Hello and welcome back for the penultimate week of the One Room Challenge, the race to make a finished space happen in six short weeks. [Catch up on previous weeks HERE.] When we left off last week I was feeling a little dumpy about my wallpaper conundrum, so dumpy that I forgot to show you my new counter and faucet power couple, which is basically like forgetting to tell you I won the lottery. Let's talk about this sparkle magic, shall we? In the continued interest of test driving potential materials for the future maybe possibly never kitchen remodel, I decided to go with marble counters after pricing out several options. I wanted to use the broken marble table from the last ORC debacle. That would have been epic and so very poetic, but fabricators didn't want to touch my giant cracked, glued and screwed table with a 10 foot pole. I also considered silestone, but... meh. Somehow a tiny slab of white silestone felt limp when what I wanted was jazz hands.
The counter is small so I held my breath and splurged on carrara, or not so much splurged as spent $35 more on marble than quartz. Right after it was installed I set about to wiping and worrying, but not 24 hours later I found Luke sitting in the sink with the faucet running and a hot wheels clutched in each hand. I guess the cars needed a wash.
So far there has been toothpaste, plaster, water, and god only knows what else all over those counters... and I don't see a thing except for the reflection of yon Altmans faucet, shining like handsome Narcissus in the golden afterglow of his beauty. Even better I scored that dude off Ebay for $250 including shipping and every part necessary for install. I mean, did I want to spend $250 on a faucet? No... more like $25. But $250 is better than $1000.
Room shot of the install shows that I got the baseboards all a-painted and yikes, there is still an ugly wire thing playing with my emotions. What the what am I going to put there?
You know how I got my faucet from ebay? I get pretty much everything from ebay, including all this here lighting that I bought in a bingefest rivaling the great Round Top buyathon of 2013 when I went temporarily insane and spent half a month's salary in one day. Don't worry, I'm not rich so half of a month is like $10. I digress. Look at all the lighting I bought! A super weird heavy blown glass flushmout, a petite Tronchi chandelier with smoked glass tubes, an insane Mazzega chandelier, and a teeny tiny lucite ribbon chandelier.
I should probably put a mirror up, too. UGHHHHH. My faucet is handsome, meanwhile I prefer to pretend I am just a walking manifestation of being, that I have no face, or at least no face that is slowly but surely melting from years of parenting. So this is just a small sampling of my wares. A thrifted vintage La Barge mirror with gold leaf shells, a CB2 Tork mirror, and a gold bamboo octagonal mirror for all your feng shui toilety needs.
Also, you may have noticed that there is skim coat on my walls. That's because if you follow me on instagram then you know that this happened:
My favoritest wallpaper man in the world. He's so good that I have a secret crush on him. I hope he never reads this because the next time I see him it will be super awkward. For all you nerds out there, notice he is pasting and booking a non woven paper which is supposed to be a paste the wall product. Directions? What directions?
I'm sure you thought I might attempt to hang that crazy wallpaper myself, because how hard can it be right? Well I have hung my fair share of paper and let me tell you that textured walls + metallic wallpaper = professional installation. I'm not a DIY wimp but I draw the line at skim coating and sanding all the walls, then lining said skim coated walls with blankstock liner, then hanging some very fussy shiny paper behind toilets and around lots of corners. Had I done the job, there is no way this would have been the result:
Hooray! But what am I going to use for blinds? Can I do bamboo?
Also I am freaking out about drilling into my fancy expensive wallpaper, but I gots to have a towel ring and toilet paper holder... don't I? I happen to have a vintage lucite set, but I am wondering if it's a leeetle too much. Or maybe even way too much. I mean, do I just go Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds here? Or should I dial it down to Let it Be?
I totally want some black toilet paper.
There are a lot of exclamation points and question marks in the works today. I'm obviously not amped up or stressed or anything. I have 50 billion (or maybe five) big decisions to make and then I can peace out and sleep for a month or possibly even a night. Next week is the big one... the final countdown is upon us. The Final Countdooooooowwwwwwnnnnn.
I need to resolve some issues. Lucite or possibly black finishing hardware? Can I get away with bamboo blinds in here? I've got to nail down a lighting and mirror combo. And art. You may remember from the last ORC that I have a few extra pieces lying around... am I going old and dirty or bright and peppy?
You'll have to tune in next week to find out. In the meantime, drop me a line and let me know your thoughts. I'm feeling weak and tired. I might listen to you. Or not. Nothing personal, I'm just a control freak with an emphasis on the control. Ok, and the freak.
Until then please do check out the progress of my talented compadres. The game is afoot!