This is it – the final week of my first 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 time the challenge was extended to seven weeks due to the storms and wildfires), and it’s time for the big foyer reveal. It’s been a fun project and with the extra week tacked on, less stressful than I thought. So without further ado, on to the reveal!
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This week was all about the new light fixtures and a bit of neatening up so the final photos could be had. You’ll remember I was agonizing a bit over the lights. Since they would be replacing fixtures that (a) worked perfectly fine, (b) were ones that I had picked out, and (3) weren’t that old – I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on them. My inspiration was an old schoolhouse style semi-flush mount from Pottery Barn. At a price of nearly $200, coupled with the fact that I would need two for the entryway and hallway, I quickly began looking for alternatives. (The foyer budget wasn’t big, or even existent, really :)).
There were a lot of affordable schoolhouse style fixtures with white diffused or frosted glass. I was really hoping for a clear glass shade. The other complicating factor was that I wanted to keep the overall height of the fixture at 9″ or under so that it didn’t hang too low into the entryway and block my new mudroom set-up. So I kept searching and finally stumbled upon this fixture that was inexpensive, but got great reviews from the hundreds that bought it:
The only problem with it that I could see was that it was offered in only chrome and oil-rubbed bronze. But I’ve been down this path before with the sconces in my living room, so I just ordered the oil-rubbed bronze and got out my trusty can of matte black spray paint.
I taped up the wires and the bulb socket and spray painted the fixtures. It was as easy as that. Then came the hard part. Getting the old fixtures down and the new ones up. That involved bringing in my husband which made me think of the immortal lyrics from the late, great Tom Petty, “and the waiting is the hardest part.” Let’s see if he reads this 🙂
He actually got them up pretty quickly and I really was happy with the result.
So, let’s look at the whole space put together with all of the new elements. But before we do, just to put everything in context, here is the “before” shot:
And now for the transformation:
My new DIY welcome print.
Shots from the hallway.
The new mirror.
View from the stairs.
Close-up.
The updated umbrella stand.
A view from above.
All in all, I really enjoyed the process. I found having a deadline really kept me accountable. I’ll definitely do it again when they run it in the spring – and I already have a space picked out. Just don’t tell my husband 🙂
You can check out any previous weeks from the foyer update that you may have missed here:
ORC Week 1
ORC Week 2
ORC Week 3
ORC Week 4
ORC Week 5
ORC Week 6
And as always, be sure to hop over to the Calling It Home blog to see the reveals of the featured designers and some of the other guest participants on the One Room Challenge Page!
Kristen
