WEEK 5
Time to make some art for these bare walls! 🎭
I know there's limited space in the bathroom so I have to choose wisely but I got a really good deal with these budget friendly frames for IKEA and Amazon. They were pretty economical but with the gold finish will look very high and deluxe for sure. ✨
I bought these sailor Moon magazines from Tokyo and Paris while traveling. ✈It's always important to showcase sentimental pieces, heirlooms or tchotchkes from travels and when I look at these I get excited and start to reminisce on these amazing adventures I've had throughout the years. So I cut one up and I think it looks pretty good. 😍
I also got some really cool art prints from society6. I source with them constantly for edesign projects and to furnish my home❤. It's such an amazing platform for fellow creatives to showcase their art and also get paid for it too!! So in doing this ORC I wanted to also help some fellow small businesses and not just source from these big chain companies. So the space will have a mix of local items, DIY handmade stuff, and a few economical purchases from the big box stores. 🙌
I found some gummy bear art prints which is the perfect level of sweetness. And a mugshot of Barbie which is hilarious 🤣 and I always love adding a little bit of humor and vibrancy into any space! 🌈
Lastly I have a remixed French art print with some graphic pink writing on top! I'm leaning towards this one as it has more of the initial vibe I was going for... But I am not sure
I'll be taking a vote in my stories to see which art you think is best! So be sure to place your vote over on my Instagram!🎉
This is definitely an ongoing project. More to do, but now since I'm mid-way it's rewarding to see the progress I have done! If you want to take a look at the TRUE horrific Before's 😱 then check out the Blog covering Week 1 - Week 4.
Stay tuned for the exciting WALLPAPER extravaganza. I got some BEAUTIFUL tropical (pink, black and green) peel and stick. Advertised as easy, but with my DIY skills... Oh man, this should be interesting, haha! 👀
I'm so inspired by my interior design peers who are also struggling, werkin', putting their blood sweat and tears into their designs! You guys all ROCK! So let's keep pushing and supporting eachother - we got this!💪
WEEK 6
This was a definitely challenging week. 😦
Since we are renting in an apartment I wanted to choose things that we could take with us as well as easily remove. 😝
I found some easy peel and stick wallpaper but decided to just pin it with tacks. It wasn't too bad lining it up even though the photo has a lot of detail.🎨
The hard part was cutting out little holes for the towel rack and light switch and toilet paper roll. It's definitely a first since I'm not a huge DIYER and I like doing more of the creative part versus the Hands-On part. 😅
But that's why I wanted to challenge myself to do this and think of a creative way to show even if you are renting or in an apartment you can do something really cool without structurally damaging anything or making it hard later to remove. 🔨
Since I didn't use the wallpaper glue or stick it on taking out the pins will be easy with only tiny tiny tiny holes to spackle. This was a great idea to do colorful wallpaper because it really opens the space! 🌈
This bathroom felt so tiny before and it was all one color boring beige. But now there is depth and dimension color and vibrancy all just from this one large photo now wrapping the walls! 🤩
WEEK 7
When running two businesses with 10 pending clients, work, travel friends and family making time for the ORC has been a challenge! 😆
But I also signed up to do this so I can push myself to make it happen. 🐱🐉
It's been a very DIY struggle some days LOL!😂 But I'm so glad the end is near and the space is really taking shape. I wanted to focus on getting the ceiling done.
Everyone does green living walls and I thought it would be more fun to draw your eye all the way to the top and have a green living ceiling! 👽
Of course I don't have much of a green thumb so I had to go with faux plastic tiles. I found a pack of nine (that are pretty large size individually) off Amazon. 💵
I didn't want it to look too cheap so I went with one that had more realistic details with a mix of different kinds of leaves and shrubs so I'm really happy with the quality I received. It definitely was a struggle 😅to push pin these I think I went through about a thousand but doing anything upside down I felt like I was Spider-Man trying to get the right angle and things falling on top of my face! 🦸♀️
I definitely did a sweaty workout 🤸♀️and it felt like a sauna in this bathroom! But the look is beyond, I'm very excited about how this plain base ceiling really transformed with a little TLC... Okay a lot of TLC, raw and numb thumbs from all the push pins, a lot of blood sweat and tears but hey it's looking pretty fabulous. ✨
Next week I'll be applying the final touches to the room to do the grand reveal so stay tuned!--📞
WEEK 8
Like I said in week one, I've never participated in a one-room challenge. I've seen my interior design peers do it in the past and applauded, supported and complimented their amazing transformations.🙌
This year it was a goal to get my own home tour photo shoot done. Since January I've been in a "nesting" mode preparing for the big photo shoot that took three photographers, three outfit changes, and 3 days of shooting. I went run by room and leveled up each space. 👽
To save money I painted some of my furniture and bright colors like royal blue, purple, and chartreuse. In another blog I can go into the detail of why this facelift was a personal transformation as well. 🔨
But it was time to spread some vibrant color and happiness throughout my home after a pretty emotional experience I was dealing with. I took my creativity and pushed it to even my next level which I didn't even know was possible! I had already done a one-room challenge that was more of a whole house challenge. My kitchen was transformed. 👌
I redid the cabinets, sanded them down added new hardware, covered up the ugly orange '80s would with a sleek griege. So many designers don't do much with the ceiling and I really am big on drawing your eye up so I did a living wall that spills into the ceiling and looks pretty rad! I went for a long rainbow runner to fit the galley kitchen. And iridescent pots and pans for that colorful Foster decor edginess. I painted the pantry and IKEA lack bookcases chartreuse lime green which helps that forgettable spot really shine. 🌈
The Amazon smart light bulbs are now everywhere throughout my whole house which is awesome and another goal of mine to make this home "smarter". Helping us to save power with LEDs that color change to an epic disco mode. I also bought a second hand color blocked circular Ikea rug that is the new stage for our electric drum set we got last Christmas. 🤩
Also really wanted to incorporate more greenery so there's more tropical plants sprinkled throughout the kitchen living room office area and entryway. My open office now has three disco balls, anime figurines to keep me company and some colorful bits of bling and chic to top it off. The perfect space for getting inspired while working. We had this weird alko we weren't sure what to do but it became our game area where we house now three different arcades small medium and large! ✨
We are big gamers and love board games so it was important to have an area that feels personal to us and is a social spot for entertaining. Lastly the living room got a lot of TLC because I sanded down the book towers and media center and painted them all lilac purple. Lots of blue tape and paint but totally worth it and saved a ton of money by giving a mini facelift. Now I have proper storage underneath and it's not just a nest of cables they're actually organized with zip ties and Ziploc bags. 🎭
I did spring cleaning to the extreme and this was during the winter!! So pretty much 3/4 of the house has been leveled up, painted, sanded, rearranged, with my blood sweat and tears. And I did not think about the one room challenge. Oops. So all I had left was the bathroom and bedroom. I have been booked out since Thanksgiving with a lot of pending projects and new clients. 💻
So I knew my bedroom would be more time consuming so I went with the bathroom thinking this is small how hard could it be? Uhh... Yeah somehow this tiny little space has been harder than all these other rooms combined LOL at least that's how it feels. I don't have much time to dedicate to it other than weekends (like most participating) so I tried to do as much as I could in the planning phase creating a mood board to lock down the vibe, creating a 2d render to get an idea of the space, and lock down all the items that I would need off Amazon and Ikea and anything secondhand I could find off Facebook marketplace. 💵
It's on the first two weeks I thought I had everything I needed but things don't always go your way and some things just don't fit the space the way you thought. So my advice for those who are thinking about participating is to let go of perfection and always have a plan B. I am a maximalist and a perfectionist and that is a very bad combination so with the limited time I have since I have two other businesses I had to forgo that and embrace plan B and well it's not perfect but it'll work (because I just don't have the time). ⌚
I think making do with what you have can also be a creative solution that works out sometimes even better than what you had planned. There's definitely a lot of trial and error but I think in the end the vibe is still there that I set out to create. A couple of hiccups during the middle but all in all I'm pretty happy with how things turned out and how some of the things I didn't plan turned out as well! I now have a pretty rock and roll edgy bathroom that is colorful, vibrant, a fun place that now goes with the rest of the home (and you're gonna wanna see what else I've been doing in--the full home tour). 🏡
I love the lava lamp, alien neon sign, and disco ball edition!! I even have a light that shines stars on the ceiling to give a party vibe. The I would poop here again five stars is the perfect touch of humor! I love adding a little whimsy to every space and this is the cherry on top. I am excited to finally be done and look forward to the fall orc one room challenge because it's time to redo my bedroom!😎