It’s the final week of this Spring One Room Challenge which means it’s officially crunch time in this 6 week room makeover! With just one week to go, and still a whole lot of big items to check off our to-do list, we’ve got no time to waste, so let’s get right to it.If you’re new here or you missed any of the previous weeks’ updates, you can go back and check them out now:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

In every One Room Challenge there’s always one week where things don’t always pan out the way you expect. For us, week 4 was that week – hence the lack of a blog update. I’ve been under the weather, Kes has been super busy with work and other competing priorities and we’ve also had delays from a couple of our suppliers to deal with, which meant that we weren’t able to make nearly as much progress as we’d hoped on the 2 large DIYs on the list – our DIY mid-century modern desk, & geometric feature wall. Determined not to let that completely derail us though, we’ve been trying to move forward with what we can.

Sewing

I should preface things by saying that I haven’t successfully sewn anything since the 8th grade – and even then using the term “successfully” is a bit of a stretch. Let’s just say the ability to sew a straight line has never really been a strong part of my skill set. As kids, my mom used to sew a lot of clothes for my sisters & I. It’s always a skill I aspired to have, but for whatever reason, no matter how many times I tried, it just never stuck. Funny though, determination and a limited budget can be fantastic motivators to learn something new. I called in some help and together my mom and I were able to get a whole lot of sewing done.

Roman Blinds

Kash’s bedroom has really large windows which are great for providing a lot of natural light. The only drawback to that is that it makes window treatments really expensive. Saying this though, with enough research, the right company can be found to get the job done at a decent price.

A friend of mine recommended west palm beach window treatments as they did her home and did such a great job. I was so close to just biting the bullet and getting the treatments. Luckily I happened to find the perfect sunshine yellow fabric on clearance from Tonic Living, which cemented my decision to give sewing another try with a set of roman blinds. At least if it all goes wrong I can go back to my treatment idea and start to look at something like this custom drapery so my daughter can still have a personal touch to her room. I did also consider curtains but I’ve just always preferred the look of blinds, I think curtains seem a little dated now. Plus, there’s so much potential with blinds, you can even get electronic blinds that you can control remotely now, which is definitely something I’ll look into in the future, these motorized blinds will change your home for the better when it comes to security too; giving the impression you are in.

Bench Seat

Kes & I designed a mid-century modern inspired desk that will go along the long wall opposite Kash’s bed. The desk will connect to an L-shaped bench that wraps the corner to create a cozy reading nook.

Because we are building the desk & bench ourselves, the seat will need to be made to size. Sewing a box cushion cover was definitely the most complicated thing I’ve ever made. It took a fair bit of trial and error and may or may not have caused an irrational meltdown or two, but in the end it turned out great and the Corfu Sunshine fabric we ordered from Tonic Living was a perfect choice. Now all it needs is a bench!

Pillow covers

What reading nook bench would be complete without a bunch of throw pillows to cozy up on? I chose a few different fabrics – also from Tonic Living – to add a bit more pattern & dimension to the space and am pretty happy with how they all turned out. Having my mom guide me through things was a huge help!

Pillow covers in Mali Mudcloth Inked, Trent Naples Yellow & Baraka Ikat Grey fabrics from Tonic Living.

Lighting

If you remember in Week 3 we hinted that we’d be adding something special to the geometric feature wall to take it to the next level. Well what better way to up the ante than with a good lighting treatment. We came up with the idea of backlighting the trim to give it the cool futuristic vibe inspired by the Black Panther movie art direction. We are fortunate to be working with Kichler who’s incredible team of experts were able to help us bring our vision to life.

When we explained what we had in mind for the wall, our friends at Kichler jumped at the opportunity to assist. Armed with just a rough visual, the layout team at Kichler provided us with all the LED tape lights, components, a parts list as well as detailed technical drawings we could use to bring our vision to life.

Now that the wall is all wired up, we can finally get our Metrie trim in place and bring the vision for the feature wall all together!

Desk

As I mentioned above, our plan is to build Kash a large desk. This is one of the bigger DIY projects on our to do list.

So far we’ve only been able to complete all of our rough cuts (there was a lot of them) but we’re hoping assembly goes smoothly this weekend. Fingers (and toes…and well damn near everything else) crossed!!

So that’s what we’ve been up to over the last couple of weeks. We’ve still got a lot to do before this room will be anywhere near camera ready. With DIYs to finish, furniture to assemble and a whole lot of cleaning it’s pretty fair to say we’ve got a rough few days ahead. At this point I’m beginning to seriously doubt our ability to pull this one off. Kes however, being the eternal optimist that he is, is still confident that we got this. I guess only time, and sheer determination will tell. Lol!

Before we go, here is one last look at our list.

“Modern Marvel” Boy’s Bedroom To-Do List:

• tear out carpet
• install hardwood floors
• replace bed & dresser (new items delivered waiting to be assembled)
• new bedding (purchased)
• choose new light fixtures
• figure out window treatments
• sew throw pillow covers
• make bench cushion
• sew roman blinds
• paint
• create geometric feature wall (in progress)
• build desk with storage & reading nook (in-progress)
• DIY wall lights (in-progress)
• build wall shelves (in-progress)
• replace doors
• install new trim
• install new lighting
• hang blinds
• accessorize

Next week is the big reveal of our Modern Marvel Boys Bedroom for this Spring One Room Challenge! We’ve got a long way to go to get everything completed in time. Do you think we can pull it off? Wish us luck!!!