One Room Challenge Week 5: Modern Boy Bedroom

We’re in the home stretch!   Week 5 of the One Room Challenge is upon us and it’s really starting to get real!   In comparison to the spaces that some other One Room Challengers are doing, my space is baby stuff – but no matter big or small it still has to be done by week 6 (next week, EEK!) for the big reveal!

I don’t know what it is about this time of year, but life has just swamped us lately making it hard to feel super productive on anything really.  But, between all the this busyness I did manage to nail down some of my husband’s time this past weekend to do a few “manly” install type things.

He installed the new curtain rods…

(sorry for the crappy pic, bad lighting at the time)

and the brackets for the shelving went up….

but sadly, the actual shelves are still not ready.  I’m still in the process of preparing the wood.  After researching how to get the weathered oak look I was going for out of my red oak boards, I decided that beaching the wood would be my best bet in order to get the stain to work right.    I bought some wood bleach and tested out an area of one riser to see how it would work.  Results: amaze-balls.

(again, bad lighting + in a hurry = crappy pic)

I highly recommend Zinsser Wood Bleach if you are looking to bleach wood (has to be raw wood though).  My red oak risers are now closer to looking like white oak, and will stain up much better than they did with the red undertone.  The boards will still been to be stained, and  trimmed down a little bit before install,  but the project is coming along – slowly, but surely.

In other (but not much more exciting) news, I manage to make some final decisions on some of the other items main items that I still needed for the space.

After looking at about 1,000 different chairs (why are there so many damn chairs?!)  for Jackson’s desk, I finally decided on this modern faux black leather chair .  They only come in a set of 2, but I bit the bullet on the extra cost and decided I’d use the remaining chair for my younger son’s room.   I’m totally digging them.  Super stylish, on trend, AND affordable.  I’d probably pay a fortune for something similar at West Elm or CB2 (I totally heart both these stores by the way, just not their prices).

I also had a revelation while deciding on a bedside table.  I wasn’t finding anything I loved until I stumbled upon the concept of floating nightstands.  Genius.  I love how they look and are functional without being obtrusive to the space.   Unfortunately, most of the floating nightstand I found in my search for were a bit over budget for this project, so I decided to go with a similar concept and use IKEA’s new Eket line.  The cube can be attached to the wall and will work as both storage and a place for a small bedside lamp.

On one last note, I learned a valuable design lesson this week that I need to make my motto more often.  Editing, and then more editing is the key to great design.  I tend to over-design on paper, but in reality I prefer uncomplicated, clean, edge of minimalist design.  Some of the items I had intended to include in the room just didn’t translate well from paper to the actual space.  So I edited.   I cut the rug (pun intended),  pared down the gallery wall concept a bit, am considering if I really need the DIY hat hooks or not, and started to focus on keeping things a little more simple.

After mentally making these edits, I feel better already about how the space will turn out and about how much I have left to do.  Here is the current state of to-do’s:

• Paint Walls
• New Carpeting
• New Bed and Bedding
• New Desk and Chair and Bookcase Chair arrived and assembled this week!
  
• Add Storage through Shelving (DIY)* – STILL getting there!!  Plan to stain and install this weekend!
  
• Under Bed Storage Crates with Wheels (DIY)* – opted for a store bought option that I’m lovin’
  
• Install a new Fan with light and remote  – I’m thinking this one is going to get put on the back burner for the moment.  It needs to get done, I just can’t settle on which fan I want, and not a lot of time to install it right now.
  
• Add Lamp Lighting and Sconce Lighting – Running out to grab lamps today!
  
• Get and hang new Curtain Rods and Curtains  –done and done!
• Add Chair and Rug to create the ‘Chill Zone’ area – 
  
• Add Artwork, Hanging Poster Frame (DIY)*, Décor and Accessories throughout to personalize – starting to collect things!
  

All in all, I’m in pretty good shape with everything.  Again, this room was not a ton of work from the start, but given how busy we’ve been with other things, it has just taking more time than anticipated to pull it all together.    Hoping to get these last remaining items left on the to-do list done this weekend, and then I’ll be all set to shoot early next week.

Be sure to stop over to Calling It Home and check out all the progress of the other One Room Challenge participants!  There are some really amazing transformations happening out there, people. We’re talking like whole kitchens and bathrooms…hats off to those peeps for sure!

Can’t wait to show you the Jackson’s completed modern boy bedroom next week!