One Room Challenge (Week One)

As a guest participant of the ORC Fall edition, I am doing an extreme renter-friendly makeover in my dining room

Welcome to my first blog post! -- I am so excited to be participating in the ORC challenge for the next six weeks. Hosted by One Room Challenge and Better Homes and Gardens over on Instagram, this entire makeover is done from my renter's perspective. All my renter-friendly tips come from my renter experience. Please do your research and check with your landlord prior to making any changes to your rental space. Thank you for being here, and let's jump in! :)

“Whether you think it goes together or it doesn't, it does.”

Description

The One Room Challenge is a forum in which designer and guest participants like myself engage, inspire and celebrate one another. It is not a competition. The challenge takes place twice in a year; in the Spring and Fall.

I entered the #OneRoomChallenge because I have been wanting to change my apartment for a while. Quarantine gave me the boost to start, and now I don't want to stop, lol. -- Also, I told my mom I wanted to host the holidays and that inspired me to continue going.

I started with a "blank" canvas -- no wait -- a beige canvas. As a renter, I was cursed with the horrible "renter beige." Thankfully, my apartment allows me to paint my walls, so this was win for me!

Since, this option was available to me, I decided to finally change the color of the walls. I had been contemplating this since I moved here, but hadn't done it because of laziness, lol.

First, I picked samples and ended up choosing the color turmeric by "Behr." Originally, I intended to only paint the bottom third, or 43 inches, of the wall with this color and keep the beige on the top. However, I quickly changed my mind to white. I wanted to open up the space, so I painted the top half with frost white by "Behr." This is when I started to truly see the difference in the space. It opened up immediately. It felt so much lighter.

I chose to do my dining room because I already did my living room and this space made the most sense to continue going. Also, because I'm hosting Thanksgiving, and I want this space to look fabulous.

After I painted the top half white and the bottom yellow, it still felt like it needed more of an element, so I started brainstorming and decided to do some arches on the opposing wall. I traced them using a makeshift compass I created using a pencil and some string, and a mirror as a ruler. Painted them using colors: tsunami and turmeric by "Behr" as well.

After I finished painting the arches, the space was looking ten times better. However, I still felt like I needed another graphic element on the other side. The opposite wall was looking pretty stark. -- It was back to Brainstorming. At this point, I wasn't feeling well. Started playing with colors and going for some sort of organic design that turned out to be a bust.

My partner came to visit and he suggested that I painted stripes. Originally, I had intended to paint a faux shiplap, so the stripes had already been considered. With a quick trip to "Home Depot" to figure out colors, I was loving the way the wall was looking in my head, lol. I ended up selecting colors I considered complimentary to the turmeric. The colors I chose were: guava jelly and green agate by "Behr."

I am not going to lie, these stripes took me hours to paint! They were crooked! Literally, had to start from the beginning. The tracing took me over six hours. -- I almost gave up! and the wall was looking so gross from all the smudges from the pencil.

I first started with guava jelly, and freehanded all of them (I didn't want to waste more time using tape). -- Huge mistake! It didn't take long to put the tape up and it was so much easier to paint the green stripes.

When I was done painting all the stripes, I removed the tape and cleaned the smudges using a magic eraser. It was like day and night -- It looked AMAZING!

While at Home Depot, I also picked up a chair rail to use where the lines and the solid met. Using some command strips and one-inch little nails, I mounted it on the wall. Lastly, I went over it with a coat of semi-gloss white paint I had in my stash. and voila!

These two walls took me hours to finish, but I am beyond pleased with the final result. I am honored to be collaborating with so many talented creators, and humbled by the incredible support I have received.

Please follow along as I transform this entire space during the next six weeks. Thank you for reading! :)

To see more inspiring spaces, check the ORC blog: oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog

@Betterhomesandgardens #bhgorc @OneRoomChallenge #ORC