Dining Room Update: One Room Challenge 2022
The spring One Room Challenge has come to an end. I learned some valuable lessons this time around and this experience very different from my first One Room Challenge. As you can see from the lack of consistent posting I was much less active with the process due to a few unexpected factors. Looking back on the confluence of events, I certainly would not have participated in the challenge this round if I had known what was going to occur in my personal life. It is a much different experience working on a space that is used several times daily and in the heart of our small home. Compared to last challenge which was a client’s unused guest room.
I learned that for my personal sanity and family’s wellbeing, it is a recipe for disaster trying to complete a challenge in our very small apartment. When the furniture is moved out of the space, to complete painting, the other rooms become a maze of extra furniture pieces that feels claustrophobic (and with an active 6-year-old) and dangerous. I also learned that having a covered space for refinishing furniture is a must… more on that later. Finally, I learned that I clean 3- 4 times as often throughout the process as things are happening that create messes that are easily tracked or blow into other parts of the home.
So, with that being said lets dive into my first (and probably last) One Room Challenge for my own apartment.
Above you will see the before images. This is in reality an after of a huge edit I did at the beginning of the year, condensing lots of old documents/files and purging books and other items I no longer used or wanted.
The initial look I was going for is shown below on my inspiration/design board.
Inspiration for the space.
First up on the agenda was the wallpaper-mural. The original wall paper I selected was well out of my price range for this project so I decided to recreate the look using a mural. Creating the mural was my favorite part of this entire project. Although it does not photograph easily during the day, it turned out exactly like I imagined and is very close to the inspiration photo used on the mood board. I free handed the banana leaves using the image of the wallpaper as my guide. This sketching took me about 3-4 hours.
I then used some left-over chalk paint to start painting the lines. I realized quickly that the chalk paint was not opaque enough to cover the pencil line and that the pencil line had to be mostly erased prior to painting in order to not bleed through. Once the paint dried, I realized that it was still not opaque enough to achieve the look I was trying to get. I tried a second coat, which sort of worked but still was not turning out how I had hoped. I then switched to an acrylic crafting paint. This worked very well. I still had to erase the pencil lines, but not to the same extent and the two coats were completely effective in achieving the same look as the inspiration wallpaper.
I had started on refinishing the table prior to painting the mural however I became so frustrated that I stopped and waited a week to go back and try again. I used Citristrip as I had seen several other bloggers use it and recommend it. The first issue I ran into was that being outside in the direct sun was drying the stripper too fast and it could not effectively take off the finish. Then of course it started to rain, my luck is the worst. So much so that it’s a running joke between my son and me. After I made a mad dash with my husband to get the table up to our very small, covered porch. This made it almost impossible for anyone to get in and out of the apartment as the table was blocking the door. Then of course the wind was blowing the rain sideways into the porch onto the table ( as shown in image 4 below).
Once it stopped raining, I tried to apply a second coat however it began raining yet again. Once that stopped and I began to scrape the stripper off it was very goopy, similar to a glue. It was sticking to the scraper, and I could not get it off. I used almost a whole role of paper towels wiping it off the scraper because my cloth had become one giant sticky mess. The other issue I have with this stripper is that it didn’t work very well on the legs. Since the finish was more intact on legs and side, I tried a second coat. This did relatively nothing. I then gave up on the stripper as the goopy glue mess it created all over the floor/ ground and my tools wasn’t worth the effort since it was not really taking the finish off that well.
I switched to sanding which worked fairly well, it was just very time consuming and equally as messy. Since we were now on week two of nonstop daily rain this sanding was all done in my small dining room, caking the rest of the apartment in dust. I used an oscillating sander that I had borrowed from a friend and hated it. I found the finishing sander to be much easier to work with. I will say though that getting the finish off the table legs was still challenging due to all the curves and details.
Once that was all cleaned up, I applied a feed and wax product. This unfortunately turned the table back to the exact same yellow color it was prior to all the stripping and sanding. I really wanted to give up at this point and just throw a tablecloth over the table and forget this ever happened.
I then tried one last hail Mary and tried whitewashing the table. This result was better than the yellow look however not really what I was going for. Much more shabby chic than the white oak look I was going for. But I had reached my breaking point and couldn't handle another day of my dinging room being a disaster area so I went with the whitewash and will probably live with it like this until I either move or get another table.
The bookshelf was a Facebook Marketplace find. It is made of bamboo and cost $80. The most difficult aspect of finding this was the size of the wall was pretty narrow so the majority of bookshelves I found were too wide. This shelf wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned for the space, but the color was close enough and it was in good shape and a good price. When we went to use it, we realized it was leaning forward due to the carpet not being flat in that spot. We used child safety furniture straps to anchor the shelf to the wall. This solved the problem and ensured it wasn’t going to fall over on anyone. I am not one hundred percent in love with how the shelves are styled currently. I would like to find something to camouflage the office supplies but for now its functional.
I incorporated some unique rocks and stones I purchased on a recent trip to Utah. The woven box on the second shelf is from Live Beautiful Home. I then added in my collection of books, plants, and a pueblo pottery piece I purchased from a local artist in New Mexico, you can shop similar pieces here Pueblo Pottery King Gallery .
The Area Rug was a bargain find from TJ Max. I would have loved to have something a little more substantial however this one is made from natural fibers (no plastic yeah!!) and was only $40.00. Also, I feel less nervous having an inexpensive rug under the dining table since food will be landing on it constantly and it is very easy to care for. If I were to have a more expensive rug in this space, I know I would be very upset if it became permanently stained.
I accessorized with plants, a table runner and some beads I had from a previous project. The hanging shell tassel is from Coco's Trading Post. I have some art I plan to hang here in the future, but I ran out of time to get them framed and mounted before the reveal deadline. I used an inexpensive barstool from Ross as a plant stand. The table is dressed with a runner from the hearth and hand collection at target similar to this one Table Runner-Target. The plant propagation is from the Hilton Carter line for target which you can purchase here Hilton Carter Plant Propagation Station.
Overall, I am happy with the improvements to the space. I would have loved to have completed the DIY Chandelier, and still have all the materials to create this. I will likely do so sometime later this year and I’ll share the DIY here with you all if and when I get to that. I really love how calming and peaceful the space feels now and it is probably my current favorite room in the apartment. While I will most likely not take on a whole room project in my own small space again, I hope to have a client space in the future that I can share with you all for a future One Room Challenge.
The other guest participants have really blown this challenge out of the water, and I am so enjoying seeing all their finished spaces at ORC Week 8 Reveals. Please go check them out as well as the featured designer’s spaces! You can also use the hashtag #ORCAT on social media to see tons of DIY videos and get inspiration for your own space. A big thank you to Apartment Therapy for sponsoring this One Room Challenge.
