In The Land of Kush | Joyful Designs®️Studio - Week VII One Room Challenge Spring 2021

Kush is an ancient Nubian Kingdom that dominated the Egyptian region between roughly 2500 B.C. and A.D. 300. It was known to the ancient world by many names: Ta-Nehesi, or Land of Copper; Ethiopia, or Land of Burnt Faces from the Greek; and Nubia, possibly derived from an ancient Egyptian world for gold, which was plentiful in Kush. See In The Land of Kush, Written by Isma'il KushKush (Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2020).

Week VII of the One Room Challenge brings us full circle back to the design origins of our space, Afro Classic Style - an Afrocentric twist on traditional design style. We turn to our past to create ideas for how we want to live in the present, with origins in african design and neoclassical influences proportioned to fit our modern lifestyle. I am a huge proponent of including the “you” in functional design. There should always be space for art, heritage and culture in your personal spaces.

The number 7 is cosmically significant across cultures: The Seven Days of Creation, The Seven Heavens, The Seven Feasts of Passover, The Seven Seas, The Seven Continents, and The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to name a few. Seven was a God number in Ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs usually ordered things in groups of seven. The 25th Dynasty of Kush conquered Egypt and initiated the reign of the Black Pharaohs that lasted 1000 years. 2+5 = 7. And we are tellingly in our 7th week of this challenge. All of this to say that the number seven is considered one of those perennial lucky numbers and we are calling upon all mystical and heavenly magical forces to see us to completion of our spaces by the end of week 8. We are working on a kitchen, living area, dining nook and bathroom so we will need it all.

Before we catch you up on our progress to date, feel free to peruse our blogs from the prior 6 weeks here: WEEK I , WEEK II , WEEK III , WEEK IV , WEEK V , and WEEK VI.

First thing first, all partner materials have been received and are currently being installed so yay! and in the words of Mary J. Blige, "one time for the percolator." LOL. Fireclay Tile's Aegean Sea tiles came in unscathed and intact. We cannot be more thrilled. We have a ton of lighting options from Hudson Valley Lighting, who were so on time and accommodating. We have kitchen faucet options and a bad ass sink from Elkay. And finally we have a whole imbibing station and vent hood from Zephyr. We could not be any happier. Many many thanks goes to these partners. And I will talk more about their products in future blog posts so that you can understand how and why I chose them for my spaces.

Now for all the pretty prose, I know you came to see the visuals. LOL. So I'll get on with it below. However for all the progress you will see, just know that we are praying for marble countertops by this Saturday because if we don't get them, our kitchen might not happen until after the deadline TBH. So let's keep hope alive because after all, this is our lucky week number 7.

If you missed out stories last weekend then you missed this update: We have a dining nook with built-in cabinetry! The Babe built the bench and platforms for this and flat shipped it to Georgia a couple of weeks ago and now it’s partially installed (awaiting the countertop).

Plus, our comfort sleeper sofa arrived from American Leather to the receiver. And it’s gorgeous.

We started tiling the bathroom vanity wall.

The shower tiling started as well, but we are using small scale tiles - 2x8 size in a vertical brick pattern - so it will take awhile.

And this is another shot of the new ceiling pattern for the bath we painted two weeks ago since we had to change the tile we initially wanted for the vanity wall and flooring. Plus with time constraints, I wasn’t sure that my artist could pull off the rendered ceiling in time. So sticking to our Afro Classic roots we will rock the Kasbah on the Aegean Seas!

Some additional fabric choices were made for custom pillows.

Finishing our Kitchen on time hinges on this pretty piece of stone.

Thank you for following along. Please leave comments and questions below. We appreciate you rooting us on. Please also check out the other featured and guest designers at the One Room Challenge Blog. Better Homes and Gardens is the media sponsor. See you next week for the finale!

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