One Room Challenge Week 4: Guest Bedroom Progress

Wow. Week 4 feels much different than the previous two weeks because it’s just now dawning on me that THERE’S NOT MUCH TIME LEFT. I need to make like the great Orlando Soria and GET IT TOGETHER <– PS if you haven’t purchased this book yet, get on that.

If you’ve hopped over to this post from the ORC website – welcome! I’m Emily, this is my blog, and I’m working on undecorating the 1929 tudor-ish home I share with my husband, Andy, and our corgi, Penelope. This is where I should describe my style so I guess I’d say it’s something along the lines of traditional-modern which doesn’t sound like a real thing. I am glad you’re here.

I don’t have any fun diagrams for you this week, I just have a lot of lists and thoughts and hopefully moments of clarity while I type this at you.

Here’s what’s been done so far:

• Week 1 – Planning!
• Week 2 – Thinking about curtains!
• Week 3 – Making my own art!
• Week 4
  • Layout – This week Andy and his brother, Chris, moved all the furniture around to match my dream layout. The room is so much more inviting now and just feels perfect.
  • Rug Pad – We added an extra cushy new rug pad under the rug so stepping out of bed will feel extra luxurious for guests. The 9×12′ pad was cheaper than the 8×10′ so we got the bigger one and trimmed it. We always save the trimmings to patch together new rug pads for smaller rugs.
  • Nightstand + Lamp – Andy built one nightstand and one lamp, pictured at the top of this post. I wasn’t sure if the wooden pull that came with the nightstands would look good in person and it definitely doesn’t so I ordered something fancier to dress them up.
  • Blanket Ladder – This has been ordered, it arrived, it has been built, and is hanging out in the room ready for duty.
  • Curtains – I took all of the curtains out of their bags and draped them on all the things in the room. I looked at them in the daylight and I looked at them in the dusk light and I took pictures to see how they’d photograph. I think I’ve made my decision. I promise I won’t ask you to pick for me again.

Rug pad trimming professionals in action.

Here’s the bed frame being very precisely put into place. Seeing the new layout made me SO HAPPY. So did seeing the light from the window shine through the headboard.

Here’s a list of things that still need to happen:

• Curtain rods – Ok. I am going to save you from the ramble I have about curtain rods (I hope you don’t run into me in person because I will corner you and talk at you about this for a full hour) and just tell you I have a lot of curtain rods in my house right now and I love none of them. I have forgotten how to return things and I need an assistant.
• Sewing – No matter which curtains I chose (I am so mysterious) they need to be hemmed or altered to the correct length so I’m going to bring out (find) my sewing machine and get to it. I also contemplated making my own blush pink lumbar pillow but now that I understand how time works, I have ordered this beautiful rose lumbar pillow from Jenny Komeda’s Juniper Studio Home.
• Painting – I started the first piece of art I am making for the room but have not finished it. I did buy more paint and an additional paint brush so things are headed in the right direction.
• Floating Frames – When my paintings are done, they’ll need lovely frames to make them look extra lovely. Hollister Hovey recommended floating canvas frames from pictureframes.com to me (we talked via Insta comments and I feel like I met a famous person, like the time I met Alexis Bledel and talked to her like I didn’t know who she was and like I’m not a huge Gilmore Girls fan.) It is still my goal to make my own frames with my dad though to save cash and because I know what time is now and there is none of it. I sent him some SketchUp plans for the frames and my plan is to build those with him this weekend.
• Bedding – I’d like to have a nice white linen duvet cover for the guest bed because I love the way linen wrinkles and adds texture. Do you have a linen duvet cover you recommend? Is the West Elm Belgian Flax Linen one great in person? I dreeaammm of the Blair from Pom Pom at Home.
• Dresser – I am having some anxiety about the dresser because the room is missing a vintage piece and I’d love for that to be the dresser. I picked out an IKEA dresser that will work well in the room if I can’t find the right vintage piece, but a room never feels finished without the age and wear of something old.
• Additional Art – My plan is to hang some stacked art near the corners of the room. I haven’t picked it yet though and need to get on that.
• Mirror – I’m kind of waiting to see what dresser I go with before I order a mirror, I picked this one, which kind of looks vintage itself, so it may be a good choice no matter what.
• Accessories – Adding accessories really finishes a room, and I can already tell this will be done in a mad rush as I style the room for the reveal.

Does this list soothe you or give you anxiety? Are you reading this and saying “EMILY. E M I L Y. What have you DONE to yourself?”  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My fellow ORCers, this may be my first One Room Challenge but I have some advice for you. Week 4 is a rough one as it sinks in that there are only 2 weeks (1.5 really if you plan to shoot your reveal next weekend like me) and you may feel like a total mess. I know you’ve got some good things together, so arrange a little vignette that makes you feel good, style it up, make it cute, use stuff that won’t even be in your finished room and take a nice photo. It will make you feel like you’ve got this. You can do it, and it’s going to be cute.

Remember to follow along and see what the Featured Designers and Guest Participants are up to!

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