One Room Challenge: FINALE!

The finale for the One Room Challenge is here!  I’m really quite excited to be finished, and though everything that could have gone wrong pretty much did, I am really pleased with the results.  This One Room Challenge, hosted by Linda of Calling It Home, is always a fun experience and the amount of camaraderie among the bloggers is awesome.  All of my previous posts are here.
Bad news first: The custom chandelier didn’t make it here by the deadline, the artwork didn’t pan out as expected, the curtain rods I needed to match were discontinued, the bamboo shades are still backordered, and my DIY built-in TV cabinet took a turn for the worse resulting in a still-unfinished #fail.  BUT the good news is that I’m looking past all the upsets and enjoying the light, airy, and welcoming space this living room/dining room area has become.

Two DIY projects that I’m absolutely smitten with are the linen inverted box pleat drapes and the West Elm-inspired storage chests.  Both took quite some time to pull off, but all the effort was absolutely worth it!  I’ll have tutorials for both posted soon.  Sidenote: I’ll also be posting the tutorial for this fabric box/bin soon even though I opted not to use it on my etagere.

Let’s get on the reveal, shall we?  First, check out the before photos.

BEFORE WE MOVED IN:

The entire house was an explosion of peach!  Everything was peach – carpet, walls, trim, curtains, everything.  This old house was very well kept but not at all our style.  Luckily, we were able to see past all the ‘not-so-pretty’ and see the potential.

 

IN PROGRESS:

Better than the ‘Before’ but still quite blah and not at all ‘Us’.

 

THE REVEAL!

 

Ahhhhh!  Much better!  Now, we’re talking.

The linen drapes were challenging but add so much to the space that I’m glad I made the splurge and took the plunge to tackle them.

 

 

 

I challenged myself to style the etagere mostly with items we already owned or things that cost little (Home Goods) to nothing (thrift store).  Though, there are a few elements I would like to add to make the shelves just perfect, I’m very pleased with how the styling turned out.

These babies were a labor of love!  We had a couple of Ikea Expedit (now called Kallax) cubes left over that we bought 4 years ago and I was determined to make them work in this space.  The size and storage was perfect for our needs, but the black-brown color just wasn’t cutting it.  Using this West Elm chest as inspiration, I set about tailoring them to better fit our needs.  More info to come….My custom chandelier didn’t make it here in time, but I’ll certainly update the blog as soon as it does!  The ceiling fan we swapped out in the living room really bumps up the modern-chic vibe of the space.

 

And that’s it!  What do you think?  If anyone is interested in sources, just ask in the comments below.

 

I can’t wait to scroll through all the other participants’ reveal posts.  Check them out here for tons of inspiration and awesome DIYs.