Four weeks down, four weeks to go....
Alright, we have reached the midpoint phase of the One Room Challenge. It is Week 4, and this week we have been immensely busy refining our furniture selections, reworking the floor plan, and finally...product purchasing. In the age of Covid-19, making the decisions in purchasing furniture is super crucial because delivery times are wonky and availability of furniture disappears quicker than a New York minute. Additionally, and most importantly, we have been analyzing the budget to make certain we are staying on track with the spending, as we endeavor and push towards the "wow factor" of this guest room design project.
During week 3 of the challenge, I developed a preliminary furniture board. If you missed our blog post about this board, click here to read all the deets! When I got ready to begin purchasing the individual items on the board, some of the items were out-of-stock, and I had to pivot to find a similar item from the same vendor, or even another vendor. For instance, the daybed, I first found on Wayfair, but it was out-of-stock when I got ready to purchase it, so I finally found a similar item on Amazon. Whewwwww...thank God!!! The daybed is the main piece and focal furniture piece of this room. The same thing happened with the sofa table - slim console table. So, throughout the week, I spend countless hours scourging the web for the furnishing pieces, and making sure that I was getting the best pricing for those items. With that comes lots of high, and as many lows, but that it is the nature of the purchasing phase of the design process. Anyhow, in the midst of purchasing the daybed, the sofa table, media console, mirror, table lamp, etc... my hanging rattan chair from Serena and Lily came in.
I was so excited to get this chair...I call it the egg chair...because I am going to have so much fun sitting in the chair once it is hung and installed in the room. I am placing the chair in the corner by the window. This room will be my refuge from a long, stressful day, and the area where the chair will be installed will give me the feeling of being on a beach somewhere catching the radiant sun rays. The rattan chair is very well made and sturdy, durable and ergonomically designed, surprisingly. Once I get it hung and the room completed, this chair is going to be my happy happy happy place. Watch the video below of me unboxing the chair for the very first time.
With having to make do-or-die decisions during the purchasing of the furnishings, the budget had to be adjusted several times. Initially, I had set a budget of $5000 for product purchasing and installation costs. However, at this point, I have gone beyond my $5,000 budget and I still have more things to purchase, plus I need to pay for installation of the chandelier and other minor tasks. But, everything, that I have purchased is a necessary component to a well-layered and well-dressed interior space that is welcoming, inviting and cozy. The details, high-quality materials, and thought-provoking furniture selections matter remarkably. I don't want to sacrifice the authenticity of the design concept for this room revamp.
I am still searching for a coffee table since the coffee table that I initially selected for this room because it is out-of-stock. And then, in order for the room to feel complete, I still need to find accessories for the styling phase of the room design. Then, there's the cost of paint, painting supplies, and paying for the electrician to install my chandelier. Isn't it lovely???
So, this week with the business of product procurement, there was not much progress on the actual work of the construction or renovation of the room. I also, took the time to update the Furniture Board with the furniture items I have purchased for the room, just to make sure that the furnishings are cohesive and work well together...that everything is flowing seamlessly. For the coming week, our focus will be preparing the room for painting and hopefully, begin the stencil work on the accent wall. Busy, busy, busy bee I will be.
Hope you are enjoying our journey to the design of this room for ORC Spring 2021. ORC is so exciting and the community support of the other designers have been valuable and synergic. Don’t forget to look to see how all the designers, especially the featured designers, are progressing along with #oneroomchallenge hashtag or click the links below to follow their respective blogs or visit the ORC official blog at http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog.
Until next time....
Un abrazo grande y muchas bendiciones (huge hug and much blessings)
--- Keesha
