I can't believe there is only ONE week left in the One Room Challenge! For the past five weeks I have been decorating a loft area in our son Wesley's room. (To catch up on previous weeks, see
week 1,
week 2,
week 3 and
week 4.) This past week had some ups and downs. I'll start with the good news first: our guard railing arrived yesterday!
I'll give you the back story on the railing...before Wesley was born I shared this photo from
K Mathiesen Brown Design as part of a home tour on House of Turquoise:
It hadn't even crossed our minds to ever change what we had, but seeing that space made us want our loft to be open, with a more modern, sleek railing than what we currently had. (Thanks a lot, Internet!) The area up there is already so dark, the half-wall going up just made it all the worse.
So shortly before Wesley was born we tore down the wall. And there it sat until now! We simply ran out of time before he was born to put up something new and knew we wouldn't be using the space anytime soon. And now, thanks to the ORC, we're finally getting it done!
Here in Minnesota there are strict codes about railings, so we knew ours couldn't look like the inspiration photo–mainly it would have to be at least 36" high. We ended up finding another photo that would be more realistic to what we needed:
So we contacted a local company
Accent Ornamental Iron and had them make us a custom railing. It's still taking some getting used to...we both really liked how open it was without a railing...but as far as railings go, we love it. And it's way better than the wall!
Here's a view from up in the loft.
Our
Jenny Lind bookcase also arrived this week! Chris mentioned it was the easiest piece of furniture he's ever put together...he needed a break by now, so that was good! Of course he had a little bit of help putting it together....
Wesley sure loves his "steps"! Anyway I love the shelf and am happy we have the room for it now without the window.
By the way, I'm sorry about the terrible lighting in these loft photos above...they were taken in broad daylight with the window wide open (granted with my iphone...). Goes to show why we need a skylight. I still can't find anyone to install one anytime soon....but we definitely will be doing that, ORC or not!
When we were on the Land of Nod website purchasing the shelf, we came across this
An Adventure a Day Banner and thought it could be a fun, colorful addition to the space. Chris is all about the adventures, so he was particularly excited I think! ;)
Now on to the lows of the week...
We received our light fixture in the mail but were disappointed to see it did not have a switch on it. I know a lot of hardwired fixtures don't but the image looked like it did, and I called customer service and they agreed with me (but admittedly didn't know for sure.) The fixture we received in the mail didn't even look like the photo, there were no knobs on the plate. Not sure what was going on there.
Not a switch
We returned it and moved on to Plan B, the
Norwell Lighting Aidan Swing Arm Wall Sconce–which for sure has a switch. Thankfully
Wayfair (one of the ORC sponsors) had plenty in stock and fast shipping, so I quickly ordered one and it will be here at the end of the week!
Switch!
The other disappointment for the week was with our lounge furniture. We bought the ottoman to go along with it (it's the Cushy Lounge Sectional from
PB Teen), but there's just not enough space for it with the shelf in there. So that went back. But in good news, we love the furniture...it really is super comfy!
It looks kind of purple here, but it's definitely navy blue. Can't wait to put the throw pillows on it!
There is still much to do before the final reveal next Wednesday:
-Find knobs for closet door (thank you all for the helpful suggestions!)
-Install light fixture
-Touch up paint
-Find a lamp for the bookshelf
-Hang up artwork
-Arrange furniture
-Fill bookshelf
-Accessorize
-Continue quest to find someone to install a skylight
And with that, time to check in with the other ORC participants! One week left you guys!!!
Love turquoise? Visit my shopping blog Everything Turquoise...updated several times throughout the day! Check out Decor by Color for even more color-themed shopping!
