We are into week five of the One Room Challenge, an online design event started by Linda at the blog Calling It Home, that challenges featured designers and guest bloggers to re-imagine one space in the span of six weeks. This week if these walls could talk, they’d say that this week, I didn’t get much done. But that’s OK, because last week Linda announced that for the first time in the history of the ORC, we would be given an extra week to finish the challenge. Due to all of the storms and fires that have hit our country these past couple of months, she found it only fair to tack on a week for those that needed it. And in true procrastinator style, once I heard that, I slacked off a bit. I did, however, address the wall areas of the foyer this week and here’s what happened.
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This is a side view picture of the wall above the console table. I thought I had taken a better before of this area, so my apologies for that. I had two botanical prints I bought on a trip to Spain (I warned you about my botanical phase) in silver frames I bought on clearance at Pottery Barn a million years ago. The console table had a hodgepodge of stuff on it. A green ceramic pot that once held a houseplant I was given as a hostess gift, a family picture in a casual frame and a star knick-knack. Each object on its own is something I genuinely like, but they just didn’t find any cohesion together as a group.
So I scrapped everything and started over. My first inclination – as you may remember from my inspiration board – was to find a mercury glass lamp to anchor the table. I spent some time early on searching for candidates until week two when I pulled the table away from the wall and saw that there was no electrical outlet. So, no lamp. Then I thought about something I’d been missing in the foyer – a mirror. I had often wanted to check my hair or put on lipstick while running out the door but there was no convenient place to do it. And so it was decided and I began my search.
Almost immediately, I decided a wanted a round mirror. Literally, every other mirror in my house is rectangular and I wanted to break my right angle habit. I found so many mirrors that I loved for the space. But let me share a little secret with you, round mirrors of any significant size, are expensive. My small budget for the foyer makeover did not contemplate paying hundreds of dollars for one piece. So, once again I went on a search for a deal.
This is the mirror I ended up choosing. I liked the sunflower pattern (another flower I know!) but it has a modern take, I think. Here is what it looks like up on the wall:
Usually if I am going to invest a lot of money in a piece of furniture or decor, I go for something classic that will stand the test of time. This mirror is a little trendier than something I would normally choose, but for less than $50, I was OK with that. If in the future, I feel like it doesn’t fit in the space, I won’t have any major guilt just replacing it with something else.
For the console table, I shopped in my living room and brought in a fancy designer candle that smells incredible (that was another hostess gift) and a clock I had originally purchased as an option for my living room mantel makeover. He clock didn’t make the cut that time, but I am loving it as my new anchor for the table since I couldn’t get my lamp. And you’ll notice the green ceramic plant holder stayed. It is so pretty and the color goes with the space I decided to think of a way to incorporate it that didn’t include live plants (I am definitely missing the green thumb gene).
What I lack in indoor plant nurturing skills, I make up for outdoors (or at least I’ll take credit for it). So, I went into my almost dormant garden to see what bounty it offered and I was not disappointed.
When we purchased our house sixteen years ago, it had two beautiful hydrangea plants. One that bore light blue blooms and the other produced dark blueish-purple flowers. Since then, we have split and propagated the plants several times. I now have several bushes where there were once two, and the offspring live in friends gardens near and far. So, I thought I would dry some of the flowers for my foyer table.
I love the patina the blossoms take on as they age and I personally think hydrangeas (if not all of us) get more interesting with the passage of time.
I’ve dried hydrangeas many times and my preferred method is to hang them upside down. So I brought my blooms into the basement and took over the coat hooks for a few days. There are other ways to dry hydrangeas and HGTV has a good overview here. Sometimes I have picked them at the peak of their color and sometimes waited for the muted tones to come out. I’ve had success either way.
Now, at the beginning of the post, I told you I took care of the wall space in the foyer. There is one other bit of open wall space beyond where I hung the mirror. There is a small wall between the door to our coat closet and the pocket door to our office that needed attention. I had the idea of creating a welcome print and using an existing frame I have to create the piece. Everything worked out fine, except I printed the picture a smidge too large for the frame and didn’t have the updated print in time for the post, so that will have to wait until next week, but here is a sneak peek (the paper is wrinkled from trying to manhandle it into the frame):
With the extra week, I am going to do some touch up painting on the trim in the foyer and also some touch up on the walls. My youngest son liked to draw on the walls and not all of it has come off, so I want to take care of that before the final reveal. I’ll also get the welcome picture sorted out and *hopefully* pull the trigger on the new light fixtures and at least get them ordered. Thanks for following along!
You can check out all of the weeks of the project here:
ORC Week 1
ORC Week 2
ORC Week 3
ORC Week 4
ORC Week 5
ORC Week 6
ORC Week 7
And as always, be sure to hop over to the Calling It Home blog to see what the featured designers and some of the other guest participants are doing this week on the One Room Challenge Page!
Kristen
