Its been a whirlwind week participating in my first One Room Challenge! Although I don’t have much physical progress to show you, I’ve made a few decisions, narrowed down a few choices, and finalized some design elements, and I’m here to share my bedroom design ideas with you today! To recap, I chose to focus on my primary bedroom design for this One Room Challenge (you can read my week 1 post here). This room was previously our 4 and 6 year olds’ room so its basically a blank slate. I plan to reuse our metal headboard and the curtains, then pretty much everything else will be getting a facelift.
Wall Treatment
I mentioned in my last post that I will be adding vertical wall planking to the headboard wall (maybe even all the walls if I can convince you know who). I picked up two options at Lowe’s this week – this Pine option and a cedar option. They are very similar products, just made from different wood species. Since I plan to paint the paneling, I’m not sure it matters which one I choose, so I will probably go with the one that is less ‘knotty.’ We will prime the heck out of them, then paint.
And speaking of paint, I’ve narrowed down the wall paneling color to Sherwin Williams’ Green Earth or Green Onyx. I’m trying to find a really good grayish-green to compliment the dark walnut hardwood floors we have. Above the paneling, the walls will be painted white and I’m considering these 4 Sherwin Williams colors: White Heron, Aesthetic White, Snowbound, and Alabaster.
Dresser Update
I’m super close to finishing our dresser update! Some friends of ours gave us an outdated dresser almost a year ago and I’ve been hoarding it just waiting for an opportunity to give it a makeover. We removed the legs and some of the moulding details then wrapped the exterior of the dresser in plywood. The original dresser had wood veneer covering the majority of it and it wasn’t worth trying to salvage.
I’m going with a more modern look for this dresser, so when modifying it, we made sure to go with clean lines for a streamlined look. Andrew also modified the drawers so we could use these side mount drawer slides. Previously the drawers slid poorly on a wooden track underneath the drawers. We also added new drawer fronts in a simple slab style that will sit inset within the dresser frame.
Along with this change, Andrew custom welded new metal legs (feet?) for the dresser and I can’t wait to try out this rub ‘n buff to finish them off. I’ve never used rub ‘n buff before so I’m equally excited and nervous. I also sourced these gold pulls from Amazon and can’t wait to see it all come together!
Nightstand Decisions
While I’m going with a dark color for the dresser, I want to bring in a light wood tone with our new nightstand bases. If you recall from my last post, I’m drawing inspiration from this chest of drawers:
When I mentioned buying some white oak for this project, Andrew asked if we could use the red oak that we already have in our garage. I was against this idea at first (because I love the look of white oak sooooo much), but then I read this tutorial from Plank and Pillow. I’m no stranger to bleaching wood – I bleached some yellow pine when we made our herringbone barn door. You can read about that wood bleaching process here. I used Clorox when bleaching our barn door, but now that I know about the Lye + hydrogen peroxide method, I’m interested in trying both to see which works better. I’ll make sure to keep you posted.
I also sourced this cane webbing for the nightstands. A friend of mine recommended V. I. Reed and Cane to me after she used their materials to makeover some mid century modern dining chairs (which turned out fantastic).
If you need to catch up on my previous post – Primary Bedroom Design – One Room Challenge Week 1.
This ORC process is encouraging me to push my design limits and I get more excited about this room each day. If you want to see progress in real time, make sure to follow me @elleandjaydesign on instagram. And you can find me on Pinterest here. I’ll see you back here next week for week 3!
