ORC Pre-Party...

Here's a little One Room Challenge Recap:
If you aren't familiar, the One Room Challenge is a blogging event that takes place biannually. Within a five week  period those participating completely transform a space and give weekly updates on the progress. The sixth Thursday is the Big Reveal!! 

My first ORC was also my most recent ORC.

Wait, what?

I really had no idea what I was jumping in to when I did my first ORC- our Guest Bedroom. I never quite "finished" it so I went back last Spring and crossed the T's and dotted the I's.

Spring 2017 One Room Challenge:

Here it was after the first time it was an ORC room:

I definitely "punched things up" the second time around. It just needed a little more attention!

My Fall 2016 One Room Challenge was our Master Bathroom:

It was all about the coral faux bamboo china cabinet.

(You have a china cabinet in a bathroom?  Yep!)

And before the Master Bathroom I redid our Library.

 It was formerly the Dining Room

 but turning the room in to a Library several years ago made the room more useful for us.

Spring 2016

It's all moody and glossy black with lots of bamboo and blue and white touches.

The only room in our house that doesn't have white walls!

Before the Library ORC, Mollie and I did a Mother-Daughter ORC project and gave her bathroom the bohemian chic look she loves.

So this is from Fall 2015 One Room Challenge:





And Spring of 2015 the One Room Challenge was the Guest Bedroom which was the most recent ORC as well. 



The One Room Challenge is a great motivator.
 Jump in if you are thinking about it- You'll have a fresh new room for the holidays.
Most of the time there is a lot of support via positive comments on your posts
 (last time was sadly not the case but I'm back anyway!!)

I'll see you on Thursday with the "reveal" of what room I've chosen for my 6th ORC!!

Who's Been Good To Me?

Goodwill's been good to me.

And a few other thrift shops and consignment shops, too.

( A very, very good day at one single Goodwill!!

The most expensive item was the Bombay platter at $6.96. I know!!)

I like Craigslist and Offer Up.
( I can scroll through in a very few minutes)

(Listed on Offer Up for $50.00. Seriously?? Must pick up that same day! I'm on it!)

(A Craigslist find. It cost more in gas to go get it than the shelf was priced at. Such a deal!!)

I'm all about recycling and re-purposing, so thrifting works for me.

(Adorable bamboo table with flip up shelf. So many uses.

 And a perfectly styled shot! LOL #nicevacuumcleanerlady )

I have had a lot of nice comments on social media about all the goodies

 in my last two One Room Challenges, the Black Is Back Library and the #motherdaughterorc Chinoiserie Meets Boho Chic bathroom. 

(There's more "stuff" in this room that any other in my house

. But it seems cozy to have all these fun things in a Library.)

The large bamboo china cabinet replaced a simpler one-

 that I bought at a thrift store years ago-

 which I sold at a consignment shop for more than this beauty

 I found at the Salvation Army Store.

The bamboo coffee table cost $5.00 at a yard sale- glass and all.

 The bench in the foreground came from Goodwill.

The ORC library chairs - before. Goodwill. $14.91 with ottomans 

which they mistakenly resold before I came back to pick them up. 

So they gave me $14.91 back. Two chairs for $14.91. 

But I'm sad about the ottomans.)

Someone asked if I spend hours thrifting everyday.

I wish I had time like that, but not so much.

(Only thing that didn't come via thrifting is the limes!)

I have a pretty crazy schedule everyday, I live in a metropolitan area where it can take an hour to go 10 miles in the middle of the day (not even rush hour), and I don't actually like to shop. And I am a complete failure at returning stuff.

(This one barely fit in the car! But it was half price furniture day at the Salvation Army!!

Which I totally didn't know before I got there.)

However, and this is the biggie, I can be in and out of a Goodwill in 10 minutes including checking out.

I live near quite a few thrift stores  Goodwill, Salvation Army, and a variety of thrift stores.

This helps. And a lot of people donate what I think is really good stuff :)

One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that.

(Check this guy out after a little gold spray paint!)

So this is how I go about finding the "good stuff!"
(And please know that I can visit 10 times and find nothing and then...  yowza!
Something amazing is sitting there just waiting for me!!)

I grab a cart on my way in.

I know I'm "supposed" to check the 50% off color at Goodwill
 but that doesn't really matter to me.
 I don't base purchases on that and what I want never seems to be the color anyway!

Then I head directly back to the furniture, where ever that is in the particular store.

I also scan the top of the shelves from a distance as I walk to furniture. That is how I have gotten all of my globes and a couple of amazing lamps.

 I check the furniture, pull the tag if I am interested 
and then move on to smaller housewares like dishes, etc.

 ( $2.00 worth of bamboo garden stakes repaired this chair that was marked down to $10.00)

Then I look through the decorative items and dishes for blue and white 
(luckily it's easy to spot.)

(All my blue and white has been thrifted!)

I move down to baskets and such because I am after wicker hampers and picnic boxes to use as storage for two spots in my house.

 ( I can pack a car!! Still think KIA needs to use me in a commercial!!)

I run by frames because I usually purchase any bamboo frames or mirrors that I find and can potentially use. I have some I bought 20 years ago at a garage sale!

So basically I am only looking for what I specifically want.
I am not shopping to resell
 although I'm tempted because I have to leave good stuff behind all the time!! #thestruggleisreal

I can be quick because I know what I want and I'm pretty focused on that.

If I find something great that I'm not sure whether I "need" or not I will take a few moments to think about what I can move or replace.
 The full cycle is donating something that I have used and am changing out with a new find.

I don't feel bad if I find a "better" lamp and donate one back when they both cost $4.94 :)

(This came home with me yesterday. You'll see this project in a future post, I'm sure!)

And, full disclosure, sometimes I find something so amazing for such a deal that I will grab it and figure out what to do with it/where to use it later.

I honestly have a bamboo bench, in the way, on the back porch that I cannot for the life of me figure out where it should live but it was less than 20 dollars,
A similar one is on Craigslist and Offer Up for over $100,
and it's awesomeness is too much to part with.

Every week I say I need to give it away and every week I hang on to it for
 "just one more week because it will come to me!!"

#bamboohoarder

#forreal

I try not to let that happen but sometimes it just does :)

My favorite rooms on the internet and in homes I visit always
 have a variety of items including thrifted items
 and/or furniture and travel or family momentos.
My favorite rooms in the most recent ORC are the ones from the guest bloggers who had to get creative and use that creativity to design amazing rooms of color, texture and depth. I felt like a lot of the "chosen" designers spent massive amounts of money designing rooms that showed off a bunch of sponsors or had very few creative ideas that the rest of us could learn from or use. I am not bashing the One Room Challenge. I love that Linda has created something that gets us motivated ( Goodness, knows this self professed 85%er needs it) but I'm just not feeling the "reveals" that read like the shopping guides from a swanky design magazine. I'm probably the only one but that's my two cents worth. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I don't have sponsors :) Anyway, I hope you checked out all the guest bloggers and saw some of the amazing things they found to use in their rooms.
#thriftingforthewin

You can see many of my "finds" in real time on Instagram !

Elephant Rescue!

One of the things on Mollie's wish list has been an elephant garden stool.

We actually thought about one for the #motherdaughteroneroomchallenge

but there wasn't room and the Thrifting Gods did not offer one up!

We popped in to a favorite thrift shop the other day to take a look around

and tucked in a corner....

... blending in with a white cabinet behind it...

was an elephant that needed rescuing.

He needed rescuing because he had been living with someone who had never thought to spiff him up in any way (he was still in his raw plaster state)

and then donated him to a thrift store where he was pushed into a corner!

"Nobody puts baby in a corner."

( That movie keeps showing up during ORC season!!)

Well, we grabbed him and took him right home with us,

 grabbed our favorite gold paint for elephants and got busy.

I forgot to take a picture before I started spraying him gold*

 but it was a gray day and we were worried about rain.

(And dying to seem him all painted up!!)

Looking better already and he's only lived with us for  few hours

 at this point!



*I don't spray paint everything gold but I will spray paint just about  anything!!

Week 5 One Room Challenge!

 Week 5.

Cannot bear to type that!

I have finished painting the windows and window trim but not all of the trim in the room.

 Windows are scraped. Yay.

#no small thing.

Are you a taper or a scraper?

(aaaaand I need to get in the front yard and pull some weeds...)

Bamboo blinds found, purchased and hung. Check!
Deal of the century at Home Depot.

Looked there for the #motherdaughter ORC and couldn't find a thing.

This time major success!

 I have been tweaking the original fabric choices a little.

And changing my mind on the window treatment situation just a little.

 I'm still starting with inexpensive IKEA curtains. They were purchased yesterday.

 Some sewing still has to happen.

#fingerscrossed

(Does it concern anyone that black zip ties are part of my window treatment plan??)

My panic item on the"to do" list is that I have not even begun painting
 the white shelves black.
See still white. And still full of stuff!

That is major.

 We need some serious drying time in our humid weather

 before we put books back on freshly painted shelves.
 I just don't know y'all!
The luxury would be to buy 2 more of the basic black IKEA shelves to match the ones on the opposite wall. However, the white ones are perfectly fine except for the fact they are white and not black. #firstworldprobs
So frugality will win out and we will hope for a painting miracle :)
cause no humidity in Atlanta in May would take a miracle!

Waaaay less has happened than should have.

I was in charge of two large events at work in the last 3 weeks. 
Both occurred on  weekends so not much happened at home.
 I'm not sure how "finished" this room is going to be next week :(

(War zone pics to make everyone else feel better!!. You're welcome!)

And photographing a black room is proving to be tricky!

Any tips??
And if it wasn't tricky enough we took down the brass chandelier ( light source)
 last night on a whim.
#unplannedproject

 (cause I'm not behind enough already!!!)

Look at that glossy black trim, though!!! It's killer!

Check out the rest of the ORC Guest Bloggers.
 Many of them have waaaay more interesting things to report than I do :)

See you next week to "reveal" whatever is ready!!!



A Quick Look Back - The ORC 2016 Is Just Around The Corner!

The One Room Challenge Spring 2016 Edition 
is fast approaching.

and I am jumping in again.

It's a great way to "get 'er done"

 especially for a now professed 85%er :)

But a bit of nostalgia and a tip or two before I move on to the latest room to be "ORC'D"

Yes, it's a verb now like "google" or "xerox."

At least it is at my house.

My first ORC was a guest room and prompted by this bed 
and a room filled with "stuff" a la Hoarders!

 

It was waaaaay more work than I thought and after 5 weeks and 6 posts
 it was much improved but not really "there." 
It still needed love. 
I also learned from some people's posts that they had thought ahead and sometimes pre-ordered supplies, painted rooms, or gotten more prepped than I had.
 And some people dove in and completely gutted rooms, 
moved electrical, plumbing and more. 
I landed somewhere in the middle ( but admittedly with little pre-planning or forethought!)

So ORC #1 has gotten a few tweaks. 
(And a few more to come)
Another chair, a natural fiber rug,  a change in lamps and it seems to be a little more finished feeling. 
The bamboo bar cart rolled in as a bedside table. 
#isaroomeverfinished

And I found a vintage bamboo and rattan light fixture 
for the ceiling light in the center of the room. 

The second ORC attempt was Mollie's bathroom and we had an absolute blast on our #motherdaughterorc. 
Mollie had input, we painted and shopped and thrifted and
we  had a great time pulling her bathroom from blah to Chinoiserie meets Boho Chic.
We painted everything even the linoleum floor!!



 Other than tweaking her gallery wall 
(and we knew that she would move a few things as her bedroom evolved ) 
we are still loving that finished product.



I highly recommend joining in.
 I think Linda intended for this to be fun, motivating and inspirational 
and it is.



Or that's how I go about it!
I do what I can with what I have - time, budget, creativity, patience.
When the dust settles (and there is dust cause it's a whirlwind)
the space is improved if not finished,
other bloggers are supportive
 and some take the time to comment on your efforts which is fun and motivational as well. 
And I loooove checking in and seeing what everyone else is doing.
It's one big productive design party!
See you there!

Three Dollar Gold Elephant

I love the Dollar Spot at Target.

Who doesn't?

I do get miffed that it is now the $3.00 and $5.00 spot as well. 

But last week I found a cute mounted elephant head for $3.00.

You just screw the two pieces together.

Not our colors so I had to go for the gold. 

At this point you can still see the polka dots.

They do disappear more with each coat but if you think it would bother you then you could sand the back piece first. 

I used our favorite gold spray paint that I've mentioned before 

and used on other elephant heads :)

 

We added it to the gallery wall in Mollie's bathroom which was our "challenge room" for the previous One Room Challenge on Calling It Home.

It's almost time to gear up for the next ORC.

 It's the best way to get a room going and get it finished.

 I think I'm going to get another room puled together this Spring.

Be sure to follow along or join in!

 

January Makes Me Want To Paint!!

It's all  that New Year/fresh start stuff 
and it makes me want to paint !!

My view every morning! I paint. I shower. I go to work!

Plus every paint company and Pantone are releasing their "Colors of the Year"!
And I am happy about the whites!!

Everything just feels so clean and organized after you paint, purge and move back in to a space.

College Girl graduated in July, had a short term recruiting job at her university for a few months and then landed a job in Midtown Atlanta.

Her lease in the college town ended 12/31, the commute was a bit much even though she loved Carrollton and her years there, so she's moving home to save some $$ so she can move into her own place.

If you want to feel better about any bills you are paying them "google" rents
inside the Perimeter in Atlanta and you will instantly feel better.
You will also see why she has to live at home and save for a bit.

So another move for College Girl.
If you follow on IG then you know that a much used hashtag in our lives is
#isit6movesor7
Not kidding.

To make living at home after having your own 2 bedroom townhouse for 2 years a little more appealing we have cleared out the guest bedroom across from her childhood bedroom and created a little "suite" for her - bedroom and sitting room and the bath next door which we just glammed up in the Fall 2015 ORC. See below!!

I started painting the room that will be her sitting room in December as we were moving our stuff out, her stuff in and all the other craziness that goes on at Christmas time.

It's all fresh and white. 

(This room will become the sitting room.)

And while the 5 gallon bucket of white paint is upstairs...

Goodbye yellow stripe accent wall in the bedroom!!
You were fun but it's time.

Now it's all freshly painted white and ready for the star of the room:

The vintage wicker headboard that I found in perfect condition at Goodwill for -

 I did not make this up!! - $24.96. 

It was an amazing day of thrifting!

Sadly, I actually had to leave great stuff behind. 

Mollie loves it and her bedroom is slowly coming together as well. 

All in the same Chinoiserie meets Boho vibe like in the ORC inspiration rooms!

The faux bamboo dresser and lamp are from previous lucky thrifting days!!
I can be in and out of a Goodwill in 10 minutes!!! It's like I'm on a mission!!

And Mollie and I hit 3 Homegoods in 2 days to scoop up all the great knob possibilities for a dresser update going on on the other side of the room. 
More on that later but look at all this hardware goodness. 

Don't worry. We are going to be returning some of these!!
It'll be hard - but we don't need them all :)


Linking up at Coastal Charm!