One Room Challenge- Week 2 (Paint and Upholstery)

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Week 2. One Room Challenge.

I’ve never done the One Room Challenge before so I’m afraid my organization in regards to posting is crap. I’m making some GREAT progress, but I’m not sure the outside viewer would notice that. Ha! The room is a D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. To remind you… here’s the plan.

ORC Vision Board
Week 1/ Week 2 (you are here)

Despite the disaster, I have one BIG thing to share. The walls are now BLUE! Whenever I come up with a room plan, I start by poking around Pinterest. (See my dining room inspiration board here.) The rooms that jumped out at me had these amazing dark and rich walls. I’ve been DYING to go dark in a room. Our dining room doesn’t get a lot of natural light… it has windows on either end, but both lead to covered porches. Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy is kind of the gold standard for navy blues, but it’s also the darkest blue on the color swatch… I opted to come up a couple shades to BM Van Deusen Blue and I LOVE it.

navy wall by door

Shop my favorites!

I brought in painters for this one because the trim was getting a touch up and required lots and lots of prep and oil paint. None of that is my forte. (Tune in later in the week to see what tips and tricks I learned from the pros after they repainted our family room and now our dining room.) The blue is perfection. Exactly what I was hoping for in here. Cozy. Rich. Vibrant. All those great adjectives. I’ll share a little secret with you… the trim on the bottom half of the room is *actually* just the wall. It’s not true wainscoting. The painters asked if I wanted to paint over and make the whole wall blue, but I’m glad I kept that bottom portion light.

corner of room navy blue

Other updates.

My buffet has one more side to be painted. Here’s how the drawers are looking, and I am SO EXCITED. Until I started blogging, I never thought I’d say things like this with enthusiasm: Let me tell you about this paint! (Housekeeping. I was lucky enough to request and receive some of these products for free but opinions are ALL mine.) I’m using DecoArt’s Maxx Gloss. I’ve used their chalk paint before and love it, so when I decided to paint the sideboard, I looked up their color pallet and Maxx Gloss in Juicy Melon was the perfect coral. Did I mention it’s NO PREP?!

dresser drawers coral

Even when things say no sanding necessary, I still make an effort to clean the surface. In this case, I gave it a quick once over with a deglosser. The directions for the Maxx Gloss are dead on- follow them. I made sure to paint a horizontal surface which was easy for the drawers, but meant some flipping around for the base. But the paint self levels BEAUTIFULLY and after 3 coats, it’s shiny smooth almost like a lacquer I’m SUCH a fan! Amazon carries DecoArt- this is the one I used. (Affiliate) Search around for different colors, but this is the same paint.

dresser on edge for painting

I’ve also had a whole saga with curtains. The room doesn’t *need* curtains, but I like curtains in a dining room to help with noise when the table is full of conversation. I will also use ANY excuse to bring in some more of my favorite fabric. I’ll share a curtain post later since I’m hoping to come up with a tutorial for how I solved a problem I didn’t realize I had until 3/4 of the way through.

curtain fabric

Another problem I didn’t realize I had? Upholstery. I took apart the two side chairs and the foam DISINTEGRATED. Like turned to powder, people. Meaning I have to scurry around and pick up some new foam to finish of those beauties. More work, for sure, but ick… glad to be rid of THAT!

inside of chair

So that only leaves me with swapping out the chandelier, painting the table, hanging some art, DIYing a couple pieces of art, and… setting the perfect dining room table. Four weeks left! Head over to Calling It Home and peruse the Link Up to see all the other AMAZING rooms that people are taking on. So much inspiration.

one room challenge week 2

Psssst… Check out our newly published House Tour on HOUZZ! So exciting!!—> Click here.

ORC WEEK 2

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44 Comments

  1. Hi, love the colour in your livingroom…the finished one on Houzz…..I cant find what the colour and paint are,,,,,will you please tell me what it is?

    thanks very much

    1. Hi Dinah, Unfortunately, that was the color we inherited when we moved in! It’s a lovely color! Sadly it’s not a great tone for much of our furniture, so one day I plan to paint over it, but it works very well in a home this old!

  2. I agree with the above comments. I am digging that coral and blue combo. Holy crapoly, I have never seen foam fall apart quite like that. I’ll bet new foam makes a huge difference though! Not an expense, I am sure you wanted. Why is foam so expensive, btw???

    Looks great as always.

  3. I am also loving the blue and coral combo! So pretty! Also, your house tour over on houzz was amazing! I am loving all your flea market finds!

  4. LOL – did you notice that your new blue walls match the inside of your pet dish?

    A coincidence? I think NOT!

    Sounds like you’ll have NO problem getting this room done on time — quite an accomplishment for a ORC newbie. Can’t wait to see the finished product . . . .

    1. HAHA! SO coordinated over here. That’s part of having the rooms ‘flow’ ;). Ha! NOT! Fingers crossed! I heard so many stories about people working until 4 a.m. every night that I’ve tried to plan accordingly! Thanks!

  5. It’s looking good! The blue paint color in your space is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the coral as an accent color in the space. I can’t wait to see it finished!

    1. I did the SAME thing and found a post where someone had the same concerns I did with a darker room… they used the lighter and it looked great so I just copied. For me, I put up samples around the room and at night and on dark days, I couldn’t tell the HN was a blue as well as I wanted… that was the clincher for me. 🙂

  6. I love Van Deusen Blue and it looks so great with the white trim and “wainscoting”!! (I have the same wainscot 🙂 ) You’ve tackled a ton this week…..can’t wait to see next week’s edition!

  7. LOOOOVE that Juicy melon color…I’m already looking for something in my house to paint in that shade! 🙂 Can’t wait to see the finished product! This is my first time doing ORC too-so fun already!

    1. Thanks! It’s always a little bit of a gamble with a bright color like this and I could NOT be more thrilled with it! Not too orange, not to pink. I need another day each week to visit everyone’s awesome progress! Such a fun occasion! 🙂

  8. I adore the direction that your room is headed towards! You did SO much better than I did in my room this week. I would love for you to share this post at Thoughts of Home on Thursday. I think my readers would really enjoy it!

    Good luck and see you next week!

  9. Looks awesome! That paint looks so good and I love that color!!!!! I can’t wait to see more, this dining room is going to look fabulous.

    Lauren | Lovely Décor
    xx

  10. Good morning! Your room is looking great. I love the blue paint against the white trim. It’s going to be wonderful. That fabric is so pretty too. I’m wondering where I could the fabric in my house. 🙂

    We’d love for you to join us at Thoughts of Home on Thursday this week.