The One Room Challenge

Progress report

Week 3

If you are new here: Hi and welcome to Nostalgiecat !

You can read more about me and Nostalgiecat here, and you can catch up with my One Room Challenge journey so far by clicking on the thumbnails in my sidebar ->

If you have no idea what the One Room Challenge is all about, please visit Calling it home for the low-down and links to all the fabulously talented interior bloggers taking part!

I decided to join the One Room Challenge™ as a linking participant, as I needed a kick up the backside to redecorate my 5 year old daughter, Mia's room.

Before: So Mia's room was painted Pink and purple, the usual choice for a little girls bedroom, and I guess it was OK....not bad, but only just OK! 

But This last year Little Mia has grown up so much, and she's started to find confidence in who she is and what she likes, and at the tender age of 5, she's already worked out that being different is not so bad- it's what sets her apart!

 So when I decided to treat her to a room makeover for the One Room Challenge, she jumped at the thought of getting involved with designing a room that was more of an expression of her personality than the standard pink and purple girls bedroom...

Then there was some practical issues: Her room is very small, and besides her bed, there is not much floorspace. And although she can use our LOFTSPACE for playing and getting creative, she really wanted a desk in her new room to sit and do her homework/ some drawing at. So that was one of the challenges we were faced with when designing her new look room....Then there was the issue of storage: She needed somewhere more accessible to keep her books and toys, as before they just got shoved in the drawers underneath her bed, which could be utilized in a much better way!

First we poured over Pinterest to find inspiration for a look she liked, Then we sat down together and chose some of the elements that she wanted to incorporate in her new room and came up with a moodboard and a plan for her new room design.

Mia has been very involved in choosing the look she wants in her "new room" (with guidance from mum , of course) And above you can see the base of the colour palette we decided on.

 But the practical elements and the execution was best left to me.

So, as Mia is still off school for her Easter holiday, She's been staying with her Dad at her nanny's in London over the last weekend, giving me the chance to decorate her room in peace:

Having cleared out everything and cleaned down the walls with sugar soap the night before, I started by painting the walls: 

Where I was changing the colour from purple to pale grey, I first bleached out the previous wall colour with a coat of white primer paint. I find the best way to paint a wall is by first cutting in the edges (where a paint roller cant reach) with a brush .

I always start in a corner where I know there is going to be a different paint colour on the adjoining wall, this way the corner will be dry by the time I come to cut in with the other wall colour.

TIP:

If you are painting a room in more than one colour, always start with the palest colour, so that when you're cutting in the corners, the darker wall colour will go on top: If you use a good quality decorators tape (like frogtape) or just take extra care when cutting in the corners, you should get a neat finish this way!

By priming the purple wall first, I only had to do two coats of the grey paint on those walls, saving paint (and money) in the process! I always keep a tin of primer for this exact reason!

Mia really liked the blackboard section she already had on one of the walls, so I extended it to fill the entire wall. I love blackboard paint, as not only is it fun , but it also has a great coverage and a lovely matte finish, that will hide any imperfections in a wall surface! I bought one small tin of blackboard paint (the cheapest I could find) and it covered the entire wall + I had enough left for doing the feature wall (more on that further down).

 

On the opposite wall from the blackboard, I was painting the pink wall pink!!???

I know this sounds like a waste of time, but the old candy pink hue was soon replaced by a softer and more peachy tone of pink(Crown honey fever), that sits beautifully next to the pale grey (crown seldom seen) .

As I was going pink on pink here, I didn't bother priming this wall, but went straight on with the new paint colour.....and I was pleasantly surprised that all it needed was one coat (saving more paint, thus more money....win win)

Now you may think: I can see how she's saving paint, but she's already paid for it, so how is she saving money??

Well, the truth is : When we were picking the paint colours for Mia's room, in the back of my mind I was trying to find a paint combination that Mia loved, but would also work for the spare room, which will be my next decorating project. I figured , as Mia's room is so small that it wouldn't take that much paint, leaving enough left over to redecorate another room. And I love this pale grey and peachy pink combo! 

But I don't really want the two rooms to end up looking the same....so that's where the graphic element, inspired by the wall paper from Ferm Living comes in...

I was so pleased when Mia pointed out that she thought this pattern was fun when we were doing our research, but although not ridiculously expensive, the wallpaper was unfortunately out of our budget!

So in true Nostalgiecat fashion: I DIY'd it..See how I did it, using a potato, for less than £8 here.

Anyway, with the walls all painted, the patterned feature wall finished and the wood trim refreshed with a coat of paint....I called it a night for day 1!! (Yep: All this was done in one day: I know right: I'm crazy.....but once I get started I'm like a run-away train! LOL)

So the next morning, safe in the knowledge that all the paint was fully dried, I got started on the floors! In the picture above you can see that I have just finished sanding down the yellowing waxed wooden floorboards and given them a clean, ready for painting. 

I know some of you will probably think it's sacrilege to paint old wooden floorboards, but they were not really that nice, and painting them white will really lighten up the feeling of the room, as it did in the master bedroom when I did the same there. See my tutorial on how to prep and paint previously waxed wooden floorboards if you'd like to know how to do it!

And in between waiting for paint to dry, I got some other little bits sorted as well: Like making a wall hanging desk for Mia, and choosing some quick and affordable artwork for her wall (She'd actually already kind of chosen what she wanted, I just had to narrow it down a little) . And yesterday, the floors all done, I headed out to pick up some bits and pieces for the finishing touches, like curtains and other accessories...

There will be some cute little DIY's coming up, as I am having to get quite creative due to lack of money. But as they say: Necessity is the mother of all invention! And I love getting creative!!

Don't forget to pop back again on Saturday if you want to see how I created that feature wall!

Have a great day!