I’m back after a two week hiatus from the One Room Challenge, a quick turn around room makeover challenge hosted by Linda of Calling It Home and media partner Better Homes & Gardens. Two weeks ago, I had so much going on with building our deck, client work, a trip to the lake, and various other mom related tasks, I fell way behind and didn’t get my post up in time. After debating about posting late, I decided to skip the week, since it was the middle of the One Room Challenge, and this one has been both postponed by a month as well as extended for two weeks due to Covid-19.

Last week, the One Room Challenge hosts decided to take a week off due to the death of George Floyd. Regardless of where you stand on the current events, I think we can all agree that his death should never have happened. I hate to see so much pain and division in our world, and in my personal belief, the only answer for all of this heartache is Jesus. Check out this sermon from our church’s virtual service last Sunday for more on that!

I’m surprised at how little I’ve accomplished on Arabella’s room in the last few weeks. Summer is always crazy for us, running back and forth from the lake and spending time with friends and family and trying to squeeze in ALL of the fun because we only get three months of decent weather, but this year feels especially nuts. Since the kids were home for the two and a half months leading up to summer, I didn’t get organized and have felt perpetually behind. That has spilled over into my One Room Challenge space, and while I’m still hopeful I’ll finish on time (in two weeks!!), I REALLY need to buckle down, or I don’t have a chance.

You may recall from my design plan that architectural moldings are the key, at least in my mind, to making an all pink room sophisticated. I knew accomplishing this would be the toughest part of my One Room Challenge, and I was right. Until this project, I had never installed architectural moldings, and in true Kristen-dives-right-in fashion, I decided to tackle crown molding, chair rail, and picture frame moldings all at once!

I started with the crown molding, and I’ll spare you the details on how I installed it, because you do NOT want to learn from me.

I definitely didn’t do everything correctly, as you can see from some of my imperfect cuts. The one above the bookcases was the first one I did, and unfortunately I made all of my practice cuts on the smaller bookcase crown. I learned the hard way that not all crown molding has the same spring angle, so my first corner is pretty wonky. I’m hoping it’s nothing that a little (or a lot) of caulk won’t hide.

Arabella’s room has some funky angles, and to be honest, I had no idea how to measure what this actual angle was. I printed out a protractor, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it completely flush with the wall. So I looked at our floor plan and guessed that it was pretty close to a 45 degree angle. Luckily, that worked out pretty well, although I did cut the piece to the above right about an eight of an inch too short. Once again, hopefully caulk will cover all of my mistakes.

The chair rail was fairly simple after tackling the crown molding, and then I moved on to the picture frame boxes. My original plan was to do something similar to Jewel Marlowe did in her bedroom, with picture frame moldings above and below the chair rail.

However, when I started measuring out the boxes for Arabella’s room, I realized that might not be the best option for this particular space… I started below the chair rail and spaced everything approximately two inches apart (two inches above the baseboard, two inches below the chair rail, and two inches between each picture frame box).

And I realized that virtually nothing in her room is centered. Not her angled door, the closet door placement, or the space on either side of the windows. I feared that the room would feel visually off balance if I carried the boxes up above the chair rail. And the space between the window and the bookcase presented it’s own special quandary. Do I space the box two inches from the straight edge of the bookcase or measure out from the widest point of the crown?

The more I thought about it, the more I came to believe that picture frame molding boxes above the chair rail were a mistake, and I started leaning more toward what Jewel did in her basement. Sidenote: if you don’t follow Jewel on Instagram, you really should. She’s a genius. Seriously. She also happens to be a really fantastic person.

I polled a few friends (and anyone who follows me on Instagram), and most of them came to the same conclusion I had, that I should stick to boxes below the chair rail. So that’s what I did.

I debated about adding a box below the window, and ultimately I decided to go for it. The box to the lower left of the window is about 1/8 of an inch lower than the box to the lower right of the window, so the box I did below the window is the tiniest bit off. The perfectionist in me wanted to rip it off and start over, but the mom who feels behind on everything won out and it is staying as is. Hopefully it’s not too noticeable to anyone but me!

I also debated about adding a picture frame molding box on the side of the bookcase, but I ultimately decided against it for three reasons. 1) It’s more work and I’m already behind. 2) It will be easier to paint without the architectural detail. 3) I can always add it later if I change my mind.

So here’s where I’m currently at:

1. install mural – done
2. turn old bookshelves into built ins – done
3. install crown molding – done
4. install chair rail – done
5. install picture frame molding – done
6. choose paint color – done
7. touch up molding with nail hole filler and caulk – done, but may need to touch up a bit more
8. prime built ins
9. paint built ins
10. paint crown
11. paint baseboards
12. paint walls
13. source art and accessories
14. source bedding
15. paint nightstands (possibly)

You can see I’ve still got a long way to go, and considering it’s basically taken me two months to get the first half of this project done, I really need to get my buns in gear and make some stuff happen this week!

Further complicating matters, my kids have been sleeping in a tent in our bonus room for the last two and a half months, and last night when we got home from the lake at 9pm, Kaden decided he wants to sleep in his own room again. Arabella was scared to sleep in the tent by herself, so we had to move her mattress and temporary curtains back into her room. I’m going to have to figure out what to do with her while I’m painting… I really wish they would have waited ONE more week before moving back into their rooms.

Tune back in next week. I’ll be sharing what paint color I chose, and hopefully pictures of the room completely painted as well! And don’t forget to check out the spaces of the other One Room Challenge participants!

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8