had popped up with a wallpaper smoothing tool.
BOARD AND BATTEN AND TRIM, OH MY!
I can honestly say that between the crown molding, board and batten, chair rail, top ledge and baseboards I have never installed so much trim in one room in my entire life. I so hoped to have more of it done with some rad progress pics to make you “Ooooh” and “Ahhhhh,” but alas, we’re just not there yet. What I can give you is a tiny sliver of a painted board propped up against the ‘wallpaper’ so you can, at the very least, appreciate the monochromatic direction we’re heading. Crossing my fingers we can finish up in the next day or so.
There are a so many insanely detailed and informative Board and Batten tutorials on the web that I don’t think I could improve upon even if I tried really hard. Here are a couple faves: Chris Loves Julia, Young House Love (includes video!)
Our home has orange peel texture throughout; A finish I dislike almost as much as carpeting. Therefore we couldn’t opt for the ‘cheater method’ where battens are installed directly over drywall. Just to be clear, we are BIG fans of a cheater method wherever possible over here. Anyway, since we couldn’t skip the board we picked the cheapest option available to us: Tempered Hardboard. Is it the easiest to work with? No. But at $8/sheet, beggars can’t be choosers. Here is a list of the additional materials we chose to use (because I know you’ll ask, I would) based on cost, availability and ease of use/simplicity, in that order.
- 4′ x 8′ Tempered Hardboard (board)
- 5 1/5″ primed MDF (baseboards)
- 4 ” primed MDF (chair rail)
- 1 1/2″ primed MDF (top ledge board)
- 2′ x 4′ x 1/4″ MDF Sheets ripped to 3″ (stiles or vertical battens)
- 2″finish nails
- Kilz Primer
- Sherwin Williams Showcase Paint in ‘Valiant Blue’
- Paintable caulk
I do want to pass along two tips that will make you want to kiss my face. First, the Wainscoting Layout Calculator Inch Calculator. It will change your life. I feel the same way about this tool as I do about epidurals. Do you hear those angels singing? Both are glorious. This simple online calculator sent to me by an Instagram pal takes all the guesswork (and mathematical equations) out of spacing your battens, spits out a lovely little diagram to follow, and provides specific locations for your stiles. Knowing these exact measurements made it much easier to determine where to cut our board to ensure seams would be covered by a batten. Bonus: No giant needles to the back.
Second life saving tip, paint EVERYTHING before you hang it. Do you know how much easier and efficient it is to roll over a smooth surface than it is to wedge a paint brush into all the little nooks and crannies you’re about to make? Of course you’ll still have some post hanging, post caulking touch up paint to tackle, but that too is so much easier when you’ve prepainted. Trust me on this mmkay?
PLYWOOD FLOOR SNEAK PEEK
I popped a sneak peek of our plywood floors on Instagram this week and I am utterly overwhelmed at the positive responses poured over me through messages, likes, comments and shares. Thank you so much for all the Instalove!
I touched on our cut plan during Week 2, but we were forced to tweak our measurements a bit due to cut length limitations on the saw we were using. We were not anticipating that. It definitely resulted in a small loss in overall square footage, and therefore we’ll likely incur additional cost, but the man I married gave me an early Christmas present by way of 245 plywood triangles cut over the course of 2 days so I can’t even be sad about it. That’s love y’all. Love and Christmas.
I could hardly stand the excitement so I threw down a handful of pieces onto the floor hot off the saw to see how the pattern would lay out in the space and WOW. It’s so good. It’s so good I want all my floors to be optical illusions! We still have A LOT to do before we’re ready to install them including sanding all three sides of all 245 triangles (I mean, that’ll be a party right there! Who’s coming over? I’m making margaritas!) as well as experiment with different finishes to give us the look we want while maximizing durability.
OH, HEY MR. FEDEX
We’re finally starting to see some of our online orders trickle in! I’ve received the chandelier which I hope will go up tomorrow, as well as two rugs thus far. I haven’t opened the rugs quite yet as I’m waiting until the floors are finished, but I’m so curious what the colors will look like in person and which shade of rust/coral will best suit the space.
DIY IKEA to Anthro Dresser Hack
If you’re a Roost & Ramble story watcher, you know I’ve been searching high and low on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and our local thrift stores for a small second hand dresser, but nothing is quite measuring up. So I ordered this Ikea RAST dresser (below) on Tuesday and decided to pound out a knockoff Anthropologie version. I mean, what’s one more project when you’re already not sleeping? Right?
Image Source Ikea
I’ve selected three options that I love and opened up the voting polls to my loyal Insta audience to see what they like best for the space. So far they’re rolling out in this order, the first pic at number 1, the second at number 2 and so on.
Note: Picture image 3 with a single heron in flight, not a school of fish. Cool right?
To clarify, the last two involve some wood carving, another thing I’ve never done before, but I have my Grandpa’s old woodworking tools and thought it would be fun to try my hand at one of his favorite hobbies. There’s hardly a memory I have of him where we aren’t shooting the breeze in his wood shop, me digging through Cheese Ball canisters filled with old golf balls, screws, nuts & bolts and other treasures, him constructing something beautiful to give to someone he loves. My Grandpa was the greatest man of all time.
Anyway, I need to see this dresser in person before I can commit to giving the people what they want because I’ve gotta make sure I can actually pull it off!
MOVING ON
Alright friends back to work! Wanna know the funny thing about this list below? For every one item I cross off, I add two more. Wonder if the same thing will happen with the number of days we’re given? Twenty-two days and counting til reveal day!!
Clear out roomPatch drywall holesRemove baseboardsRemove Carpet and padPull all carpet tacks and staplesColor match fabric with paintRepaint ceiling- Paint walls
- Paint closet (?)
- Spray Paint Window (?)
- Spray Paint Bed
Install fabric wall treatment- Install Crown Molding
- Install new light fixture
Purchase lumberInstall Board and BattenCLOSE ENOUGHDetermine Plywood floor patternCut all flooring- Sand all flooring
- Lay all flooring
- Treat/Protect flooring
- Reinstall baseboards
- Rehang curtain rod
- Sew curtains (?)
- Resinstall sconce(s)
- DIY Ikea Rast overhaul
- Accessorize
I hope you’ll continue to follow along each week as I document the process of renovating a room under the gun and on a dime! Look for my post updates each Thursday, and if you’d like to follow the day to day progress as well meet me in my Instagram stories.
You can also follow along with the other bloggers, instagrammers and designers taking on the One Room Challenge ™ on the ORC Blog!
Thanks for being here!
XOXO,
Visit each week of the One Room Challenge™ Here: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6
Roost & Ramble 
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