One Room Challenge Archives - Barclay Stone Interiors

ORC: Week 3 – Living Room Transformation

February 12, 2020April 20, 2018 by barclaystone

How to decorate a room in 6 weeks! That’s the main goal of the One Room Challenge. My ORC transformation room is my Living Room.

The 3rd full week of the One Room Challenge is now complete. Quite honestly, I’ve had a busy week (being sick and then with work). So, unfortunately, there aren’t too many visible signs that things are progressing on the room. I am hopeful, however. Most of my fabrics have been ordered and are either in transit or are already at my workrooms. Here are a few of my workroom projects:

For my birthday in January, I bought myself this pair of George II style Gainsborough Library chairs.

I found them online two years ago and nearly gasped in delight. The Rose Tarlow “Kent” chair is, in my opinion, a gorgeous speciman of art with those dark scrolling legs! I fell in love with this chair 25 years ago and never thought that I’d be lucky enough to own one (let alone two) of my very own. For two years, I stalked them and imagined them in this room. Finally, in January, I made the decision. This is how I decided to bite the bullet. I asked myself “would I be upset if someone else bought these chairs?” – after hemming and hawing to myself – I agreed that I would be very upset with myself if I didn’t buy them. So, I contacted the owner, Erin at Erin Lane Estate in Oakland, CA to ask a few more details. She and her husband, Carlos, were extremely gracious over the phone and answered all of my questions. I very much enjoyed working with them and highly recommend that you go to their gorgeous website and see what other goodies they have. I hope to work with them again – as I had such a great experience.

These Gainsborough Library chairs never made it to my house – they were shipped directly to my upholsterer. She’s going to reupholster them in Jim Thompson’s “Paradise Vine, pink” linen.

For my two existing upholstered chairs, I will have them reupholstered in Pindler & Pindler’s “Zanzibar, pink” zebra cotton and ornament the skirt with a sherbert pastel tassel fringe.

Existing yellow chair to be reupholstered in this “Zambezi, pink” zebra print fabric

Here are a few other fabrics going into the space:

And lastly – one of my surprise favorites for the room is this F. Schumacher’s “Yangtze River, aqua” fabric. It, literally, was a fabric I picked up very last minute for a Client project. But, after realizing it wasn’t going to work for her, I noticed the colors worked really well with my scheme! So, surprise! I’m going to have a couple of pillows made with it and place them on the pink zebra chairs.

F.Schumacher’s “Yangtze River, aqua” will be made into pillows for my pink upholstered chairs.

The only problem is that the fabric is back-ordered and won’t be shipping until the end of May. So, it looks like I’ll have to post-pone my professional shots until some time in June….

The only real noticeable improvements taken in the Living Room redecoration this week was the trim color. That’s a minor drama in itself. But, long story short, the handyman that swore he was going to come on Friday to give me a final quote didn’t show, nor did he answer my calls and texts. So Saturday morning I hopped over to the BenMoore store and bought my gallon of “Chantilly Lace” paint and a good trim brush. Thinking that I’d probably have to paint all of the trim myself, I spent Sunday afternoon taping off the fireplace area and a bit of Monday beginning to put the first coat on. However, after a few hours of tedious trim painting, I had to quit. I resolved to call one of my reliable painters.

Mike and his team answered my painting prayers. Mike came over Tuesday evening to give me a quote. And, by Wednesday afternoon, he and James came over to begin repair work on my trim. Mike and his crew arrived bright and early this morning and applied the first coat of semi-glossy paint on my trim. Already the difference is staggering! I can’t wait for them to finish tomorrow.

So that wraps up Week 3 for me! Go ahead and see what the Featured Designers are up to HERE and the other Guest Designers HERE.

Thanks for following along! Please don’t forget to leave me your comments!

Until next week – Cheers!

One Room Challenge: Living Room Transformation

February 12, 2020April 5, 2018 by barclaystone

HOLD YOUR HORSES FOLKS! It’s coming! The One Room Challenge is back for the Spring season!

The One Room Challenge is a 6-week blogging diary of a room transformation. This spring, I’m going to re-decorate my Living Room.

The One Room Challenge is now in it’s 7th year! Amazing! I was an avid follower early on – and then decided to try my hand at it. Back in 2011, I turned my basement storage room into a tidy and bright Office space. The results were (meh) – okay and it was definitely a transformation. However, I had no idea how professional this challenge was – meaning, most participants hired professional photographers to shoot their AFTER photos (and, of course, I hadn’t thought of that – nor did I feel like my basement room merited professional photographs). So, it took a few years for me to join in the fun again, but I did! I started with my Family Room/Den back in the Spring of 2016 and since, have successfully finished 3 rooms. And now, I’ll be transforming my Living Room.

Here is a photo of my Spring 2016 Den transformation.

And, my Fall 2016 flooded bathroom renovation.

One Room Challenge, Fall 2016 Guest Powder Room renovation

My Fall 2017 Client bathroom renovation turned out beautifully, but for various reasons, I can’t post any professional or overall shots of the space right now.

One Room Challenge, Fall 2017 Bathroom renovation scheme

Linda Weinstein, the Founder of the One Room Challenge, recently hosted a panel in Atlanta to discuss “Growing your Digital Brand”. At the time, I wasn’t even remotely thinking about joining in the Spring One Room Challenge festivities. However, after listening to Linda and her panel guests, I decided to rethink my decision. I didn’t have any particular room in mind (as ALL of the rooms in my house need love!). What’s that saying? “The cobbler’s children have no shoes”? Well, this designer’s house has no decorated rooms! So, I could’ve selected any room – Dining, Entry, Master, Guest…but, my Living Room is the room that all guests see first.

MY LIVING ROOM. It isn’t in deplorable shape. As a matter of fact, I LOVE this room and use it often. I decorated it in 2001 and the design easily transferred to our Atlanta house when we moved here back in 2007. But, it’s been 17 years – and quite honestly, I’m just tired of looking at the yellow walls. And, if you look closely – well, don’t – as the upholstery is a bit faded and stained (due to two wild boys running thru the space with muddy shoes and chocolate bars). Plus, I’m ready for a change – something a bit softer. And, the space planning could be updated – I’m not using the room to its full seating capacity!

existing Living Room (photo taken on a good day a couple years ago)

What I love most about the One Room Challenge, is that it forces me to make smart, but quick decisions. I can make design decisions easily for clients, but when it comes to making decisions for myself, I definitely have too many options to choose from. Often, I want to wait until the Spring line comes out or the Fall lines come out before I can make my final decision. But, not this month. No – this month – I will finalize and move forward with fabrics and trims that I’ve coveted for the past few years.

INSPIRATION. The inspiration for my room is this oversized family portrait that was painted back in the early 70s. I absolutely LOVE this painting and had hoped that I might “inherit” it when my parents downsized. Unfortunately for me, it fit perfectly (in size and color) in their smaller house. So, I won’t be able to use it in my transformation. Instead, I’m going to paint my own contemporary art piece that will mimic the colors in this portrait – pinks, whites, soft turquoises, and soft greens.

Family Portrait – circa 1971
(I’m clutching my mom’s arm on the left)

Sooo….stay tuned for what happens next week! I can’t officially start yet – as I’m out of town for Spring Break. But, you can be sure that I’ll be busting my butt trying to catch up with all of the other ORC Bloggers! This should be fun! And, tp see what the other ORC bloggers are doing – click here!

Please follow me and help boost my morale by posting comments every week!

Cheers! – Barclay

Bathroom Renovation: One Room Challenge – Week 3

October 19, 2017 by barclaystone

Hello Everyone! You’ve landed on Week 3 of my Bathroom Renovation for the One Room Challenge!

To recap, I’m renovating my Client’s 1st Floor Guest Bathroom/Powder Room for this Fall’s ORC. The beginning stages during renovation were a bit nerve-wracking, (disintegrating floor, the tub was actually yellow and not white, electrical deficiencies, etc..) but after successfully fixing those “nail-biter” problems after the 1st week, we were able to start and finish Week 2 on a good note. If you’ve got time and energy, you can go back and read about Week 1 here and Week 2 here.

We ended last week with (essentially) a clean slate. All of the bathroom walls and floors were prepped and ready for Week 3’s tile installation. So that’s what happened first thing. TILE!! Here’s a photo of the very first marble tile being applied to the shower/tub wall.

Bathroom Renovation: One Room Challenge - Week 3 — And, TA-DAH! Just like that – we started the tile work! Piece piece installed!

Prior to the first tile being installed, there’s a lot of discussion going on between the tile installer and myself. Basically, we need to verbally “lay out” the design. I want to be sure of how the design is going to look before it gets cemented in stone (literally – ha!). The tile setter and I have to think about cuts and seams, etc. It takes a while, but it’s best and safest for both of us to be on the same wave-length before we begin.

Installer putting in 1st piece of Jeffrey Court specialty mosaic tile

I have to admit that I really love this phase of the renovation. When tile starts going up – the transformation almost becomes instantaneous! I mean, you can really start visualizing what the finished space is going to look like. And, it’s SOOO exciting!

We selected this great looking hexagonal mosaic tile for its simplistic pattern and it’s color. The ground is a honed calcutta white marble. The beige metallic mosaic inserts blend perfectly with the Thibaut wallpaper, “Bahia” that will grace the walls.

Once the focal wall was finished, my contractor Emilio, moved on to tile the new niche. We used an antiqued mirror subway tile for this area. It added a bit of sophisticated glamour to the small space (plus, the price was right!)

Next step was creating the herringbone patterned floor design. We selected 12×24 marble tiles for our floor because I wanted to have long tiles for the herringbone pattern. The 12″ width was too wide to create a herringbone pattern. So, they were cut in half – making he finished tile size 6×24.

Tile installer cutting the large tiles in half.

We started the pattern “V” right in the center of the doorway, to make the most impact.

Tiling pretty much took up most of the week (+ more). Soon after these photos were taken, the installer grouted all of the walls, the niche and the floor. He wanted to wait 24-48 hours for everything to settle before working in the space again.

That pretty much sums up our past week. Next week, we’ll be creating a wood panel front for the tub. We’ll prime the walls, ceiling and trim. Then paint everything. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the wallpaper hanger over (but, I’m not certain that he’ll be able to make our ORC deadline!) before next Thursday to install the “Bahia” wallpaper. If he isn’t able to make it – then, next week’s post will certainly be a little THIN! Fingers crossed for us (as it is out of my control)! Don’t forget – this is happening in real time!

If you would like, read the blogs of the other One Room Challenge participants HERE. It’s fun to see how others approach renovation or decoration projects. Also, don’t forget to look at the ORC Guest Participants blogs HERE. There are a lot of us participating in this One Room Challenge. And, it’s always so awesome and appreciated when our readers and fellow bloggers take the time to read our blog posts, make comments and motivate us!

Have a great week! Cheers!

Bathroom Renovation – One Room Challenge: Week 1

October 5, 2017 by barclaystone

Follow along with me – we’re doing a Bathroom Renovation! Yeehaw! Yup, it’s October and it’s time againI for the the semi-annual ONE ROOM CHALLENGE!

The ORC is a six-week challenge for bloggers to transform a room and make it gorgeous! Every Thursday from now until November 9th, bloggers will post their progress on their websites/blogs and social media. It’s 6-weeks filled with high-energy and lots of stress! But, it’s FUN, too! A challenge is always fun and I’m completely up for it! This fall I’m going to renovate a Bathroom.

My friend and client, Rebekah, was considerate enough to respond in the positive yesterday when I asked her if I could use her Hall Bathroom as the One Room Challenge space. She’s ALL in for the good, the bad, and the ugly! But, it’s ALL going to be good. When we’re at the end of this 6-week challenge, the room is going to look FABULOUS!!

But, hang on a sec – please let me show you a little bit of what we’re starting with!! This is the “bad and the ugly” portion of the post.

THE PLAN

A couple of years ago, I brought Rebekah a Thibaut wallpaper. I suggested that it might work well in her Hall Bathroom (down the road when she decides to renovate). So, Rebekah held on to that sample and brought it out when she decided that we were going to renovation the space. “Bahia, metallic” is one of our inspirational sources.

The second inspirational source is the Powder Room renovation that I completed last winter. I participated in last Fall’s 2016 One Room Challenge, but had to quit when I decided mid-renovation that I really wanted to expose a window that had been tiled over. The window took 8 weeks to come in, and the ORC was over by that time. No matter! You can read about it here, if you’d like. But, here are a few photos of the finished space!

CHALLENGES:

There are definitely a lot of challenges involved with this project. The most important is going to be the coordination of the trades – who comes when, what will they be doing, etc…Timing is always crucial during a renovation – and if you are working with several trades – the contractor, a plumber, an electrician, a tile installer, a cabinet maker, a wallpaper hanger – the designer or homeowner is going to have to make a list of all of the renovation steps prior to starting the project. Inevitably during a renovation, things will go a little haywire – it’s to be expected. So, we’ll see! Fingers crossed.

If you’re interested in what the other Bloggers are doing for their One Room Challenges, click this link HERE to read what the others are doing!

Next week is demolition. Stay tuned!

Cheers! Barclay

Budget Breakdown: How much does it cost to furnish a room?

ORC: Week 3 – Living Room Transformation

One Room Challenge: Living Room Transformation

Bathroom Renovation: One Room Challenge – Week 3

Bathroom Renovation – One Room Challenge: Week 1

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Budget Breakdown:
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