Lemon Thistle

The DIY blogger in me always has such a hard time writing ‘updates’ or ‘progress’ reports with no real step by step takeaways for you. But the One Room Challenge is one of those things that almost requires it. There are so many steps to get the room ready for the fun stuff and that’s what a lot of those 6 weeks are spent doing… I was hoping to replace the window and write a tutorial about that, but we just didn’t get there… because I spent SO LONG painting. 

If you missed our announcement, we’re joining in as guest participants to the One Room Challenge. The One Room Challenge is a 6 week makeover challenge to take any room and make it over top to bottom, sharing your progress along the way. We’re taking on the boys’ shared bedroom and it’s currently week 3/6! You can see our design plans for the space right here and then last week I shared everything we learned from removing valances. 

So today I thought I’d share an update of where we’re at in the makeover and what is still to go. I know that so often on social media and on blogs we see these room makeovers come together in what feels like days and it can be discouraging. This totally doesn’t happen most of the time, so I thought I’d give you a realistic picture of everything that goes into a room makeover like this! And let’s be honest… this bedroom makeover is probably the least involved remodel in our whole house- we didn’t even have to move a window :) 

Can I let you in on a secret?Continue Reading…

If you’ve considered removing valences in your home but don’t know what you’re in for- I’m sharing some things we’ve learned about removing a few of them (in different aged houses) from how to remove them to how to repair afterwards!

Earlier this week I shared on Instagram that we’ve made very little ‘pretty’ progress in the boys bedroom makeover but that doesn’t mean we’ve done nothing. We have replaced the flooring, put in new doors (a real closet door!), new trim, and removed a valance. And the amount of responses I got about the ‘removing a valance’ piece of that sentence was way more than I would have expected! Turns out a lot of you guys have them too. And want to remove them. But also want to know what you’re getting yourself into. So I thought I’d put all the conversations I’ve had over Instagram DMs into this weeks One Room Challenge update post in case you’re thinking of taking it on!

If you missed last weeks’ post, we’re joining in as guest participants to the One Room Challenge. The One Room Challenge is a 6 week makeover challenge to take any room and make it over top to bottom, sharing your progress along the way. We’re taking on the boys’ shared bedroom and it’s currently week 2/6! You can see our design plans for the space right here!

I feel a little foolish that I DIDN’T take any photos of this. We’ve removed 3 valances now both in this house and our last one and we’ve definitely learned some things from that process… BUT we managed to go through it without taking a single photo. Just before and after photos. Those alone remind me of why it’s so worthwhile, though. I will probably remove every valance in every home we ever buy now. But there’s definitely some things to keep in mind that could influence your decision and how you go about it! 

Here’s where we’re at right now. We have it all patched and the drywall patch is pried but need to paint… and replace that window. Getting all the big things out of the way! Alright… enough of the update, let’s talk about ripping those valances out!Continue Reading…