03 May One Room Challenge WEEK 5 – Six Pillow Goddess Tips to Pull a Room Together!

WOW!! It’s WEEK 5, the final week of the One Room Challenge before the BIG REVEAL on May 9th!! Honestly, I really can’t believe I’m here!! That thanks to Laurel Bern’ s recent blog post about how to use Pic Monkey for Mood Boards, I finally created a much better one, don’t you think? There IS hope after 5 weeks that my skills have improved and everything just might work out as I envisioned it.  Let me tell you, as you well know, I have really had my doubts. Especially after WEEK 5 got even more challenging than weeks 3 and 4!

Not only did the lovely vintage fabric intended for the Roman shades not arrive from Canada due to some customs hold up. But on Sunday, right before I was headed out the door to make my last big run for home decor to “style” my room, I tripped and fell. Geesh, what else could happen? Don’t answer that!!! I don’t want to jinx this cause I have one more week to go.

In case you’ve missed it all, I’ve been honored to be a Guest Participant of the 6-week One Room Challenge (ORC) sponsored nationally by Better Homes & Gardens. Its been quite the learning experience and adventurous ride!

 

Let’s do a little recap (you can also catch up on each week!) so that next week, on the BIG REVEAL, you can truly appreciate how far our little blue bedroom has come.

Next Thursday, on WEEK 6, May 9th, you will see the ENTIRE room professionally photographed by sponsor Gregg Cestaro Photography. And how, with the help and support of 16 local and national sponsors (two more jumped on board this week!), I was successfully able to pull off transforming our temporary bedroom into a permanent, more liveable, Bold Blue Bedroom. Mind you, even with sponsors it still cost a lot to completely transform one room, but I’m so incredibly grateful for such overwhelming generosity.

l mean y’all, this has been one helluva challenge that I had NO idea how hard it would be!! Good thing I like solving problems cause there were many. And let’s give a hand to the 20 Featured Designers and 300+ Guest Participants, as I know, through this wonderful ORC community, we have all worked very hard to achieve our desired result.

WEEK 1 Bedroom Blues

We had a long way to go to make the Lavender Girls Bedroom into our very own Bold Blue Bedroom! Remember the many different functions this bedroom served, including Deborah Main Designs studio showroom?

WEEK 2 Four Design Tips for a Blue and White Bedroom

I started pulling my vision together, as you saw what a hot mess the room was when we started!!

I was smooshed into a corner, tripping over cords, spilling my water glass like 5 times, and David and I just gave up on the bureau and no longer bothered to close the drawers.

I identified 6 major problems and proceeded to try and solve each one during the 6-week challenge.

WEEK 3 Ten Steps to Painting a Chest of Drawers

By this time I had made some selections and started to get the ball really rolling. The antique cushion chair was sent to get reupholstered, and I learned how to paint and wax, by the ever-talented Kim Schlinke, a pair of chest of drawers, from Furniture in the Raw.

Plus the blue floral, luxury bedding from sponsor Peacock Alley arrived and I revealed the wallpaper choice, by sponsor Kimberly Lewis, that anchored the room as the #BoldBlueBedroom.

WEEK 4: How to Hang Wallpaper and 8 Pillow Goddess Tips

I learned to hang wallpaper by friend and helper Kim Schlinke, AND it was time to buckle down and finalize my thoughts and make SO many decisions!

So many that I ended up ordering TWO more lamps and TWO sets of mirrors, not knowing whether any of them would even arrive on time.

Lamps!

Rugs!

Decor!

Window seat fabric!

Shade and valance fabric!

Pillow fabric!

Other accessories for styling!

Now onto WEEK 5: Six Pillow Goddess Tips to Pull A Room Together

I’m so pleased I can now use Pic Monkey to make a mood board. I still need to learn how to put words, numbers and photo overlays (like the ORC logo) but that will be fun when I have more time.

WEEK 5 has been all about the textiles and pulling every last detail together for the photo shoot by sponsor Gregg Cestaro.

This past week has definitely been challenging for many reasons:

1. Textiles – we were waiting on fabric to arrive from Canada so therefore we really couldn’t start sewing shades, window seat, and pillows until we had the fabric. But it did not arrive in time. So, we went to plan B, but not before I made a costly mistake of $70 scrambling to find the perfect fabric, only to find out it didn’t work at all. Thankfully my seamstress Kim is the level-headed, more rational, calm thinker in this project, so we hashed out the final textiles and Kim started sewing Saturday.
2. Glass – Thankfully I remembered at the very last minute (thanks to a bedroom design by Scot Meacham Wood on Insta) to order glass tops for chest of drawers. But they were not ready on Saturday.  Would they be ready by Monday?
3. Photo Shoot – was bumped up to Monday, which gave us only 2 days to make all window treatments and cushions. YIKES!! But the Gods were with us and THANKFULLY, we were able to delay the photo shoot until yesterday, Wednesday, and a little more today. (Thus the lateness of this post.)
4. Errands – I would say that about half of my room is from running from sponsor to sponsor and Home Goods and Pier 1 to make final home decor selections. The other half was ordering on Amazon. Truthfully, I am NOT an online shopper, but NOW I understand why shoppers do it!! You cannot beat their free expedited shipping! I was still ordering Saturday for lamps and mirrors to arrive Monday or Tuesday!! And yes, I changed my mind mid-stream and ordered duplicates just in case.
5. Ankle – And last but not least, right before heading out for errands on Sunday, I fell and twisted my ankle badly. I thought I was going to need crutches! Was I going to be able to finish the One Room Challenge? (Thankfully by the photo shoot it was better…..the show must go on, right!!)

And yes, I went and did the Sunday errands anyways. Above is an ice pack tied onto my ankle with a vintage apron. (You do what you gotta do!)

The retail associates were SO helpful! One young lady at Pier 1 went around and helped me choose selections. I had to buy 2 trays as I wasn’t having any luck online or in stores finding the tray I wanted within my budget.

Then, a clock from Target arrived that was all wrong, so I went to my favorite locally-owned hardware, gift and garden store, Breed & Company.

The minute I walked in, the sales lady said “Oh, honey, what happened? You just sit right here and we’ll bring all you need right to you!!” And they did! I received The Pillow Goddess royal treatment for sure!

Breed & Co were so unbelievably helpful, that even Jimmy the owner sponsored the small clock I needed and they fed me some of Toni’s Toffee, made in Austin. Delicious!! Thank you for your kindness.

6. Sewing  – Monday I went out to Kim’s studio to sew on 45 rings for the Roman shades. It’s the least I could do for her, as she was working feverishly to whip out all the window seat area sewing in just 2 days!!! And she fed me chocolate cake for lunch. Totally worth it, since Kim is a master baker!

7. Pillows – I only started sewing MY luxury pillows on Monday night and sadly I was not able to make enough for the window seat. As usual, I was still sewing pillows when Gregg arrived for the photo shoot. That’s how it was 10 years ago….I guess some things never change! There’s ALWAYS one more pillow I want to make…always.

I was thrilled to be able to re-purpose some vintage velvet and high-quality designer sample fabrics from Stockton Hicks & Laffey, like Stroheim, Osborne & Little, Duralee, and more.

 

8. Installed more wallpaper. Yes, I did a foolish thing, but life would boring otherwise, right?  I had stayed up late one night looking for the right peel on blue and white floral wallpaper. I thought to myself, how hard can peel and stick be?? And worse come to worse, I could always use it as drawerliners.

But I did it!!!! I didn’t listen to anyone’s advice and stuck with my vision. It was HARD, especially those cubbies, but I am proud I pulled it off in time. Here’s me into the wee hours before the photo shoot trying to peel and stick the wallpaper into these three little cubbies.

Now that WEEK 5 ended with the photo shoot, it’s onto WEEK 6 where I’ll share more of the process that went on to the finish line. But I hope some of these tips will help the rest of the Guest Participants on their final week.

6 Pillow Goddess Tips to Pull a Room Together:

1. Flowers. Plan them ahead of your photo shoot. Yes, you CAN have too many and your flower wholesaler won’t always have what you want. I ran out if time and was styling them during the photo shoot (not a good idea) and I think the corner cabinet kind of looks like a funeral home table….lol. I was NOTable to design the flowing floral arrangements how I really wanted them. But I love the 2nd lamp I chose (its so cool and has angles like the wallpaper) and the beautiful sponsored vintage Fenton Hobnail milk glass vase!! Can’t wait for you to see both. I collect Hobnail milk glass and the vase is gorgeous!
2. Amazon is your friend. As many of you know, I am NOT a proponent of giant corporations that wipe out small businesses. I personally, and my business, Deborah Main Designs, support small business 1,0000 %.  But in a pinch, not only did local sponsors Sparrow Interiors and Breed & Company come through for me, but so did Amazon. (Not as a sponsor but in shipping.) I got next day free shipping and delivery on a Sunday…you can’t beat that!! And I checked all the other websites for lamps and no one could guarantee next day shipping. So there IS still time to order!!
3. Support local businesses & artists. I believe in shopping local as much as I can. I have been amazed at how much people want to see my project succeed. As mentioned above, two small business sponsors were at the ready and so was my long-time friend, artist Roi James. Roi sponsored a painting at the last minute. He met me at his studio Sunday and we selected one of his AMAZING modern pieces for the Bold Blue Bedroom. Thank you so much Roi. I’m so excited about it and can’t wait for you to see it!! My husband David and I have collected Roi’s work for years. Please visit his website www.roijames.com as you will be astounded at his talent!!
4. Don’t trust shipping dates. Especially if you’re on a time crunch, like with the deadlines in the One Room Challenge. I had things I expected not arrive on time. I had things that said it would not arrive until next week, but arrive just in the nick of time. The 2nd pair of mirrors my friend Sandy discovered and ordered arrived at the tail end of the photo shoot.  I quickly installed them anyways and Gregg got the overall shot with them in it. And I love these mirrors so much more than the blue ones. You’ll see the difference in next week’s BIG REVEAL.
5. Details. Details. Details. Remember the details. They make all the difference in the world.  As much as I tried to edit, I still feel like my room was a bit over crowded. It’s a very small bedroom, 11 x 14 feet, so there’s not a lot of table or wall space, so the details and layering of color and texture really mattered. Even details like getting my silver dressing table set polished by longtime trusted silver polishers and last minute sponsor Michelle’s Estate Jewelry & Silver. And getting photos printed by Walgreens to have for the frames!! I had great frames by sponsor Paper Place, but not the right size photos. (Aside note: Do you know that was my very first time ordering prints from my phone photos?  I can’t believe it took me the ORC to finally order prints as my husband has been asking for them since our Italy trip in 2015.  I’m on it now 🙂
6. Push through. It’s so worth the effort. I was going to blow off the floral wallpaper, cause I wasn’t sure I could do it. And I still had all the pillows to sew. Even though I didn’t get ALL the pillows made that I wanted to, I’m glad I pushed through to install the peel and stick floral wallpaper because it was definitely part of my floral on floral vision. I was surprised my husband was willing to help too. He had an uncanny ability to match up the pattern!!! Go figure??

I want to thank Dana and her team at Accent Upholstery for doing a rush job on the chair. I wanted to show you at least this Before and After as a teaser of what’s to come. I love this Kashmir crewel I bought at Calico Corner!!

 

 

 

Didn’t it turn out beautifully? Thank you sponsor Accent Upholstery for a stellar job!!!

There’s so much more to share with you, so please follow my Stories (and ORC Highlights) this week, the final 6th week, of the amazing One Room Challenge. And go to this link to see the progress of all the other fantastic Guest Participants have made, and this link for the 20 Featured Designers.  Wow, such amazing inspiration!!

Here’s a sneak peek of the few pillows I DID make!! And the beautiful floral vintage fabric from Canada that eventually DID arrive thanks to Etsy small business sponsor BelleGriveSupplies. 

I have learned it definitely “Takes a Village” to pull off the One Room Challenge, but you can do it. Good luck to my fellow Guest Participants!

Till next week, the BIG REVEAL, keep up the great work and thanks again to YOU, dear readers, for your support and wonderful comments on my blog. XO, PG

Note: All photos and opinions are my own.