1). What I got done, soft blue-purple (think periwinkle) should add some happiness and calmness to this dining room situation, especially since we’re 5 weeks into this thing and that 180kg “lemon” of a table is weighing about as heavy on my mind as it is the dining room floor! We’ll probably end up having to drill a hole into the floor to stabilize the table.
2). The electrician installed my Mid-century 6-arm bow tie chandelier by @pookylights (With this 1958 Italian Stilnovo Megafono-inspired piece, I couldn’t say no to the angle and swivel of those little double-cone shades!!) He also wired in two sculpted Brutalist style tube wall sconces in matte brass by @light_cookie on @etsyuk (these remind me of bamboo culms, so they fit right in here🎍🎋)
2). The electrician installed my Mid-century 6-arm bow tie chandelier by @pookylights and I spackled up all the holes in the ceiling before painting it a joy-inducing sky blue.
Need some interiors-related inspiration, ideas, networking, and encouragement?
Look no further than THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, a widely anticipated biannual event — every April and October — the ORC #oneroomchallenge #ORC — where any interiors enthusiast with a blog, Instagram, or TikTok account can join the challenge and link their own room transformations up every week (we’re on WEEK 1 now). Starting Wednesday of each week, we report back and flood the interweb and social media with the latest and greatest news, updates, trials, and tribulations of our room transformations.
So, thank you to Linda Weinstein, the creator/owner of the ORC who started all of this fabulousness, and Apartment TherapyORC’s official media partner, for the support and holding us accountable!
Dining Room Refresh –Picture Frame Molding & Wall Color Change
This week shifted gears from the table and seating iascos and decided to tackle the picture frame molding.
Maybe it was the fact that the marble table arrived in an usable condition OR the fact that I built the banquette seat 1.5 inches too high OR that the wallpaper is on back order with every supplier, but I’ve been stressed WAY OUT and decided to do a 180 on the wall color entirely.
I figure a warm, soft blue-purple (think periwinkle) should add some happiness and calmness to this dining room situation, especially since we’re 5 weeks into this thing and that 180kg “lemon” of a table is weighing about as heavy on my mind as it is the dining room floor! We’ll probably end up having to drill a hole into the floor to stabilize the table.
Need some interiors-related inspiration, ideas, networking, and encouragement?
Look no further than THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, a widely anticipated biannual event — every April and October — the ORC #oneroomchallenge #ORC — where any interiors enthusiast with a blog, Instagram, or TikTok account can join the challenge and link their own room transformations up every week (we’re on WEEK 5 now). Starting Wednesday of each week, we report back and flood the interweb and social media with the latest and greatest news, updates, trials, and tribulations of our room transformations.
So, thank you to Linda Weinstein, the creator/owner of the ORC who started all of this fabulousness, and Apartment TherapyORC’s official media partner, for the support and holding us accountable!
First time ever building something of this magnitude. (As you may recall, I wanted my very own wavy, fluted dining banquette with storage and seat cushions.)
That’s right, I was pretty damned proud of myself for a hot minute, and, if it wasn’t too high for the table now —YIKES! I didn’t take into account the added height of the bottom and top equates to over an inch— it would’ve turned our pretty damned good!
So, after I deal with this fiasco (i.e., disassembling the banquette, trimming the damned thing down, and reassembling it — AaaArRrRGhH!!!! Damn it all to hell!! — I can focus on the table trouble and this to-do list:
🌴 My Eccentrico, dual-tone marble dining table (sourced from @nue.modern ) arrived completely unusable, so I’m working with a local marble guy work out a solution so the 180kg monster doesn’t tip over and crush legs!
🌴 My decadent Geishas wallpaper by Manuel Canovas that I’m going to wrap around the room is on back order until May 12, so my next project for WEEK 5 it to do the wall paneling up and paint the walls.
🌴 For the wavy, fluted dining banquette, I have to turn that sumptuous mustardy-yellow upholstery fabric into upholstered seat cushions! 😅
🌴 Sew the Roman blinds (made from Tommy Bahama swaying Palms fabric) for the side window
🌴 Hand-paint IKEA Bjursta sideboard
🌴 Fix the baseboards/skirting boards (from when the dog chewed/scratched it up years ago) and repaint the doors
On a lighter note…
What is THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, you ask?
As a widely anticipated biannual event — every April and October — the ORC #oneroomchallenge #ORC is only THE BEST place for interiors-related inspiration, ideas, networking, and encouragement!
Anyone with a blog, Instagram, or TikTok account can join the challenge by linking their own room transformations up every week. Starting Wednesday of each week, we report back and flood the interweb and social media with the latest and greatest news, updates, trials, and tribulations of our room transformations.
So, thank you to Linda Weinstein, the creator/owner of the ORC who started all of this fabulousness, and Apartment TherapyORC’s official media partner, for the support and holding us accountable!
Here we are, week 3 of the One Room Challenge — knee deep in spackle and sanding dust. After the electrician moved and added some new wiring to replace the old lights (see this post from week 2), the ceiling literally looked like Swiss cheese.
Goggled and masked up, I did A LOT of mixing spackling compound, filling holes, sanding, mixing some more spackling compound, smoothing over uneven areas, sanding some more–then wash, rinse, and repeat for good measure–I’m finally ready to paint the ceiling. To be honest, the dust wasn’t too bad since I attached the vacuum cleaner to my DeWalt orbital hand sander (that little guy has earned his keep over the years!)
In the meantime, while I was waiting for the spackle to dry…
I decided to outline my wall paneling in blue painter’s tape first to get a feel for the layout. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cover all the walls, but after living with it for a couple of days, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for the gold!
Here’s me, laser focused (LOL) on getting the tape exactly right
Just as a reminder, this is the decadent Geishas wallpaper by Manuel Canovas that I’m going to wrap around the room, inside those wall panels. It comes in 8 different color ways; naturally, I chose the MOST VIBRANT of the gang — FUCHSIA.
The whole room is going to look something like this…
I was going to leave the grayish-pink (I mixed this color up myself years ago), but now I’m rethinking the whole thing and decided to pick up some peachy-gray and grayish-lavender paint swatches and paint testers, too. (Disregard that purple paint on the wall; it’s too bright and I’m in hot pursuit of something more muted).
Can you guess which of the above swatches I’m drooling over? (Also, did you notice the bottom pedestal section of my marble table on the bottom of this image?)
Yes, yes, my Angelo Mangiarotti Eccentrico marble dining table (sourced from @nue.modern ) is here. Why am I not ecstatic, you ask?
Get your popcorn out…
Believe me, I was doing cartwheels for a while. But things went south pretty quickly with this vendor. I won’t go into all the details, because I’m still traumatized and my eye is still twitching from the turmoil that ensued.
Very, very, very long and chaotic story short, sh*t hit the fan in a major way once it arrived: 1) the pedestal is 180 kg and isn’t stable enough to stand erect without being fastened to the floor (so when I invite people over for dinner, I’ll have to tell them to wear steel-toed boots — no bueno); 2) the table top has an actual crack in it, so if someone puts any weight on it, it could break off (another safety hazard); and 3) the delivery people just dropped it off expecting us to erect it. Can you guys believe it?! Sure, we have an extra engine hoist lying around to lift 180kg. C’mon!!! WTAF?!
Umpteen emails, calls, texts back and forth, I finally got my money back and now I’m working with a local marble specialist to help me figure out how to make a functioning table out of it without having to worry about it crushing people’s feet or edges breaking off.
Stay tuned until next week as the table saga unfolds…
On a lighter note…
What is THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE, you ask?
As a widely anticipated biannual event–every April and October — the ORC #oneroomchallenge #ORC is only THE BEST place for interiors-related inspiration, ideas, and encouragement!
Anyone with a blog, Instagram, or TikTok account can join the challenge by linking their own room transformations up during the next 8 weeks. Starting Wednesday of each week, we report back and flood the interweb and social media with the latest and greatest news, updates, trials, and tribulations of our room transformations.
So, thank you to Linda Weinstein, the creator/owner of the ORC who started all of this fabulousness, and Apartment TherapyORC’s official media partner, for the support and holding us accountable!
