Week 6 - One Room Challenge Complete

This room is done('ish)!

Remember where we started?  This in 2006:

Then this just before the One Room Challenge began (boring and unfinished):

In the above picture you can see I have one long span of wall so I decided to break this wall up into 2 sections.  One half would be a leaning mirror and the other half would be a photo gallery.

I had planned on doing a post about DIY'ing an oversized, leaning mirror but after going 3 for 3 with sick kids and realizing that it would cost just as much to DIY as to buy it was a no brainer.  So here are my leaning mirror instructions - buy it.  I lived with it for a few days leaning but there was no way my boys weren't going to go crashing into it during one of their wrestling matches.  Up on the wall it went. The added perk here was that it added some visual height.

I had the same 'scrap the DIY' story on the photo gallery ledges.  I had considered building them (as I did here) but what I was looking for was available at IKEA for what it would have cost to build.  Once the ledges and the pictures were up on the wall my eye decided it wasn't right.  I think the scale was off.  See?

Regardless of the reason they had to go.  The silver (literally) lining was that I did really like the large, square frame hanging on the wall and decided that 6 of them grouped together would be the answer to fill the wall both horizontally and vertically.  Oh darn, back to IKEA.

Six 19"x19" silver frames arranged in a 2x3 pattern. Much better. You should see the swiss cheese for walls behind the frames. I have a masters in accounting but measuring throws me for a loop. I know the internet is full of strategies for easy ways to hang pictures in groupings but I didn't have the patience to research that. Squint your eyes and they're level'ish.

Interesting, woven paper backed with plain cardstock from Blick filled the frames (obviously ran out of material!).

New bedding, picking up the greens in the room:

I was going to swap out the nightstands for something mismatched and larger but never got to it so for now my IKEA Rast Hack stays.  They work well enough.

I finally finished wallpapering the backs of the bookshelf with grasscloth wallpaper.  

I filled the wall with my dresser by going shopping in my house.  Love free.  2 matching lamps and the signature matte frame from our wedding.  The price was right.

I purchased 2 canvas paintings from Overstock.  This for over the headboard:

...and this for the wall just inside the doorway.  Both are muted and pick up the colors in the room.

So that's it!  What I loved most about this design was that 1) it really wasn't a lot of construction and 2) I was able to reuse a lot of what I already had.  Some things I'll get to eventually are to update the nightstands and find a bench with some color but for now I'm calling this sucker done for now.  Later today or tomorrow I hope to post the updated Pax Hack hamper drawer fronts (the paint is drying!).  

Check all the great finished products over here.  Thanks to Linda for organizing this and to you for following along!  

DIY Decorative Clipboard

Death, taxes, laundry and piles of paper.  Sure things in life.

Does your kitchen look like this?  Yeah?  Well then go away, obviously we can’t be friends.

JVWHome.blogspot.com

Mine looks like this: 

Since the oldest has started Kindergarten my kitchen island has been taken over by the paper-pile monster.  Homework sheets, flyers, permission slips, art projects, bills.  You name it.  I’ve tried to organize these papers in baskets but then they overflow and I get more baskets and then the paper-pile monster is eaten by basket monsters.


I bought 4 clipboards for a dollar each at Amazon and 12”x12” decorative paper at Blick.  Grand total for all materials for 4 clipboards is under $10.  Warning if you choose to turn this post into a drinking game and drink every time you read the word ‘clip’ you’ll be wasted by the end. 

I traced and cut the paper using the clip board as my template.  Using a chip-clip I clipped the clipboard (say that 10 times fast) so it was in the open position.  Then I painted on a coat of Modge-Podge and carefully laid the paper over it, smoothing out the wrinkles.  I topped it with 2 coats of Modge-Podge to seal it and let it dry overnight. 

They're hanging above the hooks for the kids' backpacks.  Paper gets unloaded from their backpacks and are either trashed or clipped to each kid's board. 

That’s it.  It is that simple and pretty impossible to screw up.  Now each kid has a clip{take a drink}board to hold their school papers and I have a clean(er) island!