One Room Challenge: Week 8 The Reveal!

Updated: Nov 18, 2022

These past 8 weeks have been filled with construction, vacationing, decorating and not having a moment of free time! I cannot say that I regret it because look at what I created!!

Before we get into the details let us all remember where this room started, eeek!

Recap of the prior weeks

Week 1

The first week was all about demo and planning. I made a mood board and planned out the different elements for the room. I removed multiple layers of flooring and finally tore out the pop out that housed the old fireplace on the adjacent wall.

Week 2: The main project this week was getting all of my faux beams made and installed. You can check out the tutorial here.

Week 3: I was on vacation in Kauai! Although we still managed to get the electrical outlets and switches moved and removed the top subfloor because for some reason their were two on top of each other.

Week 4: Huge week! We removed the entire back wall and replaced the sliding glass door to high efficiency one along with repairing the damaged subfloor. Also I started acquiring all of the big furniture and lighting pieces for the room.

Week 5: I enclosed the fireplace wall and put all of the flooring down. I also started building the bottom sections of my bookcases and the shelving portion of one side. We also finally closed up the side window openings with exterior doors. Lastly I started turning the doorways leading into this room into arches.

Week 6: Finished applying drywall and mud to my arched openings, textured and painted them. I built the second bookshelf and painted the entire back window wall. Built the countertops for the bases of my bookcases and primed my bookshelves. Installed my lighting and hung curtain panels.

Week 7: I built the desk and did my plaster feature wall along with installing the flue for the pot belly stove and covering the top portion with wood slats. The steps leading into this room were also completed.

Week 8: Painted all of my bookcases and shelves, added wallpaper to the outsides of them and put the knobs on. I also added my sconces, rug, furniture and decorated all the shelves because the room is now complete!!

 

Breaking down each project:

Lighting

I was so happy to have the opportunity to team up with Kichler Lighting to deck this room out with a brand new chandelier and two wall sconces! I went with the Erzo 6 Light Chandelier that was put on a dimmer switch so we can soften the light and for the sconces I went with the Capitol Hill wall sconces also from Kichler Lighting. The brass tones in both of these brought so much elegance to this space and the quality is top notch.

I also added uplighting to the faux olive tree and the sides of the desk.

Bookcases

I painted the bases and bookshelves with a Zinsser Primer in grey followed by a beautiful green that was a perfect match to my wallpaper called Pinelands from Benjamin Moore. The finishing touch was when I added Tempaper wallpaper to the outside panels of the bookshelves I built. I used the Grasscloth peel and stick wallpaper in sage green and it really made this space so much more elegant with a polished look. I was able to repurpose the old shelves that were in this room into the tops of my cabinet bases.

Then of course the fun part, being able to finally style all of these shelves! I picked up most of the these items from local thrift stores, Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx and then I got a ton of books from a local book store!

Furniture

I was on the hunt for an affordable desk chair that would be comfortable yet beautiful and I definitely found it with this office chair from Wovenbyrd. When I reached out, not only did they graciously gift me this Executive Office Chair in black faux leather but also their Barrel Chair with Storage Seat and Ottoman! This accent chair was such a perfect fit for the corner of the room to provide seating when we have guests. My absolute favorite is the office chair! Seriously it is so chic and comfortable and exactly the look I was searching for.

Desk Build

I searched high and low for the perfect desk with no such luck. I ended up building this desk from basic pine 2x12s and added one long drawer that would be able to house our laptop when not in use. I purposely built it smaller than the opening so that I could add a little uniqueness to the area by adding faux greenery to the sides with uplighting.

Fireplace

This project has my heart. I went back and forth on what to do in this area and accidentally stumbled upon my creation using drywall mud and makeup bronzer! It is unique, soft, super affordable and very beginner friendly! This was such a statement piece and made this room one of a kind, not to mention the amazing heat it gives off when we have a fire going!

Arches

You wouldn’t think that rounding the top of a doorway would make that big of a difference but you would be wrong! haha Seriously though, this small detail softened the look and made these entries into our office purposeful, where as before it looked like their were two odd doors on either side of the pot belly stove. This too is a very inexpensive project that can easily be learned. Drywall mudding definitely takes technique but with practice you get better and better.

Slider Wall

By far the biggest undertaking and the main reason I chose this room to be my ORC project. We knew the subfloor was damaged after renovating our deck this past summer. We literally jacked the back wall up and removed both the old slider and two windows in order to replace 2 feet of the subfloor. Once that was taken care of we fixed the poor climate control in this room by installing new exterior side doors where the windows were and a new sliding glass door. All of this would not have been possible if I didn’t have the help of my extremely knowledgeable and talented father in law! I absolutely love all of the light we still have in here and the great access to our back deck.

 

Before & Afters

 

Fireplace and entry into the room

Desk Area

Right side of the room

Left side of the room

View towards the back windows

Back sliding glass door wall

I saved all of the work I did to a highlight bubble on my Instagram account so you can always check that out here!

 

Still to come:

Now I know this is the reveal post but I do still have a few things to figure out in this room. Do you remember in my first post I said this was going to be a multipurpose room? Not only is this our home office but it also acts as our newborn photography studio. I will be showing you how I set this area up for these photoshoots and the storage of everything when we are not taking photos. So be sure to keep following along on my Instagram or subscribe to my blog!

Links to products:

 

 

 

 

Be sure to check out the reveals of all of the other participants in the One Room Challenge here! Thank you to the media partner for this challenge as well, Apartment Therapy!