Well, here we are, Week 8 of the six-week One Room Challenge. We have made a lot of progress on the front half of our A-frame beach house. As a reminder, here is where we started…
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Thank you for your patience as I’ve certainly fallen off the blogging radar over the last little bit. Yes, that “last little bit” would be 10 weeks, but who’s counting? (Hi, Dad.) I’ve started drafting updates on our house several times, only to find myself wondering how to possibly tell the story of the last couple of months. What you want, I suspect, is a finished product. We are conditioned to look for enormous change, to see the train wreck that was the space before a remodel and compare it to the beautifully styled, perfectly lit photo of the new and improved space. This is not that story. This is the story of a real family who remodeled a real house in real time and who is not anywhere near the internet’s idea of “done”. There will be before and after photos, don’t worry. It just might be awhile.
I’ve mentioned all along that this process has been slower than I could ever have imagined. Remember that story I told you months ago about overhearing the couple on the street commenting on how fast a new house had gone up and wondering what could possibly be taking so long for the house to actually be finished? Those people have never remodeled. And they probably shouldn’t. They sure as hell shouldn’t hire the painters that worked on my house.
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You know you are a design dork when your daughter says her future college roommates are planning on a pink and light blue color palette for their dorm room and your immediate response is “As in the Pantone colors of the year 2016?” instead of “Sounds great, Honey. Let’s go shopping.” I’m just saying that may have happened to me last week and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t judge.
Everyone is getting on the dorm room decorating band wagon these days. Dorm room decorating – like other forms of trend decorating – is big business. Target has its back to school section, of course, as do teen standbys like Urban Outfitters and PB Teen, but even more traditionally full service furniture and décor sources are getting in the mix. This month’s Better Homes and Gardens has a small feature about dorm décor from the 1962 at the very back. For better or for worse, we’ve come a long way in what is available to decorate dorm rooms. Planning ahead and “matching” with dorm mates is a thing now. There are even dedicated dorm décor websites (check out Dormify and Room 422). It’s all I can do not to pull out one of those, “In my day, we…” Honestly. Anyone else just go to Bed Bath and Beyond, buy some twin XL sheets, and call it a day?
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I’ve been spending a lot of time on Instagram lately. I mean A LOT. Not mindlessly scrolling, mind you, or even posting. I've been researching for a class I’m currently taking by the incredible Dominique of All That Is She. Without giving away Dominique’s secrets (and if you are looking for a fantastic class on Instagram, sign up for this one as soon as she opens again), this class has really got me thinking about personal style, and as a result, decorating style. What is personal style? And who has it? In a world where we see so much visual input, much of it copied or repeated, Every. Single. Day., what makes us stop and stare at that one frame? What makes your house look like your home and not some cookie cutter trend of the moment spot that you might not recognize as different from your neighbors if you had one too many cocktails and opened the wrong front door? Not that you would ever have one too many cocktails or open the wrong front door. I’m just saying “if”.
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And so we come to the end of another One Room Challenge. Or do we?
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I had every intention of sharing our progress on picking paint colors last week. I even spent much longer than I’d like to admit drafting a post that I scrapped because it was totally not worth posting. I realized after letting go of the need to stay on an arbitrary posting schedule that I was using the writing process to try to break thru our color scheme for the house. Words are good for many things. Picking paint colors is not one of them.
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Five weeks down and one week to go in this shared kids’ room decorating project. The kids are excited to finally move into their new bedroom but Mom and Dad have quite the list left to accomplish.
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We are at the point in our remodel project where I can’t believe it will still take two months (fingers crossed) before we can move back into the house. At the same time, the outside of the house still hasn’t been painted, the tile is still incomplete, the floors unfinished, the cabinets still in process. So, yeah. How will it possibly be done in two months?
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