I cannot believe that we are staring at the finish line with the One Room Challenge. What a smooth, and easy process this has been! It makes me want to refresh all of my bland and boring spaces in our home. (Although, I'm sure my husband would give me full blown death looks if he saw, or read, that statement.) Last week, was the completion of our 'midway point'. Now, that we have entered our fourth week of this incredible transformation, all that is left are the final, finishing touches.
The first thing we completed at the beginning of week four was installing our new chandelier. As soon as that bad boy went in I knew that this vision I had was going to work. At first, I will admit, I was concerned about choosing the right size light fixture. We have fairly low ceilings (9 foot) so it is imperative to choose lighting that isn't too large. Typically, I would have stuck with flush mounts for these smaller, confined spaces, but I really wanted to make this hallway into a show (and scroll) stopper. I had an idea in my head of what kind of fixture I wanted, I didn't want to spend a fortune on it though. So when I found this $83 chandelier, you bet your bottom dollar I was ecstatic. Once we received it from the oh so incredible Amazon, my husband instantly installed it, without me even having to ask. That alone was pretty great, but once up I then realized this hallway was going in all the right directions.
After our board and batten was installed, I took this week to paint prior to us installing our wallpaper. To save money, I requested to paint myself, because ya know, painting really isn't too difficult, especially when you do not have to worry about "staying in the lines". I painted the board and batten the same color as our trim and baseboards; this way it would all look as if it were one consistent color and let's be real, we have so much leftover paint from when our home was finished being built - why waste the money? Our paint color is West highland White by Sherwin Williams in satin finish. I made it extremely easy on our builders, and myself actually, when I chose our paint colors. We stuck with all Sherwin Williams colors. Our walls throughout our home are Accessible Beige, our baseboards, trim and crown molding are West highland White in satin finish. (I get these questions a lot) I also chose to do our exterior paint in West Highland White as well. I avoided so much confusion when needing to touch up those nicks and scuffs from those oh so gentle toddlers in our home. ( Painting tip: if you find a color you love, stick with it throughout. You'll have a much more difficult time choosing multiple colors you love equally as much. When the time comes when you want to change the color of a room, you at least will never regret your initial color choice and more importantly, you can take the appropriate amount of time to decide on that secondary color.)
Anyway, as I got a little sidetracked with paint talk, I happen to be the single sloppiest painter in the all of the North Atlanta region. Mark. My. Words. So when my husband suggested I paint prior to installing wallpaper, I was all like " you, my friend, are a freaking genius". Because, I clearly am incapable of thinking two steps ahead in projects such as this. After I finally dug up the paint, which was buried deep in the back of our shelving system in the garage, I got to work and started on my first coat.
(I have to throw out a quick reminder here that we only have a few hours at a time to work on these projects. My daughter's bedroom is on the left of this space and we are really only able to get tasks done while she naps. )
So, as I am painting, as quietly and quickly as I possibly can, I am realizing that I am going to need multiple coats. So annoying. One coat is doable. Two is tolerable. Three is just annoying. But at this point, I am committed and I have to finish the job. Even though I am irritated at how long this mundane task is actually going to take, I quickly start seeing the results and I am more than pleased. My vision was coming together so beautifully.
You can start to see how the two toned walls really beginning to have an impact on this tiny space.
Once I finished all three coats, honestly I could've gone with four coats but my ADD kicked in about halfway through the second, I couldn't have been more ready to clean this brush and pan and show my husband. As I was picking up all of my painting supplies, he walks in. He looks around, looks at me , and says "WOW. This looks incredible". He is my toughest critic, and never sugar coats anything for me. I knew right then and there that this project was only going to get better from here.
Amazon Link to purchase light fixture:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0759SGLXZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
