One Room Challenge - Week 3: We Have Four White Smooth Walls
Last week I vowed to no longer be skim coating my walls when we spoke again and I am proud to announce I have kept my promise. I’m at that stage of a complete room overhaul where you’ve put tireless work in getting all the pieces lined up yet somehow I have nothing visually compelling to show for it.
This week’s progress included:
Walls are smoothed and primed
The transition from textured walls to smooth walls is not click-bait photo material, but it’s still the hero of this week’s One Room Challenge update because those walls are pretty much glass at this point and I will not shut up about it.
I give my husband a hard time for his lack of helpfulness especially at the skim coating stage (because I won’t let him near my smooth walls), but he did tag into the game to prime the walls rounding out the week and preparing us for Week 4 when I am going to attempt: wallpaper, paint and flooring. Reasonable, right?
custom Guest book is designed and ordered
I mentioned in my previous posts that there will be a number of nods to Wes Anderson throughout my guest bedroom. The final reveal will expose all my easter eggs, but in the meantime I have been sharing my progress on my custom guest cards for the bedside table that take inspiration from Wes Anderson in font, colors and style with a few even clearer ties like my dogs in full Moonrise Kingdom cosplay.
I was originally going to draw all my own icons for the backgrounds in Procreate by hand, but decided to peruse Creative Market and absolutely loved these hand drawn graphics. I can also continue to use these graphics in my personal branding beyond this project, making the cost of $20 for all the files completely reasonable and a huge time saver.
Once I had the cards designed and mocked up in Procreate, Alex and I sat down and made our top recommendations in each category that we like to make when friends visit.
Once the designs were complete (midnight last night), I ordered by Wood Block & Prints off of Artifact Uprising which comes with 12 high-quality, square prints. I use Artifact Uprising for almost all of my personal printing projects due to the quality. This entire project costs $20 + Shipping from Artifact Uprising, but they often run sales.
Pro-tip: for just sending a personal email referring a friend to Artifact Uprising you get a $10 instant credit - they don’t even have to buy anything first!
The reason I chose cards instead of a book was to make it easier to swap out cards or make updates. Instead of having to create a new book when god forbid the wifi password changes or recommendations need to be updated - I can just order prints and swap out the individual card. Additionally, I think this is a fun artistic element to add to the bedside table that’s also useful for guests!
If you run Airbnb’s, I could see creating templates and modifying the cards for your different locations. After One Room Challenge is over, I’d like to create a set of 12 Itinerary cards for the guest room that give full detailed suggestions for day-trips in and around Austin.
DIY Gossip Bench Project Kicked-off
My original vision of the closet space turned cloffice space included a desk with computer monitors, but as I really thought about how I wanted this space to function I decided to pivot. Of the folks that will come and stay with us, I can’t imagine holing up and actually working in a closet.
When I travel my coveted private time is spent gabbing away on the phone asking my husband what the dogs did that day or just carving out a few minutes in a locked bathroom to recharge my batteries while I read an article on my phone. I am an extroverted introvert, if you know what i’m talking about these few moments of recharge are life and death.
So the new vision is a private library phone booth. Think, “nook-like” with built-in bookshelves full of reading material, a few actual closet like features due to practicality and my favorite part - this refinished DIY antique gossip bench. I’m only halfway through the painting process but expect this project to be complete by the end of the weekend!
So what’s going on with the rest of the One Room Challenge Participants? Because I am late this week I was lucky enough to be able to peruse the blogs of other guest participants, what did I bookmark this week?
Christine Kohut Interiors Wallpaper Sneak Peak (can’t wait to see this velvety green bold print in action)
Don’t forget to keep up with my every move on Instagram, this week is going to be eventful.