4.30.2014

One Room Challenge - Week Five - Painting, Lights, and Wallpaper

Welcome back to week 5 of The One Room Challenge™.   Thank you for following this crazy ride as I re-do the dine-in portion of my kitchen which involves finishing out a banquette, upholstery, paint, wallpaper and lighting.  As I type this, I am sort of in denial that I have one week left to pull off this room. In true panicky fashion, I took to cleaning my bathroom baseboards with a toothbrush this morning.  So what.  Tell me I’m not alone in addressing looming deadlines with soul crushing procrastination.  To catch up with my shenanigans from the beginning, click the following links below:

WEEK 1:  Plan & Inspiration
WEEK 2:  Progress Report – Floors
WEEK 3Electricity
WEEK 4:  Upholstery

If you are super smart and totally, like totally, cool, then you are already following life chez V on IG and you will have seen these dreams that are made of these.  And by dreams, I mean my recurrent prepster yet irreverent Chinoiserie filled dreams which involve things like this supremely gorgeous Scalamandre wallpaper which went up today thanks to the brilliant install by Liz and Bill of Natural Look Painting & Decorating.  Cincy & Dayton peeps, give these folks a shout if you need any wallpapering or painting done!




 
But before I introduce you to my hotty wallpaper, let’s revisit a few other obsessions of mine:  color and lighting - two things that can instantly transform any room.  So last week I was lamenting that we didn’t have paint on the walls due to ElectricityGate but now I am happy to report that the walls have been painted.  Sherwin-Williams graciously provided the wall paint and I could not be happier with the results.  








Not only is the customer service on the corporate side impeccable but the guys at my local store are rock stars and deserve a shout out. They are always so helpful whenever I am in there and even helped me with my floor stain/poly sitch when I wasn’t even for shopping for floor stuff! I have painted more than my fair share of stuff along the way and can say based on experience that quality paint makes all the difference in the world.  My family and I have been using Sherwin-Williams products for a long time.  My front door is painted with SW paints as well as my kitchen cabinets which I painted a few years ago and have stood up to our daily traffic beautifully.  I used the ProClassic Interior Acrylic Latex Enamel in white on the cabinets and plan on using more to repaint the trim this week.  For the kitchen walls, I selected Great Green SW 6430 in semi-gloss from the Emerald line which was color matched to my wallpaper.  The color is very similar to what was previously on the walls but more pigmented.  The Emerald line went on smoothly with excellent coverage.  But there was a brief moment when the mister and I howled because when the paint was first going up it looked identical to the previous color.  However, once it began to dry, the deeper pigmentation began to come through.  With tons of light, this kitchen can easily handle a deeper pigmented color.  Officially living for this more mature color.


What the what?!  This looks like the same color that is already on the walls.


Dried beautifully into a deeper, more mature green


The color is quite smashing with the wallpaper


As to lighting:  typically I’m a vintage gal all the way when it comes to lighting.  But there are certain occasions when I stumble on a new light that simply cannot be ignored - like my Ranarp sconces and my Jonathan Adler foo dogs from my previous ORC room.  And my Ballard Designs pendant that I just scored at the outlet for this room.  Or any of the multitude of great lamps at Home GoodsLamps Plus is another great source and graciously provided us with lighting for this challenge.  Now I have to say that I was blown away by the sheer magnitude of the selection and not only just lighting.  So many great choices that it was hard to choose but I knew that I wanted some sconces flanking my vintage pagoda mirror to add some ambient lighting to the banquette area.  I selected Visual Comfort’s Bill Blass library sconces in brass and again was blown away by Lamps Plus customer service, the timeliness of delivery (only a few days!), and the quality of the light.  Very, very impressed.










And now, allow me to properly introduce my new beau hunk, Parapluie.  The mister forgives me my wallpaper dalliance with the express understanding that ‘Luie replaces  someone in my elevator.  Luie plays nicey with the other kids in the sandbox, particularly the sconces and my pagoda mirror.  Sadly, it would seem that Parapluie in this green colorway is no longer available from Scalamandre as I bought up the last remaining lot which just so happened to be the exact amount I needed #amatchmadeinheaven #sorrynotsorry.  But you can find other Parapluie colorways via sku# WP88216 on the Scalamandre site.  




I am already envisioning many a boozy night with lots of laughter and friends sequestered comfortably on the banquette against Luie’s beautimous backdrop.  Scratch.  Oh yes, the banquette, that elusive design element.  We still have to finish all of our sewing for the banquette cushions and pillows, figure out art placement (got some great stuff coming from Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda!!!), and I have yet to begin sourcing accessories.  Also, I have one major design element planned for the room that literally pulls everything together like Lebowski’s rug that will likely not be ready in time.  Wah, wah, wahLooks like rather than Donnie, I will be the one out of my element for the big reveal but I still think it’s gonna be real good. This is what I've accomplished and lots more upholstery is what I got up my sleeve for this week...








Did I mention that I got a wild hair to tile my backsplash this weekend? The mister hates me for real and for true.

As far as dreams intersecting with reality, I can safely tell you that based on the wallpaper alone, I will be obsessed with this room for life or longer.  Or at least for two weeks until such time that I turn my sights to my outdoor patio room where major patio perching happens on the regular during the warmer months.

Love ya, mean it.  Now go check out my girls…


A special thank you to the following sponsors and supporters of Chez V and The One Room Challenge that are graciously providing items to help me bring my vision for this room to life:


All photos and styling by Emily Vanderputten unless otherwise noted

kisses,  mrs. V

4.23.2014

One Room Challenge - Week Four - Upholstery



Welcome back to week 4 of The One Room Challenge™.   Thank you for following along as I join 19 other insanely talented folks in redoing a room in six short weeks all while we document the process.  And boy is time flying.  Let me put it to you this way, I did not think I would be reliving a repeat of my down-to-the-wire bedroom as was the case with the last ORC.  But here we are at week 4 and I still do not have paint on my walls.  How is this even possible?   I want to cry myself to sleep on my big fat pilla.  To catch up on the drama from the beginning, click the following links below:

WEEK 1:  Plan & Inspiration
WEEK 2:  Progress Report – Floors
WEEK 3:  Progress Report - Electricity 

But now is not the time for melodrama so I will cut to the chase this week since last week’s missive was a lengthy one.  Full-on panic has officially set in.  That electricity debacle from last week is having an exponential effect on my timeline which has resulted in pushing the painting and wallpaper install out while we pace the floors like caged animals  patiently wait for silly details like ceiling patches to dry.  Grrrrr.

I am nothing if not predictable so running behind should come as no surprise.  However, this week has not been a total wash as we shifted gears a bit to focus on upholstery.  I finally nailed down most of my main fabric choices for the banquette throw pillows as well as a last minute add-on project involving animal print and pink fringe that my mister was super excited to tackle.  Side eye.
 

This is the part where, in spite of telling you that I would cut to the chase, I am going to take this opportunity to make it lengthy by sharing two loosely related stories in which I happen to stumble upon some more great deals.  But stick with me as they pertain to the animal print pink fringe extravaganza above.  So...once upon a time, namely last Thursday, I had yet to nail down a suitable host/ess chair for the as-yet found dining table and was beginning to fear that I might have to use my desk chair as a stand-in when I realized that I had a perfectly good candidate among my chair hoard.  





A few years ago I snagged an unfinished Ficks Reed rattan chair in a random warehouse close out sale.  And by random I mean a sketchy CL ad listing some designer fabric remnants for sale that my mister forwarded on to me.  Like a dope, with just an address, I headed out to some weird abandoned looking distribution/office park with no signs of life.  After discovering locked doors covered in paper at the given address, I was even more sure of my original conviction that CL is nothing more than urban legend.  I squealed out of the parking lot on two wheels when I saw two men quickly approaching my car from a side entrance.  Thankfully, a woman in a rather nice looking Lexus pulled alongside me to ask if this was the location of the Ficks Reed sale.  What the what?!  Turns out that random CL ad for fabric remnants was not only legit but part of a bigger sale by Ficks Reed that is held periodically to unload merchandise.  In fact, I am not even certain Ficks Reed is officially in business anymore but I do know that they have created incredible Palm Beach style furniture over the years that still carry a hefty resale price tag. In addition to some great fabric scores, I picked up an unfinished chair frame with gorgeous Chinoiserie detailing for $10 which has been sitting unfinished and largely ignored in my back tile room for the last three years.  I can’t make this stuff up.

Now, a few weeks ago, I happened to stop by the fabric store near my house – the very one that refused to sell me pillow inserts during the last one room challenge.  If you will recall, I mentioned the terrible customer service.  So I was not surprised  to find a big GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE sign (ahem, again) when I walked up.  What I was surprised to find was endless bolts of fabric and trim as far as the eye could see marked down 70%.  I quickly got over my rancor from the last visit and began throwin bows, snatching up as many bolts of fabric and trim that I could carry.  People, we are talking an average of $3 / yard, many of which will make their onscreen debut during the reveal.  One of my great deals was 15 yards of fabulous pink fringe trim that I knew I would use somewhere and that day arrived this past weekend when I got a wild hair up my bum to resurrect the Palm Beachy rattan chair from obscurity and use it as my host chair.

Now also, last week I made a trip out to one of my very FAVORITE fabric stores, The Fabric Shack in Waynesville, OH to pick up the rest of my fabric (and inserts!!!) for the room and while there, fell in love with yet another animal print.  Shocker.  I instantly fell for the blue colorway.  Had to have it and knew immediately that it was destined for the rattan chair.  As synchronicity would have it, my girl Elizabeth got the same fabric the same day for one of her projects.  #greatminds.  So the animal print fabric married the pink trim and it is a match made in preppy Palm Beach chic heaven.  I nervously cut the patterns and my uber-talented mister handled the sewing.  Yes, he does it all.







Now here is where YOU enter the story.  I need help deciding what to do with the finish on the chair given my cushion sitch.  Should I leave it nekkid, lacquer it up in some bright color, or simply stain it?  I have waffled 50 times.  Help a desperately tardy sister out, what say you?

How ‘bout we check out some actual progress?!  Let’s see what my lady friends are up to this week...


A special thank you to the following sponsors and supporters of Chez V and The One Room Challenge that are graciously providing items to help me bring my vision for this room to life:


All photos and styling by Emily Vanderputten unless otherwise noted

kisses,  mrs. V