ORC 6b: The Final Act. The Tiniest Dressing Room

Tiny, but fierce.

We're done. The One Room Challenge (tm) for the Fall of 2015, hosted by Linda of Calling it Home, is officially over. Mom is thrilled with her dressing room. I won't lie--this was extremely challenging--in almost every way--and I am glad it's over. The room reveals of the 20 invited participants were truly inspiring, as were those of my fellow guest participants. They were just what I needed to tidy up those last little details and get this puppy done.

If you're joining me for the first time, I took on the challenge of transforming a weird little space at my Mom's house into a glamorous dressing room for her. She loves drama and glitter and gold. So, that's what we did.

In week one, I showed you what we were dealing with, the floor pan and my inspiration: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos.

Week two was all about getting the dratted closet out: Down and Out, or is that Out and Down?

Unfortunately, so, too, was week three: Coming out of  the Closet, No Wait, it's the Closet Coming Out!

I learned why dry walling is a professional's job in week four. From Dry Walling to Walls Drying.

And in week five, I learned how to lay vinyl planking--and assembled Ikea pax units for days and days (and days): The Infrastructure is In!

A few days ago, I let you all know I'd be late to the reveal party and showed you the state of the room in The Walking Deadline.

And so here we have it.

When you come up the stairs, there are two "rooms" on either side of the stair railings. I am standing in one of them taking the picture below. As you can see, we put up sheers to give Mom some privacy. (I think we'll attach another set so that they are more opaque.)

Here's the entrance.

The print (of a work by Georgia O'Keefe) is to the right of the photo, just out of frame.

Quite the difference from before:

Turning the corner, we had an awkward hallway ending in a closet.

Now we have this:

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

I spray painted a chair Mom already had and she made the pillow. Nothing says glamorous like leopard!

Beside the vanity is the sweater tower.

A closer look at that lovely valence;

Isn't the Trumeau mirror fabulous? My husband made it for me this past week. I was inspired by this site. 

There's 14 inches between the pax units and the wall--just enough room to hang a rod for her fabulous dresses.

The shoe shelves are all that's left of the old closet.

There's a story behind these gold frames.

Originally, this wall was going to display Mom's jewelry on all sorts of hooks and knobs. But, she hated the idea. Absolutely did not want to "clutter" up the wall with bangles and necklaces and what all. To add insult to injury--my husband agreed!

Mom says she has some pictures she'd like to hang--but she can't find them and can't think where they might be. Running out of time, I decided I would buy three Ikea brown wood Ribba frames and hang something in them. Probably scarves.

We get to Ikea late one night only to discover they are being discontinued. Dear heavens. But wait, look, there's a display of three of them! We take them to As Is to have them priced--and as we were negotiating the price with the As Is person--the glass in one of the frames broke. And there's no more glass. And that's when I started to cry. In Ikea.

As it turned out, Mom found her pictures, I went back to Ikea and picked up a gold frame and found the perfect scarf in her collection.

I love it. Love it.

Aren't these ladies just fabulous? Mom found them for 99 cents each at Value Village:

And that, my friends, is that.

Thank you so much for being a part of this with me.

From the One Room Challenge: Masterful Closets

The One Room Challenge is an incredibly demanding event. Not only is the time frame a genuine challenge (and it is five weeks, not six, as the first post supposedly marks the beginning of the first week--and the sixth and final post is at the end of a week. You manage to lose a week that way). The bar is set incredibly high by the wonderful individuals Linda invites to participate as the sponsored challengees.

There  are twenty such dynamos who inspire the rest of us--and there were quite a few of the rest of us this round--over 175 linked up as "guests." As I tend to become somewhat obsessed,  I went searching for individuals who, like me, had chosen to take on a closet make-over. It was fun to follow their progress. So, here's a nice little round up of closets from the ORC.

There was only one invited participant who worked on a closet. Cassandra of Coco and Kelley created this ethereal dressing room/lounge. So pretty.

There were four guests who worked on their closets.

Anne is a girl after my own heart. She knocked down walls, too. She was able to get more pax units into her space, though. I love all the light this closet has.

I wish we had had as much space to work with as Ashley's did with her dressing room. Goodness knows, Mom could use it!

This was fun to watch. Tammy and her husband planned and built their very own custom closet. Tammy even hung wallpaper for the first time. You go, girl!

Lovely details in this closet. Melissa  has some serious skills with acrylic! I love her pink and navy colour scheme.

And finally, if you'd like to see how Mom's little dressing room compares, here's a sneak peak!

Congratulations to everyone who participated--no matter what your project was or how far your project progressed. We are all a lot further than we were a mere five weeks ago!  And some of us have lovely spaces, indeed. Thank you, Linda.


Update: The dressing room is done! You can see it here.

ORC 6: The Walking Deadline

A.L.M.O.S.T. there--but not quite.

I am converting a funny little leftover space at my Mom's into a dressing room for a five week on-line decorating challenge called the One Room Challenge. It is hosted by Linda at Calling it Home. Every Wednesday twenty invited and sponsored bloggers post progress on their projects. On Thursdays, anyone insane enough to join can link up.

That'd be me--and 170 others.

Catch up on former weeks:

Week 1: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos
Week 2: Down and Out or is that Out and Down?
Week 3: Coming Out of the Closet, No Wait, that's the Closet Coming Out.
'Week 4: From Dry Walling to Dry Walls

Week 5: The Infrastructure is In!

Ugh. This project just won't go away. I'm done--but it's not.

It's all those tiny little details that you figure won't take long--but always do. In fairness to myself, though, I knew we were a week behind when I posted last week. But I am ever-optimistic. "Too optimistic" say some. (ahem).

Just because what can go wrong will go wrong--especially when you most need it not too.

I bought four lampshades and three light fixtures this week for the vanity. I cried in Ikea. The sheer volume of clothing and shoes my mother owns is utterly overwhelming to me. The three pax units we purchased and assembled are no where near enough--she has three to four times as many clothes as will fit into the dressing room.

There's no room in the room for the bench. It had been going to store her sweats--now she has nowhere to put them.

We haven't figured out her jewellery. She has vetoed every idea I had and I am out of them.

Anyway.

Pictures still need to be hung.

You'll notice that one of them hasn't any content. Another detail.

Clothes, too.

I didn't pick up any hangers specifically for skirts. I haven't seen her in a skirt in a long time, and I don't have any, personally, so I just didn't think of it. Another detail.

Ditto the wire for the privacy shears.

Chris is re-drilling the holes. I'd originally put them too close to the wall.

The drapes are sewn (yay Mom) and hung--just setting the pleats.

FYI: Planning pleats is hard. 

And this.

Mom's Big Book of Rembrandt paintings (or maybe it's on Renaissance paintings) has been very useful in this project!

This is part of a mirror building project that due to measuring errors on my part and my husband's determination to make it work for me caused, well, you know one of those bitter, nasty, high volume discussions that couples get into.

sigh.

So. we're all tired and stressed and it's not over yet....

Soon. Please God, soon.

Please congratulate the other guest participants, here and the invited participants here. Their finished rooms are quite inspiring.

Update: Woohoo! It's done. Come see.

Punch List:

Empty out every last little thing

Take down remaining shelving

Tear down closet   

Repair dry wall and rebuild closet bit

Prep and paint walls 

Tear out carpet, underlay (padding), and staples.
Put in plywood for floor and level.

Lay down new flooring
Buy new light fixture(s)

Install new light fixture(s)
Sew window treatment
Install drapery wall for privacy and doorway

Find a bench/make one
Cover the bench Not using it.
Buy one pax wardrobe

Assemble 3 Pax Wardrobes
Reconfigure floor vent --not doing it.
Put down a threshold strip

Install closet rod(s)

Install shoe shelves
Egads, I just thought of it--baseboards! We need baseboards! Installed!

Figure out Jewellery storage/display

Move clothes back in.

ORC 5: The Infrastructure is In!

What a week! We made a lot of progress. Lots and lots of hours on my knees, though!

It's all about the plywood, this week.

Flooring

Oh goodness! Laying a floor is not for the weak of knee. 

We decided to lay vinyl planks. The floor underneath needs to be absolutely level. For some reason, the floor inside the former closet wasn't level with the floor outside it. It also moved a lot.

Mom had her contractor come over and look at it for us. He advised me to put down a 3/4" piece of plywood and screw it down every six inches on square. 

As a result of some very tired math calculations--I got a piece much, much too large. I got 6' by 4' when all I needed was 4 feet by 30 inches! 

So, Mom got out a small skill saw and cut it in that room, barely five feet wide. I would have gotten a picture, but I had to hold my 18 month old nephew. (Yes, through out all this, my mother is looking after a toddler.)

I got it screwed down.

44 screws.

It doesn't move anymore.

Then came the leveling compound. Our goal was to simply level out the unevenness--to create gradual dips and rises instead of abrupt ones. If this were any other room, I'd have planed down the offending bits. 

This particular patch was a do-over three times! First, the toddler and the cat walked through it. Then, after I'd patched it--I walked in it! 

Without baseboards to keep everything square, the perimeter of a vinyl plank floor is supposed to be secured with adhesive--so that's what we did. In the areas where there is unevenness, we found we had to put weight on top to keep the edges down.

I ran into trouble. The last pieces were to be no more than two inches wide. Two inches! Those boards were not easy to cut. In fact, it probably took me as long to cut four planks into two inch wide pieces as it took me to lay the entire floor. Seriously.

The Shoe Shelves

Mom's shoes will be housed in the little nook left over after from the former closet.

But first, before I could put up the shelves for the shoes, I had to cover up the big hole in the wall:

These are the pipes for the bathtub. We wanted to make sure we maintained access to them, so I painted another plywood panel and screwed it in. 

My panel is absolutely square. It is the former construction crew who left a mess of an opening like that. It took some effort to be that sloppy.

My husband cut down some former shelves (twice! I was quite challenged in the measuring department this week.) He also painted them for us--and ta da--shelves for shoes!

I also painted the balustrades and railing and the window trim.

Mom and I assembled the three pax units, too. Whoo hoo! 

Hooray for infastructure!

Now for the clothes--and the pretties.

Shopping.

The pocket-book took quite the hit this week. I bought:

• a rug on-line--it's arrived, already.
• three light fixtures so Mom could choose which one she wanted-- returned two.
• fabric from Tonic Living for recovering the bench. It has arrived. It only took a week.

source

• fabric for full length pleated drapes. A valence just isn't going to be enough coverage.
• another pax unit and shelves from Ikea. I am calling it her sweater tower.
• hardware to hang the shoe shelves.
• tchotkes for the vanity
• 96 slim-line hangers
• artwork
• plywood

• more paint
• two new light switches and a new switch plate.
• HVAC supplies for redirecting the heating vent. Why? Because this:

Yep--a heating duct right underneath the sweater tower.

Punch List:

Empty out every last little thing

Take down remaining shelving

Tear down closet   

Repair dry wall and rebuild closet bit

Prep and paint walls 

Tear out carpet, underlay (padding), and staples.
Put in plywood for floor and level.

Lay down new flooring
Buy new light fixture(s)

Install new light fixture(s)
Sew window treatment
Install drapery wall for privacy and doorway

Find a bench/make one
Cover the bench
Buy one pax wardrobe

Assemble 3 Pax Wardrobes
Reconfigure floor vent
Put down a threshold strip

Install closet rod(s)

Install shoe shelves --almost there! Hubs is making three more.
Egads, I just thought of it--baseboards! We need baseboards!

Figure out Jewellery storage/display

Move clothes back in.

If you'd like to catch up:
Week 1: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos
Week 2: Down and Out or is that Out and Down?
Week 3: Coming Out of the Closet, No Wait, that's the Closet Coming Out.
Week 4: From Dry Walling to Dry Walls

If you have time, please check out my fellow ORC enthusiasts at Calling it Home.

Some of the professionals (who post on Wednesdays) are in quite a pickle, aren't they?

ORC 4: From Dry Walling to Walls Drying

I am officially panicking. In fact, I had three separate people tell me to calm down today. One was my husband, another was a stranger. I am very anxious.

Drywall

When I left you last week, we had just knocked out the old closet.

Early in the week, I bought a sheet of drywall, cut it into various sized pieces, and had my husband help me put it up.

Whoo hoo! I've never dealt with drywall before, so this has been quite the learning curve!

Turns out, I had to do it more than once. The first two strips of paper I put down came up. When I took them off to re-do, there wasn't any mud underneath at all! I had been so worried about over doing it--I under did it.

see those two tracks? That's where my tape had been. When I removed them there wasn't any mud underneath at all. I found out later that was because I had pressed too hard and too much when putting them on.

So, for the next coat, I officially and deliberately over did it. When I was done that coat I had ridges a full eighth of an inch think about four inches on the outside edges from my tape.

 This coat--the one with the tape and the mud is apparently the hardest and takes the most finesse. That's why there are professionals!

When I went back the next time, I feathered over those ridges and smoothed things out quite a distance all around. It took one more coat of mud, yet, before everything was smoothed to my satisfaction.

all ready for sanding!

Painting

I brought my husband and we boogied. We washed the walls and ceiling with TSP and then we primed the walls and ceiling with one coat of Killz Max. (Mom's a smoker. I thought it might decrease the smell. Water and latex paint will react with the nicotine in the walls and stink the place up.)

It dried in an hour--so after a quick run for more roller covers, I painted the first coat. I went back another day and finished up. Now we're just waiting for the walls to dry before we deal with the floor.

Flooring

Turns out we have no idea why the floor in the former closet area is not at the same height as the floor in the rest of the space. But, the renovations my Mom had done about 25 years ago were not done by competent people, obviously.

We are laying vinyl planks--so the floor has to be absolutely level. I'll be taking care of that with 3/4" ply and some pre-mixed leveling compound. Wish me luck.


Lighting

I figured out what we needed for lighting. Apparently there is more than one formula for determining the proper size.

This site advises figuring out the diagonal of the room in feet--and then using that number in inches to land on the proper diameter of a light fixture.

This site says all you need to do is add the width of the room to its length in feet and use that number in inches.

Our room is 5x13 feet--so the first method gives us 14 inches. The second 18 inches. That seems like a reasonable range.

As well, there's a calculation for the amount of light the room should have. That formula is L x W x 1.5 = total number of (incandescent equivalent) watts needed. So, our room should have the equivalent of 100 watts amongst all of its light sources. We will exceed that handily.

I've ordered this fixture from Lowe's. Fingers crossed it 1) gets here in time, 2) looks good in the room. It is 24 inches long which exceeds our guidelines above--but it's long--not round--and the shades seem so tiny.

source

The only thing is, I'm a little worried it won't be different enough from the track lighting we have in there now.

This is a contender at 20.75 inches in diameter.

As is this at 20 inches in diameter (though I am worried it may drop down too far).

I know--they are all so different! The lighting will really set the tone in here.

Punch List:

Empty out every last little thing

Take down remaining shelving

Tear down closet   

Repair dry wall and rebuild closet bit

Prep and paint walls 

Tear out carpet, underlay (padding), and staples.
Put in plywood for floor and level.

Lay down new flooring
Buy new light fixture(s)

Install new light fixture(s)
Sew window valence
Install drapery wall for privacy and doorway

Find a bench/make one
Cover the bench
Buy one pax wardrobe

Assemble 3 Pax Wardrobes

Install closet rod(s)

Install shoe shelves

Figure out Jewellery storage/display

Move clothes back in.

If you'd like to catch up:
Week 1: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos
Week 2: Down and Out or is that Out and Down?
Week 3: Coming Out of the Closet, No Wait, that's the Closet Coming Out.

There are an awful lot of linking participants this year all busting it out across the internet. If you have time, check them out here.