One Room Challenge Spring 2018 – Week Six!

This is it. I’m full of a strange mix of relief and excitement. The final week of the One Room Challenge is here and I am SO EXCITED to finally share our dining room! It’s finished and ready and I honestly love it.

For anyone who found me here today thanks to the One Room Challenge, hi! I’m Alex. My husband and I, our daughter and our two cats emigrated to Ottawa [Canada] from Dublin [Ireland] six months ago. Six months ago we had nothing. I mean sleeping on the floor and all sharing the same bottle of water kind of nothing. I’ve been slowly making our rented apartment a home, so when the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge came around it was the perfect excuse opportunity for me to make our dining room, the room we spend the most time in, a bit more homely.

I’ll be including a full source list at the end of this post in case there’s anything you see and would like to know where it’s from! I’ll either link to where I bought it or to where I blogged about it. And if you’d like to know more, feel free to ask!


I was eager to try and source as many things as I could for our dining room secondhand. Because when you’re starting from nothing, everything is hella expensive. I turned to secondhand websites like Kijiji and real life thrift stores like Value Village and The Salvation Army to fill our dining room.

I updated furniture and fittings with paint, contact paper and lazy patches of Sharpie markers when no one was looking.

Our dining room gets a lot of light during the day and as I spend most days working with a toddler close by, we spend most of our day in the dining room [as the kitchen and Cora’s bedroom are both next to it]. I wanted this space to be somewhere bright and inviting. I do love dark design and I’ll always love dark spaces, but I don’t think going dark would have worked in such a bright space. I did add some darkness with my most favourite burgundy paint, but I added it in a dark part of the room.

It took me a long time to choose the right colour for the dining room walls. It was something that needed to work with burgundy [that was non-negotiable], but it also needed to work with and compliment the kitchen cabinetry which can be seen from the dining room as well as the hardwood floors throughout. It was a tough task, but I found the perfect nearly-greige paint ‘Kitten White’ by CIL Paints. I can’t stress how perfect it is IRL.

This little vignette has turned out to be my favourite spot in our dining room. And it was one of the last places I focused on. It was one of those uggggh what will I do with this corner? corners, but with some artistic help from Cora one afternoon, I put this little group together and I love it so much.

I can’t write this post without mentioning our Victorian style mirror. We managed to successfully hang it this weekend thanks to two 200lbs hooks [overkill by about 350lbs, but they help me sleep soundly at night so long story short, do whatever makes you sleep better]. I tightened the wires at the back a few times before getting our mirror at just the right height. At 4 feet tall and 5 feet wide, there wasn’t much wiggle room with where we could hang it, so I’m thanking the construction gods that there were two studs along the main wall perfectly centered for our mirror. Anyone who sees it in real life is blown away by how big it is. I don’t know how, but it comes across as smallish in photos. This thing is huge. Like, the size of a human person. I’m just so happy we have it looming over our every meal now.

I’m not going to lie, my first One Room Challenge was tough. It didn’t help that I picked the biggest room in our apartment and that I chose to partake even though our belongings didn’t arrive from Ireland until Y E S T E R D A Y, so yeah, it was stressful. But, it worked out. Yes, I had to compromise with a lot of things [not being able to put a swag on the chandelier and center it over the table, not having enough time (or energy) to paint the rest of the hallway and you can see that in some pictures, etc], but it worked out. And the moment it was finished I was so happy with it. It felt comfortable and it felt like us. It was tough but what project isn’t? I’m a very firm believer in creating a space you love to live in for the sake of your mental health. And I for one am tore up from the floor up about our dining room.

Thank you to Linda for letting me partake in the One Room Challenge as a guest participant. The support, encouragement and community that I’ve seen and experienced from the ORC is so encouraging. Especially knowing I wasn’t the only one crying into my glass of wine at the end of Week Four when the panic really started to set in. It’s been an amazing experience and I can’t wait for the One Room Challenges to come.

You can see the full list of the One Room Challenge Spring 2018 guest participant room reveals here!

Entire source list for our dining room as it currently is …

Wall colours – ‘Classic Burgundy’ and ‘Kitten White’ by CIL
Victorian mirror – secondhand via Kijiji
Dining hutch – secondhand via Kijiji, updated with Fusion Mineral Paint in ‘Coal Black’
Malm 6-drawer dresser – via IKEA
Tobias dining chairs – originally from IKEA, but bought secondhand via Kijiji
Gold circular side table – secondhand via Kijiji
Bird portrait trays – via iBride
Dining table – secondhand, updated with marble contact paper [tutorial coming soon]
French provincial style armchair – secondhand via Kijiji
All floral artwork – secondhand via Value Village
Candle sconces – both secondhand via Value Village
Burgundy curtains – discontinued IKEA
Skogsklover roller blinds – via IKEA
Black high chair – secondhand via Kijiji
90’s chandelier – secondhand via Kijiji
Black and white abstract artwork – painted by Cora!
Baby Schylling piano – from Target, but bought secondhand via Kijiji
Cloches – given to me by my excellent blogger friend Pat
Wall clocks, x2 – via EQ3
Glasses in dining hutch – either thrifted or discontinued IKEA
Gold lucky wishbone objet – via Chapters !ndigo
Tassles – via Home Focus
White posey vase – via EQ3
Brass candle holder – via Article

Shop this look!

CIL Kitten White
CIL Kitten White
Lowe’s Marble Contact Paper
Lowe’s Marble Contact Paper
CIL Classic Burgundy
CIL Classic Burgundy
EQ3 Posey Vase
EQ3 Posey Vase
$12.99
IKEA Tobias Chair
IKEA Tobias Chair
$99
iBride Isild Tray
iBride Isild Tray
€52
Indigo Lucky Charms Wishbone
Indigo Lucky Charms Wishbone
$12
EQ3 Watch Wall Clock
EQ3 Watch Wall Clock
$29.99
iBride Rosita Tray
iBride Rosita Tray
€52
IKEA Malm Black Dresser
IKEA Malm Black Dresser
$199
CIL Kitten White
CIL Kitten White
Lowe’s Marble Contact Paper
Lowe’s Marble Contact Paper
CIL Classic Burgundy
CIL Classic Burgundy
EQ3 Posey Vase
EQ3 Posey Vase
$12.99
IKEA Tobias Chair
IKEA Tobias Chair
$99
iBride Isild Tray
iBride Isild Tray
€52
Indigo Lucky Charms Wishbone
Indigo Lucky Charms Wishbone
$12
EQ3 Watch Wall Clock
EQ3 Watch Wall Clock
$29.99
iBride Rosita Tray
iBride Rosita Tray
€52
IKEA Malm Black Dresser
IKEA Malm Black Dresser
$199

Week OneWeek TwoWeek ThreeWeek FourWeek FiveWeek Six!

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17 Comments

  1. May 10, 2018 / 07:29

    Oh! Oh! Oh! It’s STUNNING! I know how hard you’ve worked on this one and girl you slammed it outta the park! It’s stunning – the paint colour is absolutely delicious and that MIRROR – holy crap on a cracker, it’s amazing. The table has come out fantastic and I adore the contrast of those modern chairs with it and I love that chandelier (seriously, love it, want it, am properly coveting it). I also love Cora’s artwork – such a clever idea and that corner just looks amazing. It must be so nice to finally have a room that feels totally like you and feels like home 🙂 xxx

    • June 21, 2018 / 20:32

      Thank you so, so much Kimberly!!! It was a real labour of love and now that I’m past the madness, I can really appreciate all the work that went into it. There are a lot of things I’d like to still do to our dining room, but the bones of the work is done!

      I know you’ve been there!!! x

  2. May 10, 2018 / 12:51

    I LOVE your chandelier, the Burgundy, the mirror, the chairs…I think we could hang out 🙂

  3. May 10, 2018 / 15:43

    Dang!
    So many things I love.
    Bringing soft seating into the space, stroke of genius. Given that Cora is tottering in and out of that room all day, makes it practical and beautiful.
    The mirror being centered on the wall instead of over the side board, gives the room dynamics that a perfectly symmetrical room wouldn’t have .
    The small touches:
    The candle stick (I wanna fight you for it).
    The pigeon people.
    The double clocks.
    Cloches that hold the air of mystery.

    It is so well put together. I am gagging over it all.
    Gagging! You better werk!

    • June 23, 2018 / 14:28

      Thank you so so much, Pat.

      And YES!!! I’m so glad someone else is into the uncentered mirror! I’m much more of an asymmetrical person and I knew something had to go under the mirror (part of me kept thinking what if Cora’s under it and it falls?!, which is overthinking a lot, but my parent-brain kept going there), but we needed more storage and since the room is so big, I wanted a little seating area that I could retreat to during dinner etc.

      And the cloches with an air of mystery are totes thanks to you.

      x

    • July 20, 2018 / 03:20

      Well, it is all so stunning.
      I really love it. I’m back at work, and desperately trying to find time to do another room. Lately, I’ve only had time to do a couple of lamps… which is only a small part of the room. You know what our room really needs? A full colour framed picture of Burt Reynolds on the bear skin rug… you know the one. 😉

  4. May 10, 2018 / 18:49

    Gorgeous (especially Cora’s art)! GREAT job, it’s so cozy and home-like now.

    • June 23, 2018 / 14:29

      Thank you so much Christina! I really love Cora’s artwork and when she wants to paint, she points to it so I know what she wants to do. It would melt the coldest of hearts.

  5. May 11, 2018 / 04:05

    The burgundy is so rich and beautiful! I love the chandelier and the way you redesigned your table. So pretty!

  6. May 12, 2018 / 09:08

    Oh my god THAT MIRROR!!!!!! The whole thing looks great, really warm and inviting, and well done you for getting it done with a Cora running around, it takes me around a year to finish an en-suite at this point!

    • June 23, 2018 / 14:32

      I knoooooow, Linda! That mirror is so much. I still admire it. It was a find exactly like your marble chopping board from Aldi! I saw it online and kept putting off buying it. It had been advertised online for a YEAR before I contacted the guy to eventually buy it.

      And girl, I have so much respect for you. This whole kid thing is exhausting. And I only have one. Mad respect. Or, you’re completely insane.

  7. May 13, 2018 / 06:03

    This is gorgeous! I have been following along via insta and you knocked this one out of the park! Congrats love!

  8. May 29, 2018 / 11:08

    These are lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing this post.