One Room Challenge – The Studio – Week 5

Guys!!!  Big progress to show this week!!  I’m so excited for you to see!  I can’t even tell you what a difference there is in the studio now.  Like HUGE!!!  It just goes to show that a coat of paint can make a difference and impact the overall feel of a space.

But let me slow down and back up….in case you haven’t been following along.  This is Week 5 of the One Room Challenge which means we are almost done, I have mixed feelings about that, I’ll admit.  I’ve enjoyed being a part of this, working on a space that I love so much.  But I’ll be happy to get back to using the space and not having a huge To-Do list hanging over my head. Here’s the review if you’d like to look back over that past weeks, just click on the week you’d like to see.

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

So, this week’s progress was even more painting but this time is was easy and dreamy!! I had a coat of paint on the floor in less than an hour!  Not including the prep work, of course, which was washing down the floor with a special cleaner.  Because the floor gets hard use – we’re talking mud, paint, manure, rocks, water – I knew it needed a deep cleaning so I did it twice and then rinsed it very well and let it dry.  When it was dry, I cut in and and then rolled the rest while listeing to a Vinyl Cafe podcast about Christmas….yes, in April!  Even before it was dry, I was smitten.  Guys, G-A-M-E-C-H-A-N-G-E-R.  This floor paint makes it feel like a real space.  A space that we really care about, and you know I do!

The next morning, I put on my slippers and put a second coat on.  I’m not the only one who does these things in my pyjamas and slippers, right?   Here’s a shot that shows how wonderful a colour Pacific Ocean Blue by Benjamin Moore is. I’m afraid that everything might be this colour before too long!  There’s a patch of floor in our entry that is painted grey…for now… 😉 #nothingissafe  I LOVE it paired with the red curtains!

 

I was fortunate enough to have received this paint from Benjamin Moore for this project.  I’ve sold Benjamin Moore in the past and still work with their colour palette on about 99% of the decorating projects I’ve ever worked on in my 17-year-and-counting career as a decorator.  { FYI – the 1% is when the client insists on using a different brand, why, I’m not sure!! }  Arrangements made with the local rep who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for all those 17 years, I picked up paint at the local Benjamin Moore dealer in Truro, Chase’s Colour Centre and they were so lovely!  They were a little curious about what it was exactly that I was doing but I was in again since then for something unrelated and I gave them an update and showed some pictures of the progress.  What a great crew, I highly recommend them!

The other progress I made this week was all done before I started the floor because I knew I wanted to give it lots of time to dry before I started dragging furniture back in.  And then I knew time would be up for this One Room Challenge and I want to finish on time! So, I finished off a few of those pesky other projects that were lingering.  I put the final coat of white on the doors.  I hemp oiled the desk – here’s a little sneak peek of that:

And I framed the chalkboard!  I’m so pleased with myself over this one – I have no training in woodworking and I fear for my digits but I’m learning, little by little.  Granted, this is a pretty basic project but I had to decide how I wanted it framed.  My big requirement was that it needed to have a ledge.  I was tired of having to search for the chalk every time I wanted to scribble a list or reminder.  So I bought the boards, cut them to length and then, you guessed it, painted them!  The frame I did in a wash of Miss Mustard Seed’s Curio and Throphy and then a coat of hemp oil.  Once they were dry, I pre-drilled my holes and nailed it to the wall.  And I love it! I’m so glad I added that project to my list – it was satisfying in so many ways!  You can see it in the first photo – it’s contrasts nicely from the wall.

As always, my To-Do list is growing, changing…I guess that’s the nature of these projects!  I finished the chair and I don’t like it with the desk so now I’m going to use a chair from my bedroom, which used to be at our table in the last house.  And I’ve decided to change the lighting.  Let’s look at the list and then we’ll talk about those lights, shall we?

Sew the curtains for the prep table – done

White wash the walls – done

Paint the floor – done

Frame the chalkboard – done

Paint the sewing desk – done

Paint and hang the corner cabinet – done

Paint the doors – done

Paint the sewing chair – nevermind, not using this chair anymore anyway!

Paint the trim  – done

Switch out the lighting – hoping to have done for the reveal….

So the deal with the lights is that I was admiring my lovely walls and floor and the ugly bare bulb lights really stood out to me.  I chatted with a couple freinds and got their opinion about the lighting and the fact I have two different types of lights within the 12′ by 24′ space.  But, given that this is my studio and I do work in here, I need good lighting.  Granted, when I’m in here during the day, I rarely even have the lights on.  My last trip to Cape Breton, Janice had changed a couple lights in her house and I really liked them, so I thought about buying them.  And then a light bulb went on – pun intended – and I remembered that in my stash I had old schoolhouse style lights!!  So I took a run down to the farm to retrieve them and see what would be required to get them re-wired and installed – which basically meant I asked my father-in-law to help me!  The plan is to switch the sockets and then figure out if they can be tied into a modern box.  The base will need to be, you guessed it, painted!  The globes just need a good wash…years of dust and bird poop will easily clean off those… The added bonus of these is that I have 5 so if this plan works, I can switch out some ugly lights in our house and it should be relatively cheap!

That’s a wrap for this week – you will not want to miss next week because it’ll be Reveal Week when you see the space as a whole!  I can’t wait to start pulling things in { very delibrately, though } and making the space pretty and functional to work in!

To be continued,

Lori

{ Disclaimer: I was given free product for this project by Benjamin Moore but my take on it is just that! }

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