I can’t believe it is already week 7 of the One Room Challenge and room reveals are only one week away! Holy Moly. If you missed any of the previous weeks, you can catch up here:
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 6
What did we accomplish this week?
- Found, bought, and made over our vintage china cabinet
- Installed the shiplap in the built-in desk nook.
- Started building the bookshelves
- Ordered sconces for the built-ins.
- bought some decor and art prints for shelf styling.
We spent this past week tackling a couple of the remaining large projects in our dining room makeover.
The Vintage Cabinet
First things first, I finally found a vintage china cabinet! I had been searching Facebook marketplace for months and I hadn’t been able to find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something with character. Something with pretty, delicate vintage legs. Something that had an interesting shape or was rounded at the top to break up all of the straight lines of the board and batten. I wanted something that took up enough visual space but not too much, and I definitely didn’t want something too bulky. I was starting to think I was being too picky and was honestly getting ready to just buy the IKEA hutch I had subbed into my design board in place of the non-existent vintage hutch.
Just when I was ready to give up on my search, I popped onto Facebook Marketplace and there she was! This beautiful vintage cabinet checked all of the boxes. She is very old and didn’t come to me in the best shape, but a good cleaning (or 5), some reinforcing, a light sanding, and a couple coats of paint and she was good as new.
I wanted a dark, moody color in the blue/green/grey family to give this old girl a modern pop, give our dining room a subtle punch of color, and also coordinate with the rest of our home. I decided (with the help of my friends on Instagram) on the beautiful color Flint by Benjamin Moore and it is absolutely perfect.
The existing hardware was a dark drown color but after a good cleaning revealed this copper color with a beautiful patina, which I loved but It just wasn’t going to work with the new color, so I freshened them up with a light coat of Rub n’ Buff in the color Gold Leaf. (These actually turned out a little too clean looking for me, so I added back a little bit of aging with a tiny bit of dark paint and buffed it in with my brush.) You can see the finished results below.
This beautiful piece was exactly what I had envisioned for this space and I am so so happy with the way it turned out. Definitely worth the wait and the work!
The Built-In Desk
The next huge project we started in on is the biggest project in the whole space – the built-in desk wall! As a reminder, here’s what it looked like before:
We started by installing the vertical shiplap. Then in true Stephanie fashion, I slapped some paint samples on before it was even finished. I am going for a lighter grayish blue color on this wall. I love that both of the options pull out some of the cooler tones in the oversized vintage art we hung last week. From the photo in the center, colors are BM Boothbay Gray (top) and Farrow & Ball Manor House Gray (bottom).
I can’t wait to show you which one we decided on!
After the shiplap was installed we finished building one of the bookshelves. Just seeing it in place makes me so excited for the finished space!
We are waiting for the other bookshelf and the drawer unit we plan to use for the base of the desk to come back in stock at IKEA, so fingers crossed we get our hands on those so we can get it finished up this next week! Then We just need to paint everything and trim it all in to give it that custom built-in look we are going for! Can you see the vision coming together??
UPDATED PROJECT CHECKLIST:
Add traditional casing to all windowsInstall 3/4 white vertical board & batten to the whole spaceFind and makeover vintage china cabinet- Makeover large terracotta planter
Print and frame large free museum art downloadOrder and install window treatmentsOrderand install light fixtures- Build out faux built-in desk
and shiplap feature Purchase all decor
All that is left is to finish the built-ins, paint the terracotta pot, and install the chandelier and sconces. Think we will finish in time? Can’t wait to show you!
In the meantime, don’t forget to check out what all of the other amazing designers and guest participants are up to over on the One Room Challenge website, follow along with all of my behind the scenes progress over on Instagram @stephanie.jane.cameron, and come back here next week for the final reveal!
Can’t wait to see you then!
That cabinet looks SO beautiful! Great job!