May 8, 2019

Kendall’s Big Girl Room – One Room Challenge – Week 6 – FULL REVEAL!!!

Kendall’s Big Girl Room – One Room Challenge – Week 6 – FULL REVEAL!!!

***THIS POST WAS WRITTEN OVER THE COURSE OF WEEK 6 OF THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE AND CHRONICLES SOME OF THE CHALLENGES I FACED DURING THIS TIME.  IT IS LONG.  FEEL FREE TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR THE REVEAL PHOTOS AND LINKS***

 

Friday May 3rd 1:07AM:  I’m sitting at the laptop eating Oreos and milk.  It’s just been one of those weeks.  If I didn’t start this blog post RIGHT NOW, I don’t know when I would find the time.  Chase’s birthday party AND his actual birthday is Saturday and after writing as much as I can tonight and getting a couple more hours of sleep, I have SO MUCH to do tomorrow to get ready.  I am making a Dinosaur cake WITH dinosaurs wearing party hats, because can you think of anything else better than a dinosaur wearing a party hat?  So baking and crafting tiny party hats I will be.  I also plan on making a T Rex faces out of construction paper for a “Feed the T Rex” version of bean bag toss.  And then of course there’s wrapping his presents that *fingers crossed* the Amazon Gods will have to my doorstep in time.  Tomorrow I also have regular life stuff like school drop off and pick up, a board meeting for Kendall’s preschool followed by an end of year Board Appreciation Lunch, and then softball practice.  I’m currently staring at a pile of paper Sean’s been asking me to sort through for over a week, and somewhere in all of this I need to make more progress on Kendall’s room so I can shoot it by Tuesday night at the LATEST.  Her light fixture needs to be hung, I need to plan all wall and shelf styling, perhaps source another gallery frame or two (which in our town is IMPOSSIBLE) and maybe get some different bedding cuz I’m just not jiving with her current sheets.  The wheels are falling off, people.  

Also somewhere in all this I’m emotionally grappling with the fact I’m about to have a THREE and FIVE year old (Kendall’s birthday is 6 days after Chase’s) and how we are officially out of the baby years.  With Chase deciding he was done with naps back in September, this whole year has been SURVIVAL people.  He stayed home with me all year with NO NAPS.  On a good week I would have two hours of childcare so I could run out for some much needed therapy, just to run home to relieve my sitter.  Sean’s work schedule was grueling, leaving before the kids woke up and getting home by 6:30 on a good day.  I felt like this year would NEVER end, that I wouldn’t make it.  And now here we are – in May – with four more weeks left until we have a KINDERGARTENER and a preschooler.  And not that I necessarily wish I could pause time, but I’m transitioning into a more reflective mindset which definitely makes me feel like I should appreciate the $hit out of these last few weeks because then they are GONE.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my children.  I LOVE the age they are RIGHT now AND I’m exhausted.  This quote by Tina Fey truly sums it all up for me:  “Being a mom has made me so tired.  And so happy.”

Monday May 6th 5:48AM:  We survived the weekend!  Chase had an epic Dinosaur birthday party with the cherry being two “special guests” scaring the bejesus out of all the children – Sean and his brother Ryan dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes.  Chase himself screamed in fear and then laughed hysterically once he realized they weren’t real and it was Daddy and Uncle RyRy inside.  Most of the 3 year olds fled while the 4,5, and 6 year olds were a mix of excitement and confusion.  It was one of the FUNNIEST things I have ever seen and I still giggle watching the video of it.  His cake turned out super cute, the Dino bean bag toss turned out whatever and ended up getting trampled on, and we miraculously pulled off hosting a large family party in the midst of everything else going on.  Whew.  

Monday May 6th 6:13AM:  So now back to the ORC.  CHANDELIERGATE.  You guys, I am so irritated about this darn chandelier.  Back in the middle of April I ordered THIS chandelier for Kendall’s Room off the Pottery Barn website.  When I added it to my cart, it said “arrival in 3-5 days” so I thought, “Perfect!  I’ll have it before May!”  Then when I received my confirmation email, it read “Estimated ship date:  May 16-May 20.”   Ummmm… uh oh, that’s well after the ORC wraps up.  So I called the ever-UNHELPFUL customer service number at Pottery Barn.  I really don’t like to speak poorly of any company, but I have to say that Pottery Barn has to have the WORST inventory system on the planet.  These poor customer service people have no good way to know what is in stock in their “warehouse” or what is in a particular store.  The guy on the phone literally said to me “my system says there are 4 in Costa Mesa which is your best chance there still might be one there.”  Ummm what???  Your system says there are FOUR but really there could be NONE.  Does. Not. Compute.  You would think if selling furniture was your BUSINESS you would want a solid way to TRACK YOUR INVENTORY?????  I digress.  

So I ended up calling this store in Costa Mesa which is like 8 hours away, and they had it in stock and were able to ship it to my door free of charge given all this nonsense with my online order.  Yay!  Okay so fast forward to last week when the Costa Mesa item arrives and the next day, my online order arrives.  I hadn’t cancelled the online order because I thought I had like 3 weeks to do that given the backorder story, and honestly it was pretty low on my priority list.  So here I am sitting with TWO pendant lights.  SMH.  We go to install one and Sean pulls it out of the box and it is a FREAKING PLUG IN PENDANT.  I mean…. ????  There is literally a picture on their website of these pendants appearing hard wired into the ceiling as chandeliers.  Every other picture of the item conveniently hides the ceiling and cords.  I mean, if that isn’t false advertising I don’t know what is.  YES, it does say in the overview “plug in pendant hangs from a clear cord” and no, I didn’t read the fine print, so my bad.  ANYWAY SUPER LONG STORY JUST TO SAY I have no idea what to do with my chandelier situation now.  My options are:

  • Ask my neighbor, who is good with electrical, to somehow cut the wires and hard wire it in for me
  • Return one chandelier and exchange one for the flush mount version (this involves a trip into the city today which I would really like to avoid)
  • Return BOTH chandeliers and just do nothing.  Leave it as is
  • Keep one and use it as it’s intended – as a pendant plug in light.  I could hang this in the corner above her “reading nook” but I feel like it might look weird with her current chandelier.

I think I’ll ask the neighbor how involved that would be and if he has time today, and go from there.  We have plenty of beer leftover from the party I can pay him with.  

***Note:  I ended up last-minute hiring an electrician who installed the pendant for me***

Image from Pottery Barn.  See what I’m talking about???

 

Wednesday May 8th 9:26AM:  I just dropped Kendall at school and Chase at my best friend’s house and she says to me, “go make yourself a fancy coffee and lounge on the couch like a REAL blogger.”  And now I am sitting on the couch typing up a storm without ANY distractions and this is PURE LUXURY, PEOPLE!  That idea of blogger lounging at a coffee shop taking their time sipping a latte as the ideas come to them -at least for me – couldn’t be further from the truth.  To work on a blog post I am always doing one of two things:

1. Standing in the kitchen blogging at the island while my children pull at my shirt, scream my name from the bathroom, tell me they are hungry or I have to pause to break up a fight OR

2.  I blog in the middle of the night.  

Those are my two options.  So sitting on the couch in peace to write my LAST update for the One Room Challenge is the BIGGEST treat.  So here we go!!!!

 

I spent about an hour photographing Kendall’s room last night and another two or so hours editing said photos.  I wish I could say it was an enjoyable process but honestly it has been grueling.  I’d like to beg the ORC Gods to plan next year’s Spring Challenge at a time that doesn’t wrap up at the beginning of May as to avoid both my kids birthdays, ummkay???  😉  BUT I have to say this is LEAPS AND BOUNDS my FAVORITE ROOM I have EVER designed.  It is whimsical and girlie while also being edgy and unexpected.  I was able to mix several elements from her nursery (all the large furniture, some bedding, and some sentimental handmade wall art) with some more trendy and older feeling decor (the light fixture, the lounge chair, wall decor.)  The combination makes the room really feel age appropriate for a 5-10 year old and hopefully she will love it for the next 5 years because I AIN’T REDOING IT AGAIN FOR A LOOONG WHILE YA HEAR!!!  

There are some elements that turned out better than I could have imagined.  For example the scalloped dot wall.  If I were to do it all over again, I would do that throughout the whole room.  Actually there is NO WAY IN HELL I would have the patience to stencil an entire room – I barely finished the one wall – but it’s just SO FUN.  I’m not saying I don’t love the Fox Wallpaper.  In fact I think Kendall and her friends love the wallpaper the most of anything in her room.  I just personally love the stenciled dot wall more. 🙂  

And of course there are ideas that I chose not to implement because I couldn’t get them to work or ran out of time – like the bed canopy I ordered and never hung, because it just didn’t fit anywhere.  Or the twinkle lights because without the canopy they weren’t a necessity and how would I photograph those anyway?  Or the adorable star wall hooks I completely forgot to order.  Ooops.

And finally there were the last minute changes,  like the lounge chair. 🙁  I still absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the Pier 1 chair I blogged about last week (read about it HERE) but this new one from PBTeen is just so much more comfortable and easy to style for like $20 more than the other one, and I think it will actually get USED.  I PRAY I can find a home for that Pier 1 chair somewhere else in my house because it’s just such good eye candy.  If not it’s going back to the store, along with about 21 other things I purchased and ended up not using.  Anyone else do that????  

So without further ado…

Here’s a reminder of what her room looked like BEFORE

And here is Kendall’s Revamped Big Girl Bedroom 🙂

Wildflower Wooden Banner/Curtains/Chandelier

Wallpaper/Bedding

Tassel Dreamcatcher/Cheetah Bookends

  Swan Head/Pom Pom Garland

Round Dorm/Tooth Fairy Mouse/Leopard Print/Hello Embroidery Board

Girl Portrait King Owl/Go Your Own Way/Droplet Garland/She Persisted/Ragamuffin/Shelf  Hang Around Chair/Let’s Dance/Crown Throw Pillow ALL SOURCES AND LINKS:

Entry

Bed Area

Round Dorm – Burke Decor

Dresser Area

Chair Area

Because several of Kendall’s new decor items are birthday presents for her, I had to secretly style her room with these items without her seeing them.  Just a fun additional challenge.  😉  

SOOOO what do you guys think????  I am SO happy to check my first One Room Challenge off my bucket list!!!  Be sure to head to the ORC Blog to check out all the other participants’ final reveals – I know how that’s how I will be spending my evening over a glass of celebratory wine.  🙂  Oh wait just kidding – softball game and board meeting.  There’s always the weekend.  🙂

Thank you to EVERYONE who followed me on this journey, both here and on Instagram.  I am grateful for all my online and IRL friends for their support.  Love you guys.

Kristen

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Filed Under: Design Projects, Design Projects, DIY Projects, Room Renovations