ORC Week 4: Textiles, textiles, textiles!

We're still talking makeovers for my two girls' rooms as a linking participant to the One Room Challenge, and I only have 2 weeks left.

My favorite part of a project is always the textiles.  Rugs, fabrics, trims--I love it all!

Let's start with rugs.  Why?  Because they weren't even supposed to be on the list, but sometimes things take a turn.

In Clio's room, things were just feeling too intense with the green walls and orange rug.  The palette got too broad with the pink on the chaise and all the yellow.  So I gave her options for some neutrals:

In Eleri's room, I was planning to reuse a jute rug and layer it with a sheepskin (currently in our master closet).  Not because I thought this would be the best way to go, but because I thought it would work, and it was using what I already had.  As things come together, though, it becomes clear that there's a problem:  all the color and pattern was on the bed side of the room, and the rug is a major element in what you see from the hallway.  So we had the opposite problem from down the hall in Clio's room: it was just too boring.  So I gave her some options of colorful rugs.

Neither of the girls chose my favorite, but the trick with working with kids (and sometimes clients!) is to make sure you can live with all the options.

For Clio, I wanted the last one, the sort of flamestich herringbone, but she chose the first, I think because it looked coziest.

For Eleri, I wanted the rug on the left because, duh, colorful moroccan rugs are my jam.  She was VERY definite about the chevron, though, so that's the plan.  Here's a sneak peek:

 (little by little on the dresser--the top is not done here!)

And the headboards.

I ran into a little trouble with my reupholstery.
For various reasons I decided to upholster the headboards directly over the existing fabrics.

(Okay, 2 reasons: 1) Lazy.  2) Still waiting to hear about a potential photo shoot with a big magazine, and I wanted to be able to put the room back the way it was, if need be.)

Guess what?  You could see the old pattern through the white parts in the new fabrics.  I was so upset I didn't even take a picture.

SOOOOO...I had to pull out all the staples from the new fabric, then pull out all the fabrics from the old fabric, THEN cover the very original fabric with muslin, THEN go over the muslin with the new fabric.  That's a lot of staples.

Pain. In. The. Butt.

But it's done.

Dressing the chairs.

Ages ago, my sister-in-law found a photo with half-slipcovers on the backs of windsor chairs, and we thought about dressing up her old set in this way.  We never did it, but I always loved the idea.

I also wanted to give the desk chairs soft cushions for little tushies.

I fell in love with this fabric for Clio.

Pindler Solea in teal

For Eleri, I thought I was going to use a pillowcase that I originally got for her bed (purple, second from top):

Well...I changed my mind, but haven't chosen a final yet.

Pillows, bedding, Etc!

All Clio needed from there was throw pillows--which I found with absolute ease at Target.  I also dug up some neutral printed pillowcases that didn't get used on a past project (also Target!).  Love the combo with her old quilt!

As for Eleri, well....I have been playing around with her bedding A. LOT.

More on that next week.  Plus art, lighting, and.....panic.

Did you see the 20 posts yesterday from the official ORC designers?  How about all the linking participants today?  so much to look at!

The Happy Hallway Gets Happier

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that I went through MANY different thoughts and ideas for the upstairs hallway.  In fact, I think that darn hallway has gotten more dedicated posts on the blog than any other single subject!  A year ago I finally settled on a plan--and I never really showed you the results.

This weekend, the stairwell got some attention, and the "happy hallway" got even happier.

Here is where I posted about the long process to get to the plan of 100 silly or sentimental family photos.  And here is where I blogged about possibilities for the overall treatment.

Way Before:

Before:

And now:

Striped grasscloth, red frames with white mats.

photos Melissa Oholendt

photo by me, obviously, because it's terrible.

And here's what's new:

I bought a vintage brass chandelier for a steal oh, about FOUR years ago.  I waited patiently until my husband decided he was ready to tackle electric projects.  We thought about using it in the laundry room or an upstairs bedroom, but there wasn't enough clearance.  I finally realized that the stairwell was the perfect spot for it--but then we had to figure out how to get UP there.

Looks like a terrible plan, right?  Obviously the installed chandelier is a bit of a spoiler: it worked!

Action shots:

Putting in the 24 (!!) light bulbs.  Dave thought I should "have some of the fun."  (I am still in yoga clothes from a class earlier, and my arms were not happy about the lightbulbs after a million high planks.)  Not looking forward to the first bulb that burns out.

Meanwhile, I was at Ikea recently and they had a "last chance" on the red Ribba frames in the 5x7 size, so I panicked and bought them all.  Naturally.  I taped up some 8x10 paper to mock up the arrangement.

For these, I used color photos, all from our recent trip to Louisville so there is a color palette and theme.

Hooray!  Happy, happy hallway.

Of course, all of this was supposed to make me want a stair runner less.  But it makes me want one more.

Now, about that flushmount.....

ORC Week 3: Furniture Repurposed

It's week three already!

In my two girls' rooms, we've figured out who's moving where, chosen paint colors and fabrics, and now there is some furniture to figure out.

Since the floor plans aren't changing, many items are staying put.

The main thing I needed to source was a little desk for Clio's room--I was thinking something like this.  The plan was to keep the existing desk in Eleri's room.  But, when I was talking to the girls about desks, they threw me a curveball.

I have the sweetest little desk in the entryway.

photos by Melissa Oholendt

It was my mom's, and I spent, oh, maybe a YEAR stripping it to bring it back to its natural state.  I love the scale and the little drawers and the two levels of surfaces.

Guess what?  So do the girls.  Both of them.  It was in their shared room for a while (which I actually forgot until going back to those old posts), and they each told me independently that they wanted this desk in their new room.

As luck would have it, there are two of them!  My mom, one of her sisters, and one of her cousins all had them growing up.  One seems to have gone missing, but one was at my brothers house in its original condition (i.e. ugly brown paint.)  He quickly agreed that we could "borrow it" and fix it up.

There are two of these chairs, too.  My husband has been dying to try milk paint, so we headed off to Carver Junk Company to check out the finish samples for Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint.  While I love the bare pine finish of the one desk, a) it's just not practical for a 9 year old who will use it regularly and b) there was no way I was stripping the other desk.

We decided to have the desks match each other, and I loved this warm ivory.




Eleri's chair will be green and Clio's will be yellow--I liked the idea of the same treatment on both sets, but with a little bit of individuality thrown in.

Placement for Clio's desk was easy--it will go back where it was, between the beds.  And she will get the little shelf that sits on top (see below, in process).

Turns out that this little desk is also the perfect size for the niche in Eleri's room where the dresser was.

Which.... means she needs a different dresser.  Dominoes, people.  That tallboy is simply too tall for the new dresser spot, which is what you see looking in to her room from the hallway.  Since we just got a new dresser in our master bedroom, our two old small black dressers were up for grabs.

I remembered that I had some bone flower knobs that I bought at Anthropologie 15 years ago, but they were in rough shape, so I set to work gluing them beck together as needed, and was inspired to paint the dresser in a lilac faux-inlay scenario, like Jenny did at Little Green Notebook.

 Here's a peek at the progress:

There's a downside to working quickly:  I painted the dresser in the room and knocked over a wet drawer-- with my butt!  Of course I had already hung the curtain panels, with new pom pom trim already sewn on, and there is no way that enamel paint is coming out.

Sigh.

Still, though: great progress, and feeling great about re-using so many things.  (If there's a lesson here, it is that my design hoarder tendencies are being majorly justified!)

Check out the 20 official ORC designers' progress this week, here.

And then check out the 100+ designers and bloggers who, like me, are linking up at Calling it Home!

Next week: all the textile projects.  My favorite.

ORC Week 2: color palettes and fabric selections

So, I have to admit it: I'm having cold feet.

After some lovely feedback last week about how beautiful the rooms are now (thank you! thank you!), I'm feeling a little bit crazy to make over finished rooms so publicly.  Usually when I share a room transformation, there are two elements to the reveal:  both the "good" of the finished space, but also the "WAY BETTER" compared to the before.  For my first ORC, the "after" likely won't be better than the before.  My hope is that it will be "equally good but different."

With that off my chest, let's talk about what we're working with, and color palettes.

Choosing a paint color for Clio

For Clio, in the large pink room, I am hoping to keep almost everything--the orange trellis rug, the chinoiserie curtains, the orange headboards, the campaign dresser.  Over spring break, we spotted this pink striped chaise at a vintage store and she fell in love.  I couldn't believe that they still had it all these months later, but they did!

While I would love to reupholster it, I can't really justify it when the darn thing's so cute already!  She originally said navy for the walls, and I was thinking I could totally work with navy, pink and orange.  But then she threw me for a loop: green.

I LOVE green.  But we had some problems.  Dark green felt too competitive with the headboards (especially the emerald shades she favored), but light green felt kind of gross.  Especially since I could not persuade her into a pear green (with more yellow in it), like the green in the curtains.  If it was going to be light, she wanted mint.

I tried.  But I just didn't love it.  Plus it would have meant repainting the ensuite bathroom, which was only recently painted an acid yellow.  Dominoes, people.

Do you know that regular color story in House Beautiful?  Thanks to that column, I did a sample board of Lehigh green, a color I probably never would have thought of.

Much better than the wimpy greens we were looking at.

I love how it looks with the yellows in the room, so much so that I decided to keep this painting in here.  And, surprisingly, I LOVE how it looks with the bathroom color.

Reupholstering the headboards

What I did NOT love was the green with all the strong orange--too much of the same color value in the room.  So I decided I could handle reupholstering the headboards....again.  I loved the yellow against the green so much that I pulled some yellow and white prints from the design center--small scale, so as not to compete with the large scale trellis of the rug.  And then I went to the fabric warehouse and found a good option for $6 a yard!

So that's (somewhat) a plan for Clio.  Still to source: a desk for between the beds, a floor lamp for the chaise, and accent pillows for the beds to tie it all together.

Choosing a paint color for Eleri

Eleri's room will be the bigger transformation and is probably the "real" focus of this challenge.  She has been clear from the beginning that she wants sky blue walls and white curtains with pom poms.  I wanted Palladium blue, which is more of a blue-green, but she took one look and said "no mom, that's blue green.  I want SKY blue."  And so she got it.

Benjamin Moore Fantasy Blue

Fabric selections for Eleri

So for her, the big question was supporting colors.  I already posted about this, but I will include it here again.  I picked up a pair of pastel suzani euro shams on sale at Pottery Barn and let that dictate the palette.  

I've had checkerboard on the brain and immediately went to buffalo check for the headboard.  The plan is to reuse a bunch of stuff: the blue hotel bedding, mid century desk, a natural fiber rug layered with a sheepskin rug, some green lamps I can spraypaint orange, a pair of Ikea linen curtains I have lying around, and the swing chair from her old room.

Still to figure out: a dresser situation, art, and the rest of the textiles.

Stay tuned!  I'll be back next week with more.  For now, check out all the linking participants who are playing along at Calling it Home.

ORC week 1: Before and the plans

Here we go!

As mentioned on Monday, I am linking up as a guest to the One Room Challenge this fall.  Yesterday was a delightful day in the blogosphere, checking out the plans of the official 20 ORC bloggers.  Today I get to tell you all about my plans.

I have mentioned in the past that my girls were sharing a room, but that we knew it was not for long.  In the spring, my younger daughter finally decided that she was ready for her own room, too.  We had a photo shoot at the end of summer and couldn't change thing sup, so they had to wait for fall.

Here's what we are working with:  The upstairs of our house has two bedrooms, one in front and one in back, with a bathroom and laundry room in between.  The girls have been sharing the large room at the back of the house, with the adjoining bathroom, and the smaller room is a guest room.

Girls' Room Current:

Guest Room Current

All beautiful photos by Melissa Oholendt

I LOVE these rooms and I'm kind of sad that these are the "before" shots!

But I love my children, too.  And the time has come for this change.

When we first started talking about who would move where, there were a number of conflicting wants to take into account:  Clio wanted a dark blue room (with white curtains and a grey rug), but she wanted to stay put in the big room and keep her twin bed.  Eleri wanted the curtains and chair from the big room, but she wanted a queen sized bed.  And so on.

In the end, it came down to keeping the decorating (paint, curtains, etc) but changing the furniture, or keeping the major furniture elements but changing up the decor.

Here are the possible furniture plans:

Eleri stays in the big room but gets a big bed:

While Clio moves to the small room with a daybed:

OR 

Clio stays in the big room with the pair of twin beds

While Eleri moves to the small room and keeps the big bed:

I also started to play around with how I would decorate both scenarios, re-using as much as possible from the existing rooms.

Clio in the small room:

Clio in the big room:

Eleri in the big room:

Almost the same as Eleri in the small room:

Keep in mind all of this work was JUST TO DECIDE WHO GOT WHICH ROOM.

So I sat down to present them all of this stuff, and guess what happened?

Clio looked at me and said "Oh. Eleri is moving to the guest room."  And she shrugged her shoulders for good measure.

I guess they held closed-door negotations, but I'm just happy to have a decision they both bought in to.  And I never even showed them any of this!

So come on back next Thursday and I'll tell you how the REAL design planning began.

In the meantime, you can check out all the linking participants (like 100 already!) at calling it home.