JOYFUL DESIGNS ®️ STUDIO | WEEK 2 ONE ROOM CHALLENGE-SOURCING WOES
Hello friends! Week two has been a whirlwind. If you follow our Instagram page, then you know we have made some progress but this past week we have been at High Point Market in North Carolina taking in the latest and greatest in interior design and furnishings. We had three days to see hundreds of show rooms (which is impossible btw) and we probably saw about 5% of what was on offer.
One of my goals was to find a light for the entryway for our One Room Challenge space. We may be in need of a substitute because the one I ordered keeps getting pushed back on the backorder train.
Any who, I don't think we found a substitute but I still have an ace up my sleeve so stay tuned. If you want to check out some of my highlights from High Point, see the highlights on our IG Page.
Now, what have we accomplished this week? A lot - new doors are up (these are not the ones I wanted so I'll say that upfront), wallpaper was received, rugs received, paint received, door hardware received, and outdoor lighting received.
I'll start with the doors. It is so hard to find solid core wood doors right now - really hard, unless you want to order custom and wait 6 weeks. One, this is a rental property so the cost for three custom doors would be outside the budget. Second, we don't have 6 weeks. LOL. So, here is what I wanted vs. what we had to compromise on due to budget and availability.
Nice and simple. The color is bold so I really did not want too much going on with the doors. Well, now we have a six panel door because it was available now and solid core , which is important because these are the exterior doors to the three individual apartments. Here is the door we settled on and that my fiance had to rip because the size of the original door slabs are 34 1/2 inches - they do not sell this size off the shelf in big box stores, which requires a custom order we do not have time or money for, right? Right!
There she is. Heavy and paneled. This will be a make it work moment for sure. They've been hung already and believe me, I will hear about how massive a job this was for awhile. My babe ripped and hung these all by himself. I'm always so proud of his skills.
Our door hardware also arrived this week, so he will install that as well. We want to thank our sponsor, Cap 8 Doors and Hardware for the Schlage Encode Smart Locks and Hardware we will be using on the main door and our unit. These locks are well worth the investment. I use them on all of my rental projects and recommend them to clients without hesitation. You can lock and unlock the door remotely and you can even connect it to a Ring doorbell system so you can allow deliveries remotely. Cap 8 Doors and Hardware is a Black woman owned full-service door distributor and installer based in Washington, DC. It was recently named one of the best places to work in D.C.
Next, as I discussed last week on IG, the flooring changed from the original conception as well because of ordering times, but I think the substitute we found from Wayfair Professional will serve our purposes. The space as it is now is dirty, dingy and tired. The tile below is porcelain and arrived intact, so it's a go. I've already settled on a simple pattern, although these tiles can form a variety of patterns. See the evolution of what we wanted vs what we will use.
One thing to keep in mind is that while this is a personal project and a rental, I have to help my clients make these kind of compromises daily. Design is fluid so having ready solutions and alternate options keeps me sane and makes our clients less anxious. And with these porcelain tiles, we definitely stayed on budget.
So with our space, I wanted to created a little jewel box that guests could step into to reach each unit. My plan is to makeover the space using a bold color - Sherwin Williams, Commodore. As we mentioned last week, they are one of our sponsors and we are so thrilled that they donated paint from their Emerald line, the Designer Edition. Because of the state of the entryway, we will use professional painters. And the Designer Edition line we know will help us achieve a flawless finish.
So this is our unit and what the old doors looked like. See the Sherwin Williams paint. Here's a tip: we tend to place paint in the rooms of use with large labels that we tape onto the cans so there are no mishaps.
Another tip: often for clients it can be difficult to imagine a space the way the designer explains it or sees it. I like to give our clients the option of a watercolor render of the space as imagined (which they can later save and have framed), or a full 3D Render, or Render and Walk-through video of the space. The watercolor render I am showing you below, I had done specifically for our space. The lighting is the one I specified ( and which is on backorder still) and the flooring we changed mid-render because I found out that the floor I really wanted had too long of a lead time.
One thing before I go, I'm being a bit cheeky by not showing you the ceiling. We have a little surprise, I'll talk about next week. And bravo to the ones who guessed that the gold and black ornament was a door knocker! I found those at West Elm and they perfectly set the tone for the space.
Thanks for following along on our One Room Challenge journey. Be sure to check out all of the other wonderful featured designers and guest participants over on the One Room Challenge Blog. Better Homes and Gardens is a media partner. We will post more updates this week on our instagram page and in stories.