I honestly cannot believe I made it to the final week of the totally crazy, fun, inspiring and grueling One Room Challenge! Phew, it was quite a ride!
This was my first stab at the ORC and I have to say, it was A LOT harder to complete on time than I ever imagined. Between sourcing my most loved finishes and materials, and managing trades and product deliveries… it wasn’t easy and there were many bumps and fun surprises along the way! Professionally, I’ve worked on plenty of much larger projects, often behind the scenes prepping for television and editorial shoots where we’re eternally on a massive time crunch…somehow I’ve always managed to pull it together. But working on my own house, in my own space, that I have to live in every single day – and be on a deadline…now that is a whole other animal.
I could seriously be diagnosed with clinical back flip syndrome – if it were a thing! I’m an absolute f r e a k when it comes to making decisions in my own personal life/home… as soon as I pick a n y t h i n g; I immediately question and mull over whether it was the right move, and often change my mind! For some reason, it only happens when I’m working on my own personal projects though, when working with a client or helping a friend, I have pretty clear eyes and don’t hesitate to make decisions! So props to all of you who consult friends, designers, or your mom on your own projects at home – it takes a village! Changing your mind all the time is a problem when you’re on a tight deadline…especially when you’re notorious for picking styles and finishes that have the longest lead times – like moi.
I can say that I’ve definitely lost sleep over this project…doing late night research on taps, accents and lighting, WORRYING, cleaning, and even touching up paint at midnight last night! But after all the hard work, here she is! AND IT WAS ABSOLUTLY WORTH IT! I’m so so SO proud to reveal my new beautiful bathroom, which is 100% complete!
If you remember, when I started my design plan for my bathroom I was contemplating whether this black matte finish would work in my space. I swapped out all the old fixtures and hardware in the room and I’m in awe of how it turned out!
My new Jason Wu faucet, shower and bathroom fixtures by Brizo are perfect! I love the contrast of the black fixtures against white tile! So happy I went with these babies!
I’m also pretty stoked on the tile I picked up from Creekside Tile in Toronto! Since there isn’t any natural light in this room, I decided to use a white tile to brighten up the space. My installer did an excellent job, don’t you think?! Notice he was able to match the herringbone pattern around each corner, nook and cranny…pretty incredible! If you’re ever considering this for your own house make sure your tiler has experience laying tile this way because if the seams don’t match up it will likely look pretty disjointed and messy! Also, it takes f o r e v e r to lay tile this way, plus there is more waste, so beware the cost is likely to be considerably higher than a traditional brick lay, for example.
I even managed to squeeze in a couple of impromptu DIY projects along the way! It turned out the original shelves I wanted from CB2 were on backorder until late December…which wasn’t an option! So, I came up with the idea to simply have a couple of remnant pieces of Caesarstone cut to size and had the edges polished. I picked up a few shelf brackets from IKEA and voila! The best part?! Both shelves only cost me $48 including all materials!
I also DIY’d the finish on my beautiful light fixture! It was a huge challenge for me to find a fixture I liked in a matte black finish that wasn’t on special order. With limited time, again it wasn’t an option to wait the typical 6-8 weeks for delivery. So, I picked up an inexpensive chrome finish fixture at home depot and spray painted it with flat black paint! I’m actually shocked at how well it turned out!
Although I will admit this process wasn’t easy, I’m so thrilled that I took on this task and completed my bathroom! Thank you to Linda at Calling it Home and the One Room Challenge for motivating and inspiring me to get’er done! Also, I’m so grateful to all of you who have been so responsive and encouraging along the way! Have you checked out some of the official ORC participant reveals? Wow, some amazing stuff has happened over the last 6 weeks! Check them all out here and the ORC guest participant reveals here!
xx
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