The Interior DIYer
#DarkRomanticLuxe

One Room Challenge Spring 2022 – Week Eight!

It is here! At long last! It’s reveal day for this year’s One Room Challenge and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve had a busy few weeks outside of completing the ORC, so I’ve not had as much time as I’d like to complete it. So instead of beating myself up [like I do with most things], I’ve decided to style and photograph our home office as it currently is, and as time goes by and I finish my to-do list, I’ll update this post. My past self would be very surprised with how chill I am right now.

Enough about that. And more about my home office makeover!

A huge part of my ORC this year was paint related, with the most drama being when I accidentally ordered the wrong paint finish and had to, in total, paint the walls 7 times 🙃 That was fun. I spent a lot of time trying to level the ceiling [which worked out in the end] and it feels like not enough time making our home office pretty. But it’s a work in progress and no room stays the same, so I’m looking forward to adding further detail to this room over time.

Anyone remember that secondhand tufted office chair I picked up secondhand two years ago? *crickets* Well I dug it out of the basement, painted the leather in Fusion Mineral Paint‘s shade of Coal Black, sanded down the wood and refinished it. It looks SO MUCH BETTER. It goes really well with our other painted chair, which I still get questions about to this day, our painted tufted leather armchair which is happily at home in the corner of our office now.

Our custom built office desk – now that was a labour of love. I’m SO HAPPY with how it turned out. My Week Seven blog post was all about how I Frankenstein-ed our desk using IKEA kitchen counter tops and pieces from our old dining room table. I also made a reel about it on Instagram, which you can check out here!

I can’t publish this post without mentioning the wasp ‘art’ I made. When I repaired the wall under the window in Week Two, I had found a massive [very old] wasps next in the brickwork. I was able to salvage pieces of it, which I knew I wanted to frame in some way once the room was properly finished. I had bought this trio of frames from Value Village years ago and never used them. When I was rummaging through my decor stash to decorate our office, I found it and knew it would be perfect. I simply glued the nest pieces to some black velvet. I don’t know how long it will last like this, but I love it for now.

Speaking of window repairs, here is what our home office looked like at the beginning of this year’s ORC …

Click here to see all the before photos of our home office. It wasn’t in bad shape, but it also wasn’t good.

ORC SPRING 2022 SOURCE LIST:
WALLS:
– Sico paint in ‘Army Green’ in flat / matte finish
DESK:
– EKBACKEN kitchen counter tops [one large, one small] from IKEA
– Legs and apron taken from our old dining room table
ACCESSORIES:
– Black tufted armchair, secondhand, painted with Fusion Mineral Paint in ‘Coal Black’
– Tufted office desk chair, secondhand from Kijiji [updated blog post coming soon!]
– SANELA dark grey curtains from IKEA
– Vanilla Sugar candle from Wick Witch
– Picture frames, all thrifted [sorry]
– Silhouette paintings, painted by myself
More will be added to this list as I continue to update our home office!

You can check all the Week Eight / final reveals by all the Guest Participants here! I cannot wait to scroll through the finished projects this week and see all the transformations. It is my goal during each one of Zelda’s naps this week to view each update. So much effort goes into these projects and I always love to see what everyone has challenged themselves to design.

I’ve completed all but 3 or 4 items off my to-do list. The main things I didn’t get around to going is: replacing the banister at the top of the servants stairs, painting the servants stairs, update the main light in our home office [bye boob light], and then sourcing small decor items like a pillow for the chair and printing the digital artwork I bought.

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

Thank you to everyone who had supported and encouraged me during this year’s ORC! It’s been a great project, and I truly cannot wait to use our office now. Until next time.

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

#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 One!

I’m reintroducing myself to blogging this year by jumping in the deep end with the One Room Challenge this spring! It’s been two years since I last partook in the ORC. My body has forgotten the panic and stress just in time to reintroduce myself to it again. Hi, my name is Alex and I’m a glutton for punishment. While my last ORC was very demanding, this year it won’t be nearly as overwhelming so I’m feeling much more confident.

This year I’ll be updating our home office and I cannot wait to start [SPOILER: I already started. But only really boring stuff, so you’re not missing out on much].

Our home office was one of the rooms that made us fall in love with this house. It’s a crooked little dormered space with lots of character, a ghost window, and access to the kitchen via a set of servants stairs. It’s so sweet and unique, as you’ll see from my ‘before’ photos of our office below …

Our sweet 17.5 year-old cat Juniper is no longer with us, but I love that she came back for a visit in these photos from 2019. She loved keeping me company while I WFH.

To give you an idea of the scale of this room, that’s our old dining room table which I dragged upstairs to use as a desk. The room is the perfect size for a home office for two. I think in the distant past this room was considered a 4th bedroom, but it can’t be considered one in today’s standards.

As you can see in the photo above, you can see the top of both staircases from our office. The banister in the office is original, but is basic, border-lining crudely made [and is uncomfortably low], so I won’t be heartbroken to change it. I’ll be replacing the banister with the same style as our main staircase for consistency. This is something I envision to be a pain in the ass and will be the worst part of the makeover.

The room has a bit of a ‘T’ shape floorplan. Behind that door [seen above] is our upstairs bathroom. In the space below the proper window in our office [vs. the ghost window] is where the main part of the office desk space will be, and will loop back in an ‘L’ shape along the back wall.

And lastly, the view up the servants stairs into the office from our kitchen – another total dreamboat view that made us fall in love with the house.

This is going to be a far less demanding makeover than my last ORC, and because of that I am so excited. The room needs to be prepped A LOT before any paint can go on the walls [and ceiling] as both were never properly finished; you can see the old seams along the edges of each piece of plasterboard. You can see some of the patching / skim coating I’ve done already above to smooth out the walls. I feel this will be the most tedious part of the project, and I’m happy to say I’ve finished most of it already. All will be revealed next week!

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 handrail [with prettier hardware?]
– 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

There are going to be so many great projects this year, so if you have a chance, check out all the Guest Participants here. It’s going to be a good one.

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