Last week, One Room Challenge announced the need to delay the Week 5 progress to allow the focus in our national discourse to remain on the Black Lives Matter movement, learn more about racism and the fight against police brutality. As always, I stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and it is time for us to make changes with the system. We cannot stay silent or this issue will continue going on for years to come. It’s time to end racism and police brutality.
We completed week 5 of progress with our gallery wall and as we enter into week 6 of our dining room project we’ve moved onto the dining furniture.
We have plenty of wall art around our place already, though by no means are we “collectors” - just an eclectic mix of pieces that we like. We selected some existing pieces that would be interesting, go well with the colors happening in the space, and we added in two more custom framed photos I took on our trip to Paris last year.
Before hanging up the art on the dining room wall we played around with the arrangement by laying it out on the living room rug and figured out an arrangement we liked. I highly suggest anyone do something similar before you start putting holes in the wall. Once in agreement, we started with the largest piece and worked outward from there with the smallest pieces last.
I have to say this - it was fun putting the arts together to create a gallery wall for our dining room, and when I say together I mean Jeffry did all the hammering! Good thing he’s free labor! Once complete we’re really pleased with the way everything is turning out in the space so far. As I’ve said before, never think you can’t personalize even a rental apartment!
We may add more art later down the line as we travel or find something that speaks to us. One big advantage about having a gallery wall - you can’t really go wrong with it and you can expand it, switch pieces out, and don’t worry about being matchy-matchy.
Now, we are entering into week 6 - furniture! When we first moved into our San Francisco apartment, our Ikea dining table was too big to fit in this small dining room. We replaced it with a smaller round dining table that still seats up to four comfortably. I have been on the hunt for a new dining table for a while even before participating in this whole One Room Challenge thing. I finally found the one that would perfectly fit in the space and work fabulously with the overall design. I ordered this table from CB2, was so excited, and at checkout learned it was backordered. The agony! The wait was two and half months for the table to arrive! Every day waiting, and using that old table that didn’t work in the space, eating away at my interior design soul. Thankfully it arrived in time for the One Room Challenge! We love how it looks for our dining room and it’s much more functional for our daily needs.
We debated replacing our current mid-century modern style dining chairs that we had since our last place in Vancouver, BC. We decided to keep those chairs; they’re still in excellent condition and comfortable for us. It keeps the space feeling very casual despite the drama of the feature wall and chandelier.
What do you think of the process so far? Stay tuned for our next One Room Challenge process - plants next week!
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You can check out our past One Room Challenge blogs here:
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