This week of the One Room Challenge flew by! The good weather we’ve been having was just too good to pass up so I prioritized family time over writing. I missed my typical update deadline but this is a hobby blog and better late than never, right?
There wasn’t one single project of focus this week. Here’s a list of the mostly little things that got done this week that made a big impact on the space.
Scotchgard
I sprayed the slipcover my mum and I made last week to give it a little extra protection between washes. I did it late at night though and didn’t notice all the overspray. The floors were pretty slick the next morning and the nanny, my husband and daughter all slipped on the wood floor next to the couch. So be warned, watch out for the overspray.
Curtain Rod
I scored a curtain rod on Facebook Marketplace and Dan installed it this week. I got some inexpensive curtain rings on Amazon and hung the same sheers we had in the room before. A good wash made them look good as new!
Chair Legs
The chairs I got a few weeks ago on Facebook Marketplace got a little upgrade this week. I ordered new wood legs for them on Amazon and they were pretty quick to screw in. They make such a difference! So much better than the chrome legs that were on them before.
Art
I downloaded eight of my favourite free print files from the Audubon Society and had them printed at Costco. I ordered them to fit some secondhand frames I was given. I thought this would be a great way to get some colour on the walls without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, I hit a few snags. The matching 8 gold frames were all missing backings and didn’t have any matting. I tried to find some that would fit the prints without any matting but the ones I had in my hoard of frames didn’t match and would need some work too. To boot, my husband informed me he wasn’t a huge fan of the prints and said he thought it would look like we were bird-obsessed to have all 8 prints displayed in the room. More work to come on this over the next week.
Fireplace Mantel
The big news this week is we finally installed the live edge beam of butternut wood that I hand chiseled and planed as our fireplace mantel. Daniel was thrilled to finally be able to use some of his masonry skills and tools to drill holes and set 5 metal rods in the brick with epoxy.
The next day, the epoxy was set and the metal rods were solid so we put a dab of paint on the end of each rod and pressed the back of the wood beam against the rods to mark where the holes needed to be. We had a laser level set up at first but we quickly realized that making sure it looked straight in comparison to the grout lines of the brick was more important than the beam being truly perfectly level.
Daniel drilled into the beam where the paint marks were. He dry fit the mantel onto the rods to make sure everything was lining up.
Once he was satisfied with the depth of each of the holes he filled them with construction adhesive and put it on for good. No turning back after that.
After one final sanding, we sealed it with tung oil and it is finally complete! We can cross it off our project list!
THE PROJECT LIST:
DeclutterWiden entrywaysDrywallPrimePaint wallsPaint brick fireplacePaint window frames- Install and paint baseboards
Prep fireplace mantelInstall and seal the fireplace mantelCover the Couch- Music storage/station
- Firewood storage
Replace rug- Figure out lighting
- DIY Art
- Stage with art and accessories
We now only have 2 weeks left to pull this room together! I’ll be back next week with another blog update. Until then, follow along in stories on Instagram or Facebook to watch our progress.
Cheers,
Lydia
Visit each week of my One Room Challenge™ here:
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |
Thanks for being here! See what everyone else in this challenge is up to at One Room Challenge™.
The Dappled Willow 
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