One Room Challenge: Week 2

Wow! This week has really flown by!  It’s been an incredibly busy week, and I’ve only had 12-14 hours of time to devote to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge and the office/craft room in the past 7 days.  


Almost two hundred other bloggers and I are in Week 2 of the six-week One Room Challenge, and lots of progress is being made by many!  You can visit Calling it Home to see what the others are up to.  For me, Week 2 was a bit challenging as a result of a very condensed amount of time being available to work, but some changes were made nonetheless. 
If this is your first time reading my blog, thank you for your visit!  You can catch up on what I started with in Week 1 of the One Room Challenge here.

What I wanted to accomplish in Week 2 was: 
 
  • Finish painting all walls (including staircase), trim, and shelves.
  • Return books and other items to their places on shelves.
  • Begin sorting through remaining ‘stuff’ – keep/donate/toss.  
What I actually accomplished in Week 2 was:
 
Finished painting shelves, staircase, and staircase trim.
By far the worst part of painting is prepping and cleaning the walls and trim.  The staircase was especially a pain because I had to lug the vacuum cleaner up and down several times before they were clean enough.

And then this sweet little ball of fluff found my lap, 
making it difficult to get any work done!

For the first time ever, I chose to forgo the painstaking process of using painter’s tape.  I’d say overall, it turned out well.  Prior to the start of the One Room Challenge on October 8th, I had already completed one section of shelves, taping off for both colors (which takes a lot of paint and a lot of time!), and still had to go back and touch up some gray areas that got white paint all over them.  

Shelf section 1 During
Shelf Section 1 After
 

What I discovered during that process was that the shelves (wood, white paint) themselves were the most challenging parts to paint with clean lines around the edges; the backs (drywall, gray) were easier to paint within the lines.  So on the second group of shelves I decided to first paint the wooden sections, not worrying about getting white paint on the drywall.  I went back after that and carefully cut in the edges of the drywall with gray paint, and actually got very little onto the white, which I touched up later.  

Shelf section 2 Before
Shelf section 2 After
Close-up of the shelves – I love the contrast between the two colors!  
And my lines turned out pretty clean, even without tape!

And it was so much quicker than using tape!  This method was also successful on the staircase, though both the shelves and staircase have a few places where I need to touch-up some small mistakes, and they don’t quite have that crisp line you get between trim and wall when you use tape.  


I did use clear packing tape between the bottom of the trim and the carpet throughout the room and on the staircase to keep the carpet as clean as possible.

That’s one dark staircase!
Looking better!
Nothing special here.  Except the eight little legs at the top!
By the time I finished filling in the holes on this wall, it looked like it had chicken pox!
That’s a much more inviting staircase!

Painted new desk and moved it into place.

The first piece of furniture is in the room now: the pretty antique desk I snagged for $15 at a nearby thrift store over a year ago got a facelift in the form of fresh paint and new drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby.

 
 

Pipsqueek is taking a nap as I type at the new desk.  Seriously, how can he sleep like that?

Rocky found a much cozier spot near my feet.

My goals for the coming week are:
 
Touch-up paint on shelves and staircase.  
This includes the top quarter inch of the sloped part of the staircase, which is a challenge to reach.  And it includes trying to touch-up the little blobs of gray paint I got on the popcorn ceiling in this same impossible-to-reach area.  When I painted our front staircase earlier this year, I rigged up a piece of wood on a ladder.  The ladder was on loan from my parents and we have since returned it to them, so it’s time to get creative to figure out how to reach this area.  
 
Currently, my plan is to duct tape a brand-new edging brush to the end of the paint roller extension pole, but I’m open to other suggestions if someone out there has a better idea!
 
I had hoped that using this little slidey thing at the end of the pole
would be sufficient, but it’s to blame both for the 1/4″ of tan space
at the top of the walls AND the blobs of gray on the ceiling…
Paint remaining five walls. 
Isn’t a room only supposed to have four walls?  This one has 15 (including the staircase and two pony walls)!!  They’re all small, and have funny little nooks and crannies that make it a long, slow process to paint each wall and its corresponding trim.  
 
Oh, and one of the remaining walls has had a dartboard on it for over 6 years and has hundreds of little holes all around it from badly thrown darts…which I get to fill in with spackle next week!
 
All those little marks are tiny dart holes that must be filled in…
If there’s enough time (there won’t be), I’ll also paint the mini door to the unfinished closet in the corner.  I will either paint it white or with navy or black chalkboard paint. 
 
Clear floor to make room for new furniture.
This includes the following and must be done so I can finally finish painting:
 
  • Return books, etc. to shelves
  • Donate or sell corner curio cabinet that’s just been chillin’ in the middle of the room since last spring when we moved the hutch into the kitchen.
  • Donate or sell a cheap desk that would be perfect for a college student.
  • Move headboard that wouldn’t fit in the attic into the sewing room, where it will wind up in the end anyway.
  • Sort through/organize remaining ‘stuff’ to keep/donate/toss.
I have my work cut out for me!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Check back next week for more progress and pictures!

 
 
Laura

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