The One Room Challenge Fall 2017 - WK5

Welcome back for week five of The One Room Challenge™.  Thank you again to Calling it Home for hosting this bi-annual challenge and to media sponsor House Beautiful.  For those just tuning in, take a moment to click through the links below, starting with WK1 to get an idea of where I started, the inspiration for the  room, my design process and progress thus far:  

WK1 | WK 2 | WK 3 | WK 4 | WK 5 | WK 6 | WK 7

Having an additional week before final reveal day on November 16th has been a life saver for my marriage –  the mister does a lot of the physical work and thus feels the time crunch acutely.  Every time we embark on another ORC, it is during this particular week, while I am hanging over his shoulder twitching with anxiety about whether we will finish the work in time, that he swears up and down that it will be the VERY. LAST. ONE. WE. EVER. DO.  Forever and ever, amen. To which I usually respond with contrite platitudes to the effect of ‘ok, ok, this is absolutely the last one’ all the while crossing my fingers behind my back and mentally planning the next makeover.  You wanna know why?  Because I love doing these ORCs.  

Truth is, I need a deadline to get stuff done and I prefer a little pressure – a little anxious twitching and gnashing of teeth is good for the soul.  Well, probably not, but it’s good for project completion and that’s what the ORC has always been from the beginning – supportive accountability to get an unfinished project finished. The camaraderie that happens behind the scenes via emails, texts, IG and comments from fellow designers, artists, friends and followers is super great.  I have made so many friends through this since embarking on my first ORC four years ago – FOUR years ago?!  Put plainly, you guys make it all worth while.  Super big thanks for sticking around for our shenanigans.

But because very little reno was required combined with the extra week, I’ve sort of chilled the eff out a bit this time around like The Dude. My plan is coming together as I envisioned, the Dervish is happy that she got her damn purple, and I got my custom shade, which is all I care about really.  The room is all about that shade – it’s like Lebowski’s rug, it really ties the room together – which I will promptly be stealing after reveal day.  I’m joking.  No seriously.  I’m joking. I. ABSOLUTELY. WILL. NOT. STEAL. THAT. SHADE.  Probably.

In week two, I talked about how my design process usually starts with a certain feeling triggered by a unique piece, like art or a trophy fabric.  This room is no different.  While the Carleton Varney Rhododendron fabric was certainly a jumping off point, I positively designed this room around the custom pleated shade. I knew from the very beginning that I would have one.  I have long ogled the custom silk lampshades that the English do so, so well – like Irving and Morrison, Robert Kime or Susan Deliss.  Custom lampshades are spendy - often costing much more than the lamp itself –and the English versions are no exception. But the investment is absolutely worth it as standard shades are often the wrong size and shape.  So when I stumbled across the work of Lisa from Cruel Mountain Designs on Instagram, who does custom shades with great fabrics, I knew I would order one from her at some point.  The Dervish's room was the perfect excuse, and I finally got my pleated shade.  Except it's not really 'mine' and now I am suffering massive shade envy and will need to promptly order some for my room.  Lisa was incredible to deal with and even managed to turn my order around quickly when the ikat fabric I ordered arrived in the wrong color.  I had her sew a pillow sham for me as well and I am over the moon with the results. Still waiting on the overstuffed down insert but had to immediately test drive it on the bed with the accompanying pillows.  I mean, I die. Loving it with the Raoul Textiles pillow from KLineDeco.

We’ve got the bed assembled with headboard in place.  Which is really swell because of course the standard twin size bedframe bolt holes did not fit up to the standard twin size headboard bolt holes. Not even close. Well, I suppose it was close, if by ‘close’ we’re talking horseshoes and hand grenades.

When the mister started mumbling something about strap metal and drill presses I walked away to shop Amazon for bed frames.  Thankfully, his McGuyver skills are faster than my thumbs because before I knew it, he had cobbled together a metal brace to accommodate the misalignment and managed to reinforce the whole works.  Again, the car hobby and an extra garage full of weird tools and machines came in handy.

The rug is in place along with the overhead light fixture – happy about the sculptural aspect of it along with the price tag. $26.  IKEA to the rescue.

I am beginning to pull together the rest of the elements, like art and accessories but I have still yet to decide upon a nightstand/dresser and a reading chair.  Nothing like last, last minute.  The desk chair is still in the process of upholstery.  I have cut the pieces and we have sewn the boxing and welt.  Now we are wrangling with the bottom seat cushion which has some crazy curves around the back legs that are giving us fits and starts but we'll get it worked out.  The Dervish is QC, ensuring that poppa squares the fabric.

I ordered an applique that arrived from Decorators Supply that I am in the process of painting before application.  It's been primed and has a first coat of Farrow & Ball Calluna. The detailing is spectacular and is a nod to Dorothy Draper, who used giant architectural appliques and motifs to great effect but will be executed more subtly in tonal Furlow Gatewood fashion.

The last two things to tackle from a project prospective are the roman shades and installing new closet doors.  We have to cut down standard wood bi-folds because the closet opening is a non-standard size.  Shocker. I thought we'd have both completed by now but things like Halloween and procrastination have gotten in the way. The good news is that I have the completed vision for the romans in my mind and that's as close to almost done, right? Horseshoes and hand grenades...  

Be sure to check in with the featured 20 designers as well as my fellow linking participants.  Loads of great transformations happening.  And tune in next week to see if our marriage survives sewing roman shades.  Like Donny, we will definitely be out of our element.