Remember this dark, musty, dingy tv wall we started with 8 weeks ago?

(If you can’t, start back at the beginning or jump into the middle here: Weeks 1, 2, & 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7)

Well, it is dingy no more!

This project really pushed me to my limits over the last few weeks, but I am so proud of what I’ve turned this space into. No longer does this room look haphazard and unwelcoming. Instead, it’s modern, bright, textured, and inviting -just in time for the holidays!

The Details

The Floating Media Console

This was my first time building a piece of furniture out of solid wood, and WOW I had no idea how much I didn’t know. I was so nervous to build this piece because I was so in love with how this walnut looked. I also didn’t have any backup wood available if I made a mistake. But I’m so happy to report, I figured it out (eventually, that is!)

My favorite feature on these floating drawers was that I was able to find a way to make the drawers without adding any hardware. Don’t get me wrong, I love drawer and cabinet pulls. But since this was going under the TV, I didn’t want to add anything that might be distracting (as if the entire wall weren’t distracting enough as it is). So I added these finger grooves into the tops of the drawers.

The Bookcases

These were the second and third pieces of furniture I’ve built, EVER. As in, I’ve gone my entire life not building a single piece of furniture except for one small coffee table, and then I set out to build these.

And somehow, I thought it would be easy. Oh boy was this a mighty humbling experience. On top of that, the staining pattern I picked out made everything extra challenging. It couldn’t just be black or golden oak. No, 8-weeks-ago Vicki said “It has to be both!”.

Although the two-tone staining made these bookcases extra challenging, I love how they turned out. That extra dimension of color adds just the right amount of variety and visual interest that I was hoping for.

One Room Challenge

Once again, Happy Ten-Year Anniversary to the One Room Challenge! I’m so thankful for this challenge. I’ve been wanting to take on this project for a long time now but couldn’t work up the nerve to tackle it. Then, once I started it, I continuously doubted whether I was even capable of what I’d set out to do. At every turn throughout this project, I felt like I was in over my head.

But this community is amazing, and seeing everyone’s amazing work- the transformations, the tenacity. It kept me motivated and inspired. I don’t think I would have been able to complete this project without seeing the awesome things other participants were up to. Check out their wonderfulness at the ORC blog.

Thank you, One Room Challenge! Cannot wait until next time!

The Journey

This has been a while ride. Relive the last few weeks here:
Weeks 1, 2, & 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

The post One Room Challenge Fall 2022 – Week 8 – Big Reveal appeared first on Haus of Vicki.

Step by step

This week I attached the cedar boards to the backs of the bookcases and they are finally starting to look like real pieces of furniture! I also attached all the LED strips and wired them up. It’s finally starting to take shape!

I painted the big canvas that has a giant hole in the center.

And I assembled the frame of the floating console that will sit beneath the TV.

Minor setback

I was traveling at the beginning of this week and seem to have caught a bug–SIGH what timing! Hoping to heal up and recharge so I can get this room looking absolutely amazing.

It shall make the Big Reveal all the more suspenseful, right?

Check out what the other participants have been up to this week at the ORC blog.

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Platform behind TV

The Original Plan

Originally I wanted this platform to be covered in stone to add an earthy texture to this wall. I’ve also been itching for an excuse to tile something! But once I received all the samples I was so excited about, they just weren’t right.

The Pivot

So then I thought: how about roman clay?! So I swatched a few shades of white. But then I realized that this platform is so large that it would have to be made up of multiple pieces of wood or drywall. But since I live in California and we just had a 5.1 earthquake a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to be that the seems between the pieces of wood or drywall might crack!

Another Pivot

I was beginning to feel a bit discouraged until it hit me–canvas! Canvas can be all one seamless big sheet. An no seams means no potential cracking!

The challenge was that the TV mount needs to be able to fit in the middle of the canvas, which means the canvas needs to have a big hole in the middle of it.

It seemed risky, but I thought it’d be worth a shot!

So I built a frame, stretched a canvas, and then promptly cut a hole right in the center of that newly stretched canvas. And it seems to have worked! Voilà, we have a TV platform!

Wall Treatment

I’ve been going back and forth since the start of this challenge on whether to do a slat wall. I love the look of a slat wall and I’ve been wanting to do one for a very long time now. But this room has a LOT of wall in it and I’ve been concerned that slat-walling the entire room might be too much slat wall–actually, is there such a thing?

So I found these fluted wall panels and I think they might be the ones! I love the texture they add and that they’ll hide the very textured orange peel walls in that room.

Next up: paint! Or stain? I swatched some samples but I’m not sure whether I want to stain them or paint them.

Floating TV Console

This was supposed to be the easiest build of this project but it nearly destroyed me instead. And then once I was finally ready to build, I realized by cut list was all wrong because my entire design was based on the nominal widths instead of actual widths! Duh 1×8″ means 0.75×7.25″! So It was back to the drawing board because I’m so silly.

Here’s the “final design”. I just finished cutting the wood pieces yesterday.

A Fireplace Too?

Ok, I know I’ve been complaining about the time crunch, but this week it has gotten SO chilly. Hello, holiday season! So I got the idea that this room would be really nice and cozy if it had an electric fireplace…

I know. I KNOW. I’m so the problem here. But I started designing a place for the fireplace that maybe hopefully pretty please won’t take too long to build.

What’s Next?

Still need to finish:

• Media bookcases
• Floating media console with drawers
• Platform (canvas) behind TV
• Wall paneling
• Shelf behind couch
• Electric fireplace build
• Decor!

…and in 2 weeks! We can do this! We can do this!

Check out what everyone else has been up to this week at the ORC Week 6 Blog.

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Speaking of bookshelves, I finally started assembling them this week! They still need the finishing touches but they are taking shape. After days of cutting, sanding, routing, and staining the individual shelves, I was so excited to finally see them come together into something that actually resembles a bookcase!

Now that we are past the halfway mark of the ORC, I’m becoming very aware how much more work I have to do to finish this room up! Ahhhh!

Check out what the rest of the participants have been up to this week at this ORC blog.

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And now this is where the fun really begins, because it’s all DIY from here on out!

The TV Wall

The first DIY project I want to tackle is the TV wall. It’s the most intensive project I have planned for this room, and it will serve as the room’s main focal point.

Designing and modeling

Designing the TV wall has been a journey so far. This is the biggest and most complicated project I’ve ever attempted, and keeping all the details and measurements straight has been a huge challenge for me. For previous projects I’ve been able to do all the necessary planning in a few sketches and maybe a quick 2-dimensional mockup on the computer, like this one I created for the TV wall:

But this TV wall design demanded more, more, more! I finally had to stop and try to find another solution because I was going in circles trying to finalize the design and remember what went where and how long or short it needed to be.

So this week I learned how to use SketchUp and created a 3D mockup of my TV Wall design. The choice to halt all progress by stopping and trying to learn to use a 3D modeling app was a really difficult one–I’m someone who constantly needs to feel like they’re making tangible process. But I’m so glad I took the risk! Creating a 3D mockup has been an absolute game changer! It’s made it super easy to keep track of all the different sized pieces of wood I need and how to assemble them.

I’m by no means an expert in this tool, but having this model to work off of allowed me to finally start building!

Learning to use a new tool

Continuing the trend of learning new things, this week I finally faced my fear of a tool that I’ve been putting off learning how to use for months because I’ve been so intimidated by it–the table saw. I whipped out that manual and studied it, plus a ton of video tutorials.

And wow! It has made it so easy to rip down the 8′ sheets of plywood that I need for the TV wall bookcases. Check out these shelves I cut on the table saw for my new bookcases.

I know it might not look super exciting yet, but this is such a huge personal achievement for me. I’ve literally spent months procrastinating on using the table saw because I’ve been paralyzed by fear. But I finally realized, it’s week 4 and we’re halfway through this challenge. I had no choice but to get it done.

And that’s the wonderful thing about this challenge–it pushes us! It pushes us to do what it takes to reach our goals, even if that means temporarily stepping out of our comfort zone and facing anxiety head on. Thank you, One Room Challenge!

Check out what other participants are doing this week at the One Room Challenge blog.

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What’s the One Room Challenge?

This interior design event has been held biannually over the last 10 years, during which participants tackle a room of their choosing to transform over the course of 8 weeks. Every week, designers post updates on their progress, concluding in an exciting final reveal in Week 8! The result is a wonderful community that inspires, encourages, and uplifts each week and beyond the challenge.

I’m a little late to the party this year, but fashionably late is always better than missing the party altogether, right? We are already in Week 3 and I cannot wait to see everyone’s vision come to life! Check out their progress ORC blog.

The Room

We have tried to call this room a number of things since we moved in: Game Room, Pool Room, Garage. And so far, SIGH the only one that has stuck is “Garage”. Because that’s what it is!

The previous owners of our home left us a garage that is currently somewhere between a garage and an entertainment room: the garage door has been sealed up–there’s no way to get a car in here anymore!–and the previous owners had been using it as a hangout spot centered around an 8′ pool table. I really like this room, but it unfortunately still feels like a garage: concrete floors, no insulation, exposed beams, not a lot of natural light. So it’s time to change that!

For this ORC, I will be transforming this garage into a space that hopefully feels like a natural continuation of the rest of the house. I want guests to walk and and feel like they’re in a family room or a game room instead of a garage.

The Road Ahead

So how do we get Cinderella ready for the ball? Here’s the makeover I’m envisioning:

Installation of:

• hardwood floors
• ceiling insulation and shiplap
• more windows
• recessed lighting
• demo wall to connect secondary room
• safety railing for stairs

DIY projects

• TV media wall, including slat wall, media shelves, and floating media drawers
• shelf behind couch
• window frame
• wainscoting treatment for walls
• bar table

Finishing touches

• furniture: couch, rugs, chairs, tables
• sound system

The Progress so far

The room is coming to life! Over the last two weeks our contractor and his team have been working tirelessly to install all insulation, drywall, new windows, ceiling, and recessed lighting.

What a difference drywall and sunlight make! Next up is to paint the walls and install hardwood floors to really get this space feeling a little more homey.

The post One Room Challenge Fall 2022 – Weeks 1,2&3 appeared first on Haus of Vicki.

About the One Room Challenge

Eight weeks ago, we committed to participating in this fall season of the One Room Challenge, an event that occurs every Fall and Spring since 2011. Every season, designers set out to transform one room over the course of (normally 6, but it’s extended by 2 weeks due to Covid) 8 weeks. They join up in the event to support each other and share ideas via weekly updates in the One Room Challenge blog.

To date, over 5,400 rooms have been transformed as part of the One Room Challenge.

A Quick Recap

We set out to makeover our very bland living room. As a bonus, the living room opens up into the dining, room which opens into the kitchen. And the entire area opens to the upstairs landing. Of course we couldn’t just update the living room and let it look into a blah kitchen dining room, and upstairs landing–so we gave them a makeover, too!

Need to catch up before the final reveal? Check out our weekly updates below:
Weeks 1 & 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7

Design Goal

The vibe we decided to go for was:

Moody modern vintage, a touch gaudy

To keep the budget on track, we weren’t going to buy any additional furniture (except 2 dining chairs) or wall decor (except curtains), so were going to rely on a LOT of diy to get there. Let’s see how we did!

Before & After

Let’s look back at what we started with 8 weeks ago: aged cream-colored paint and too-long curtains. But a lot of potential!

The living room opened into an equally bland dining room, kitchen, and upstairs landing.

Fast forward to today, and our moody, modern vintage, a touch gaudy transformation is complete!

This is my first time making over a space of this size, and I’m still in disbelief. I can’t stop looking at it!

When I tackled this challenge, I worked through one diy project at a time. I was so focused on each individual project that now I’m kind of shocked seeing how they all came together!

Let’s take a look at the individual projects that helped us transform this room.

DIY Horizontal Slat Wall

Once we’d finished painting (choosing colors probably took longer than the actual painting), the upstairs wall seemed to look even more naked than before we painted it. It needed something.

The wood gives it that vintage feel while the abstract shape keeps it modern. And let’s face it, the unapologetic scale makes it a touch gaudy.

This was the first project I completed and I loved the added dimension of the individual slats. I continued the design onto the neighboring walls and around to the upstairs doorway so that there was something to look at from every angle.

This was the first project I took on during this challenge, and my first time ever trying to decorate an entire wall. Completing this first project made me feel a lot better about the other projects I’d had planned.

DIY Coffee Table

Other than 2 dining chairs, we didn’t buy any furniture for this challenge. So this table was our only furniture chance to set a moody, modern vintage vibe, a touch gaudy vibe.

These coffee table legs somehow manage to be modern, vintage, and definitely a touch gaudy all at once!

This is my first furniture build ever, and I’m so excited about how it turned out! And it was really sturdy! I def laid down on it for a few Instagram photo opps to attest to that.

DIY LED Accent Wall

The TV wall is by far my favorite projects from these last few weeks–it was also the one that took the longest BY FAR. At first I thought I was planning on just creating something to match the upstairs slat wall, and then it snowballed into an accent + lighting feature. And just like that, I signed myself up for a much bigger project than I’d planned.

Since each individual piece of this project was small in size, they were easier to work with than the wall-length slats. That challenge was in the volume of small squares and gridlines that I needed to build to cover the entire wall. But once I got them up on this wall, I knew it was worth it!

As you can see, the color of the lights are different between the two photos, because the LED strips are color-changing! That extra detail really made this wall even more fun.

For a long time I was stumped on what to do with this wall because of that window. I kept thinking it limited my wall space to only the area to the left of the window. Then it finally dawned on me: incorporate the window into the grid!

Stairwell

The stairs started out like this. It took me a long time to figure out how exactly to paint this area: which walls would be painted black and which ones the lighter color?

To keep the stairwell inviting, we opted for all light paint and painted the railing black for a more modern feel and to tie in the surrounding walls’ black paint.

All of Week 5 was dedicated to building canvas frames, stretching and priming canvas, and painting! This was the largest one I made.

Since the other paintings were a bit more bold, I wanted this one to be a little bit more quiet but inviting. I tied in the color palette from the living room drapes and rug.

Dining Room

The main additions we made to the dining room were paint and paintings.

Since the chandelier (which we chose to keep) had a dark frame, we colored it gold so that it contrast with the dark wall colors behind it.

This is the only place in the entire downstairs where you’ll find greens and blues. I deviated from the main color palette here to add an unexpected pop of color and draw you into the room. The dark colors are still moody but the refreshing palette and contrasting frame make it feel modern. And of course the loudness of it all adds that touch of gaudy we’re looking for.

This piece was a last-minute addition. I had originally painted a different painting for this wall, but I wanted to create something more modern with a little more visual interest for guests to look at when sitting at the dining table. I think this did the trick!

Kitchen

The last stop here is the kitchen. We needed to transform this all-white kitchen into one that was modern, moody vintage, a touch gaudy.

Paint, new cabinet hardware, a backsplash, valences and a new lighting fixture did the trick!

This was my first time deciding to paint cabinets and choosing cabinet colors. I wanted a bold color choice that would really fit into our vibe, so I went in both feet first with a bold burgundy paint choice. The burgundy cabinet colors ties in the burgundy couch in the living room and I absolutely love the combination of burgundy cabinets + gold hardware.

Matching burgundy cabinets AND an existing granite color AND black walls took a few tries. But I love these brown mirrored tiles. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfectly vintage and gaudy backsplash.

Woohoo!

This was my first time transforming an entire room like this. Prior to this, I’d only made a square dowel art piece for the wall. Only a week or two before this challenge I used a miter saw for the very first time. And now I look around this room in disbelief that it’s filled with all these diy projects that I didn’t even know I could make!

I’m beyond excited and so thankful that Better Homes and Gardens continues to put on this One Room Challenge that helped push me out of my comfort zone. Be sure to check out all the other big reveals of this season at the ORC blog:
One Room Challenge blog

I can’t believe this is the same space and that all it took was paint and a few weeks of diy! I’m so thrilled with how this space turned out and I cannot wait to apply my newly learned skills to new projects (I’ve already thought of a bunch of new ones I want to tackle!)

Now that our 8 weeks are wrapped up, I’ll be sure to create tutorials for each of the diy projects that helped transform this space. Stay tuned!

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Remember that big blank, boring wall behind the TV? This week was all about giving it a little more visual interest. This was the rough plan:

Wondering what the orange line is? It’s to plan out the electrical wiring. Wiring for what? LEDs, of course!

Initially, I wanted just a feature wall, a sibling to the slat wall I made in Week 4. But then I realized this side of the room needed more light! One thing led to another, and suddenly this accent wall design became a lighting fixture design, too!

The first step was to cut and assemble all the squares we needed: 32 squares, to be exact. Plus, all the lines connecting them. So, it started with a LOT of wood pieces:

Then we cut the LED strips, placed them in the frames, and wired them up. I’ve never worked with LED strips or lights before, so this week has been a big learning process.

Before

This wall desperately needed something to help draw the eye up. Without anything on this wall, the TV and floor are the most interesting thing to look at.

After

What a difference a few pieces of wood and LED strips can make! The best part? The lights can change color! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white–take your pick! (This was perfect for me because I had such a hard time picking paint colors, I don’t know if I could have handled making a lighting color decision this week!)

Get Ready for the Big Reveal Next Week

That’s a wrap for Week 7!

In case you missed out on previous weeks, check them out here:

Weeks 1 & 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Also, be sure to check out all the other One Room Challenge participants’ updates this week before their big reveals next week:

http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog

The post One Room Challenge – Week 7 appeared first on Haus of Vicki.

If you’re new here, check out our progress from the previous weeks as we make over our living room into a modern moody vintage dream.

Weeks 1 & 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

So far we’ve everything has been about transforming the walls: paint, diy paintings, and a diy accent slat wall. This week, it was time to focus on the center of the living room: the coffee table!

I’ve never built furniture before, but I’d never made an accent wall or stretched my own canvas before either, so here’s to figuring it out as we go!

Trash to Treasure

I got the idea to build this table from the bathroom, of all places. We just swapped out our tiled bathroom counters for quartz slabs, and as our counter guys were wrapping up they asked if we wanted to keep this leftover piece. Otherwise it was headed for the garbage.

Instinctively, I said I’d keep it. Even though I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

Then, when I realized we needed a coffee table for the living room it became so clear what to do with this piece of quartz: turn it into a coffee table!

Since I’ve never built a table before, somehow the idea that the quartz slab already gets us 80% of the way to a table, it seemed like a super do-able project. It’s not so much building a table as it is building something to hold up this leftover counter piece.

DIY Coffee Table Structure

As I was designing this table, I realized it would end up being really similar to a bed frame: a bed frame has slats that prop the mattress up. Same thing here, except for instead of a nice fluffy mattress, we have a hard, heavy, smooth slab of quartz.

Creating the frame was actually fairly easy. Except I didn’t realize until midway through building it that the slab’s edges weren’t straight. Since it was a leftover piece, they didn’t bother to cut it with nice 90degree corners. So, had to try to fit the frame to the irregular-shaped slab.

DIY Coffee Table Pipe Legs

Since the table would be mainly quartz, the place where we could really inject some character to fit our moody modern vintage, a touch gaudy vibe is the legs.

So we went for these pipe legs in an X arrangement that we colored gold and copper. The use of pipe is very industrial, but I think the gold color makes it touch gaudy.

Also this week: we bought a new rug and new curtains, which you can see in the photo, too!

Stay Tuned for Next Week

That’s we’ve been up to this week! Next week we’re back to the walls. I have an idea for how to dress up that big blank wall behind the TV:

All the ORC Updates

Check out all the other ORC participants’ updates this week at the link below:

http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog

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Weeks 1&2 | Week 3 | Week 4

This week has been all about creating art for the walls (more traditional art than last week), in the form of paintings!

We had multiple walls to decorate, all viewable from the living room: a stairwell wall, two dining room walls, and of course a living room wall .

DIY Art Canvases

To save money, we stretched, primed, and painted canvases ourselves. This also gave us the freedom to create custom sizes for each space.

For example, the stairwell wall canvas measured over 8 feet tall, and would have cost about $700 if we bought it in-store.

All it took was 2 rolls of unprimed canvas and a few strips of imperfect wood from the discount pile.

DIY Floater Frame

For the finishing touch, we created floater frames for each of the canvases (except the 8 ft tall one) before hanging them on the walls.

Stretching our own canvases was a great way to save money. Buying just the pre-stretched canvases would have cost over $1,000 + the cost of frames.

But materials for the stretched canvases AND frames cost less than $200. Talk about savings!

Next Up

That’s a wrap for ORC Week 5!

Next week we’re taking a quick break from wall art and will be trying our hands at making some furniture. This will be a diy first for me–very nervous but excitd!

Be sure to check out all the other participants’ updates this week below:
www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog

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