ORC Week 4: Finding My Interior Style

It’s WEEK FOUR of the One Room Challenge and I’m feeling really good about our dining room!! This process has really challenged me to realize what my interior style is (and what it isn’t). Our dining room has changed SO much over the past couple years of living here… and yes- that’s partly because I have decorating A.D.D., but mostly it’s because it has never felt quite right.

(Catch up with my previous posts here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3)

I put together this grouping of four photos (there are more but I didn’t want to overwhelm you!!) of how our dining room has evolved. The first photo is from the listing of our house, and I love looking back at that to see how far we’ve come! When we first moved in, I decided I wanted the dining room to be a bold, dark blue after seeing this GORGEOUS room by Coco Kelley. The blue we chose is called Smoky Blue by Sherwin Williams and it truly is a beautiful shade. It looked great because I had hints of blue scattered in all of our other rooms, which tied it all together. Slowly though, I’ve started discovering what my preferred style is. I love neutrals- give me ALL the whites, grays, blacks, and creams! I like to add interest in with different textures and tones. Over time, the blue accents disappeared from the other rooms and the dining room began feeling very random to me. The light fixture we chose to replace the original one with also looked very underwhelming. I tried very hard to make both the blue walls and the light fixture work, but it never seemed to feel like “me”.

That’s why I decided to make this room my One Room Challenge project - and the progress so far has already made me so much happier! I love glancing over now when we’re sitting in the living room- everything just feels so right.

So let’s get into this past week’s progress…

Progress was a little bit slower this past week because my son came down with the flu, and life kind of has to come to a halt when the little guy needs extra TLC (he’s doing much better now btw)! I was able to make a trip out to IKEA and pick up a wall mounted cabinet + some bed slats for my DIY bar cabinet idea. I assembled the cabinet (minus the door) and my dad cut the slats to the correct length for me. I haven’t had a chance to hang it up or put the slats on- I’m hoping to get that done this weekend. The slats were actually made with a curve in them, which I didn’t realize until after I bought them. I’ll have to try out some techniques I found online for straightening out bowed plywood- wish me luck!!

The next big update this past week is our new table from Apt2B was delivered on Monday!! I love the oval shape, and the white top looks even better with my design than I thought it would!

One thing I’m getting a little worried because I bought some Hmong fabric from an Etsy shop back in March and it still hasn’t been delivered yet! It’s coming from Thailand and there hasn’t been an update to the tracking info since March 30th… I don’t have a great feeling about it :-( I’ve been trying to think of an alternative - I was planning to frame pieces of it for the wall above the stools. So stay tuned for updates on that!

For next week I’m hoping to have the bar cabinet finished and installed, a frame on the canvas, and all my DIY switch plates complete! I can’t believe there is only ONE more progress post before the reveal (5/9), this challenge FLEW BY! Be sure to follow me on Instagram for some behind the scenes updates!

WHAT DO I HAVE LEFT TO DO?

-Finish creating bar cabinet + hang it up
-Make DIY frame for large art
-Art for wall above stools
-Waiting on two chairs to come
-Get longer screws for chandelier
-DIY switch plates
-Finalize styling / random finishing touches

Make sure you check out all the other fabulous designs over on the One Room Challenge blog!! I’ll be posting a few that have caught my eye on my blog next week!!

And of course, thank you to my amazing sponsors!! It’s been so fun getting to work with these companies!