Egads, guys, we’re actually HALF WAY THROUGH the One Room Challenge™. I can’t even begin to tell you how quickly this is going and I’m already starting to panic! Eeek!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the One Room Challenge™, Linda from Calling it Home chooses 20 different bloggers to all makeover one space in 6 short weeks! Every Wednesday, we all share the progress on our rooms so be sure to check all of them out at the end of my post!

Catching up? Start here: Week 1 / Week 2 

As you know, we’ve decided to give our very sad and neglected second bedroom a complete and total overhaul from top to bottom and turn it into my home office. We’d successfully torn down the ceiling, removed lining paper, replastered and filled the old walls and replaced all the old floorboards with tongue and groove pine flooring.

Before we stained and sealed the flooring, it was time to paint. The ceiling, cornicing and ceiling rose all got a couple of coats of Dulux Brilliant White Matt paint. The room instantly looked fresher but of course, we had a lot more painting to do.

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We used a white gloss on the skirting boards and on the picture rail and I was desperate to find a pale pink paint that would work with the wallpaper I’d chosen – Thaibut’s South Seas in pink. This is not what I would call a typical pink – there’s a lot of peachy undertones to the colour so finding a pink paint that had those same peachy undertones was absolutely paramount. As much as I love the soft grey and brown blush pinks, it just wouldn’t work with the wallpaper.

south seas wallpaper

That meant immediately, Farrow & Ball’s Calamine and Laura Ashley’s Old Rose were out of the running for being too brown/grey.

Paint colours

I really wanted something quite pale and while Dulux’s Pink Sorbet was a lovely pale colour, there was a bit too much blue in the undertones to really work with the wallpaper. Another one crossed off the list.

That left me with the 3 Valspar colour choices, all of which were quite similar but with Grand Plié being the palest of the trio and with Wayne (a talented car sprayer who has an excellent eye for colour – yes, he comes in handy!) agreeing the undertones were right, I went and bought a 2.5 litre tin of the Valspar Grand Plié paint at my local B&Q.

Valspar blush pink paint colours

Well, you’d think that’s where it ends but unfortunately, it isn’t. I got to work painting the first coat and panicked. When the light hit it, it was a soft lovely blushy pink but in the shadows, it became a bright, luminous almost NEON pink. Oh noooooo. That’s not the colour I wanted.  And let that be a lesson – you really need to paint patches where the light hits the room differently because yes, the colours do change in different light.

Still panicking but aware of the tight timescale I was on, I finished the first coat and then left it for a couple of days to decide my next move. I didn’t even take pictures because I couldn’t really capture JUST how luminous it was with my camera but trust me, it was shocking. Because I didn’t want to have to spend a lot more on paint if I didn’t have to, I ended up diluting the colour with 50% Dulux Brilliant White and tried again.

I was so relieved to see that it was no longer neon with the addition of the white paint and I had a much softer pink! Whoop!

Valspar Grand Plie Paint

Disaster averted and the walls done, Wayne and I ‘tag teamed’ the floors. We decided to do exactly what we had done for our living room (which still looks pretty great 5 years on) and to keep the flooring consistent: 3 coats of Ronseal ‘Dark Oak’ and 2 coats of Bona Mega silk matt clear coat on top to protect it from scratches and scuffs.

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Because of the drying time between coats, I would do one coat during the day and then Wayne would come home from work in the evening and do another coat. We did this for 3 days straight until all the coats were on and dried!

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After this, Wayne changed out all the plain plug sockets for brassy gold numbers…

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And installed the trim along the skirting board to finish everything off.

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It’s all looking so much more finished now, isn’t it?!

And here’s a little sneak peek of the fabulous mid-century sideboard I got from eBay for £130!!! I can not express how excited I am about this piece. Such a bargain and half the price of the ones I had been swooning over but couldn’t afford! Check out all that brass detail! Yes!!!

Mid century sideboard with brass detail

We also got the wallpaper up recently but I’m going to save that until next week’s update because this is already so photo heavy!

The desk is about half way done (the drawers still need their makeover) but it’s looking great already, I’m so excited.

This week, I’m getting my office chair delivered (I changed my mind from the one on the mood board – I can’t WAIT to share with you what I chose). I also need to get all the artwork sorted out and get a few pieces custom framed! There are so many details to work out now about the decor! All our focus has been on getting this room ‘move in ready’ so that I can start getting on with the interior design side of things and of course, I’m now scared I’m not going to get it all done – ack!!

Be sure to come back next week (or subscribe for updates!) to see how far we get… it’s crunch time!!

And now, do you want to see what all the other 19 participants are up to? Of course you do! Check them all out below.

Jenna Sue Design
 
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