One Room Challenge Spring 2020 – Week Seven!

The deadline is fast approaching as we near the One Room Challenge final week[s]. Next week is Week Eight and while it is the final week, from that date we have 7 days to submit out ORCs. It’s something I’ve agonized over as the weeks have progressed; will I be finished for Week Eight? What steps do I have to skip so I’m finished on time? NBD, I’m just the only person still at the drywall stage!

I know in the grand scheme of things the ORC is not something I should be loosing sleep over. But have you even been sucked into something that completely took over your mind and to people on the outside, you look to be totally over reacting? That’s what I’m feeling right now. I’m so far into this project that I can’t see out of it. Any time I express my anxiety, I feel silly. But at the same time, this is a big project for me! I mean huge. It’s the first renovation I’ve ever taken on and I’ve done 97% of the work by myself [thank you to Robert for helping me drywall the ceiling even when you threw your back out].

This week I finished installing the fiddly bits of drywall and applied and sanded one layer of mud and tape [so far]. Despite how awkward using a mud trowel, I slowly got the hang of it. My feeble wrists and office-zombie-arms however, are not made for such agility atop a step ladder attempting to mud a ceiling. I took my time and last night sanded the whole room – which has been probably the messiest step so far outside of demolishing the room in the second week.

I decided to keep the original chimney piece in the ceiling. You actually won’t see it once I’ve put the shelving units on either side of the window, but it was something quirky I wanted to keep.

I also picked up / received a few very exciting pieces this week! We first collected a fireplace mantel that I’ve had my eye on for weeks. Unfortunately the person I bought it from was probably a conspiracy theorist and a flat-earther as they were super awkward [they actually ran away from us when we arrived to curb-side pick up and spied on us from around the corner of his house].

A far less creepy addition to our front room is these absolutely gorgeous sconces a friend of mine Alicia, who spur-of-the-moment bought these a year ago in a thrift store and the moment she saw them, knew I’d love them [emotions]. Alicia offered to send them to me in time to include in my ORC and they could not be more perfect.

I feel a bit more relaxed and confident in my decision to give myself a few more days for my ORC deadline. I know it’s the right decision [again, for anyone outside of the ORC bubble, this will all seem dramatic] because I’m back to looking forward to work on our front room vs. my recent and constant dose of resentment. I want to have a beautifully finished room. I want to enjoy the process. I know I’ll be upset next Thursday when everyone else is sharing their final rooms, but I’ll just have to deal with that myself.

As usual, you can see all the Week Seven Guest Participants progress here!

Week One – Week Two – Week Three – Week Four – Week FiveWeek Six
Week SevenWeek Eight

Secondhand tufted Victorian-style couch

I feel there’s no point adding text to this blog post because this couch is perfect.

The end.

Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to preach about sourcing pieces secondhand for my One Room Challenge, I will continue!

I’ve been on the lookout for a statement couch on Kijiji for at least 8 weeks for our front room makeover. I wanted an over-the-top yet comfortable couch. I had a general idea of the perfect shaped couch in mind [as seen in my mock-up shared on Week One, and never did I think I’d actually get the exact shape I wanted!], but while I was looking, I was really flexible; something that’s vital when shopping secondhand. Here are the guidelines for what I was looking for in a couch:

  • Have an unusual shape, yet be comfortable enough to curl up and could read a book on
  • Ideally, be velvet
  • Have an element of drama [see: unusual shape]
  • The colour would ideally be cream / gray / pink or burgundy, but I was also open to possibly painting the couch or reupholstering it in the long run, so I wasn’t too narrowly focused on the colour or pattern
  • Be affordable [some people need their heads checked and a dose of reality. $2,000 for a 40+ year-old couch is not a good deal]
  • The couch actually be available / not be ghosted by the seller

A combination of all of the above makes for a bit of an arduous journey, BUT BE PATIENT. IT WILL PAY OFF IN THE END. Trust me. I’ve been buying secondhand for years now and you have to be patient. That’s why I started looking for a couch well ahead of the ORC beginning. It takes time, sometimes months, but that’s all part of the hunt and makes the final find that much sweeter.

I had this couch saved for a long time but it took me weeks to contact the seller because it was outside of our budget [and I didn’t want to come across as insulting by lowballing the price]. It was advertised at $600 and after a few messages we agreed on $400 for the couch. My budget was $300 [which in fairness, was a number I randomly chose], but this was definitely one of those situations where if I didn’t get this couch, it would haunt me forever, so I was flexible. And I’m so glad I was because LOOK AT MY GORGEOUS NEW VAMPIRIC COUCH.

Check out My Top Tips for Buying Secondhand Items Online blog post, which details the four techniques I use to win at secondhanding. One of these ‘techniques’ got $200 off the final price of our couch [though, it’s not really a technique so much as just being a human person]. Check it out!

Click through to four top tips for sourcing secondhand pieces online! #Secondhand #Thrifted

DIY Friday – painted cabinet using Fusion Mineral Paint

A few weeks ago, while still in our current state of isolation, we went for a drive to get out of the house as we were beginning to feel more and more trapped in. While we were mid-way down a country road I saw a sweet little piece of furniture ruthlessly abandoned on the side of the road …

If you could hear the photo above it would sound like Robert grinding his teeth as he did a u-turn and popped the trunk so I could take yet another wayward piece of furniture home. To add insult to injury, the cabinet didn’t fit in the trunk so we had to secure it [safely] in the seat next to Cora in the back of the car. Robert was thrilled.

This was a piece I knew exactly how I wanted to update and needed to do little-to-no planning. I wanted to paint it with Fusion Mineral Paint‘s shade of Coal Black. No wonder this poor thing was abandoned as the finish of the wood wasn’t exactly complimentary to the velvet inside and the two clashed quite a bit [I thought. To each their own].

The first thing I did when I brought this little display cabinet home was wipe it down with antibacterial wipes because coronavirus. I removed all the little hinges holding the glass in place [you can see the black hinges in the photo above], carefully removed all the glass and got to work.

It was really straight forward project after that; using a small brush I smoothly applied 3 layers of Coal Black paint. I waited a minimum of 3 hours between coats of paint to ensure each coat was dry, but it will be a few more days before the paint is cured [want to know the difference between dry and cured? Fusion Mineral Paint has a great post all about it here].

This was such a straight forward project and thanks to the incredible finish with Fusion Paint, the completed look is so perfect. I was debating sanding the edges of the display case after applying the paint [to give a similar distressed look like our Coal Black dining room hutch], but I decided against it since the “wood” finish / stain was such a strange colour, it is what would come through. I think that shade needs to stay under 3 coats of paint.

DISCLOSURE - while this post is not sponsored, I did receive this paint free of charge from Fusion Mineral Paint in exchange for a blog post. I only work with brands that I like and of course, think you will too. Thank you for supporting the companies that support The Interior DIYer.