One Room Challenge: Week 3 - Finalizing Color Scheme

Here we are in Week Three of the One Room Challenge™ and, while I haven’t made a lot of progress from last as far as manual labor goes, I have done quite a bit of mental labor and am finalizing the materials and color scheme for my Cactilicious Kitchen makeover. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I diverted from a commercially available wallpaper pattern to a custom mural based on one of my own photographs. The whole premise of this makeover is to use my own photos as decor wherever possible, so it just didn’t make sense to use someone’s else’s design on the wallpaper.

A moody little mood board for your consideration!

I’ve cobbled together a little mood board of sorts consisting of a few color samples atop the lone floor tile I found in the garage that will fill in the destruction of the floor that resulted from pulling out the wine fridge. Speaking of which, I decided to go ahead and fill the space with a stock cabinet from Home Depot, but it’s not due to arrive for a few weeks, so I’ll have to work around it for now. The smaller green cactus tiles are for the peel and stick backsplash, for which I listed the source in my Week One blog post (below).

Since the countertops are black, I’m bringing in black cabinet hardware, and although it’s very difficult to see from this partial low-res mural sample I printed at home, there is black running between all of the individual cactus blossoms, as well as peachy tones pulled from the terracotta tiles highlighting the pink petals (and, of course, some green as a nod to the cactus tiles!). You can see the brighter colors in the sample cabinet knob I had printed at Zazzle, which I may or may not use in some capacity. I did order a few other coordinating odds and ends from Zazzle and elsewhere that have not yet arrived.

As for paint colors, you can see the strips of green color chips from which I will choose a shade for the lower cabinets. For the upper cabinets, and the remaining bits of wall not covered by the mural, I will pull one of the warm pink colors shown here from the mural once it’s printed for a more precise color match.

Once I’m nearer to completion, I’ll list ALL the colors I ended up choosing by brand and name, as well as all of the sources for every last thing down to the Zazzle knob! Meanwhile, check out my Instagram “ORC” Highlights from Stories (@LAJphotos) for additional details as they’re finalized!

One Room Challenge: Week Two - Priming and Planning

It’s Week Two of the One Room Challenge™ and I don’t have a lot to report as far as blog-worthy visuals go. The most important progress arose via a scientific method consisting of equal parts contemplating, procrastinating, and shopping. However, I did get a significant chunk of actual work done by covering all the brown walls in one coat of primer, and I’m proud to report that the baby poop has been wiped clean! (I considered that as a headline, but didn’t want to attract the wrong crowd, if you know what I’m sayin’….).

The kitchen has brightened up considerably with a coat of white primer covering the brown walls, but don’t worry, it won’t be remaining white!

Perhaps most importantly, I finally nailed down the image I want to have printed for a wall mural. The feature wall in question turns out to be almost a perfect square at 80 inches high by 84 inches wide, so I needed to find something that could be cropped to those dimensions without losing any substantial details. I also had to ensure it contained all of the colors from other kitchen features, such as the terracotta tile and black countertops I’m stuck with, but also the green peel and stick tile I’m using as a backsplash. I also needed it to serve as my final color inspiration for the rest of the walls, and possibly the upper cabinets (lower cabinets will be green). I think I accomplished all of that with the image I chose, but I want to keep it top secret, pending a dramatic reveal! (Hint: think pink.)

Future feature wall now coated with primer at left, and former home of the ill-fated wine fridge at center.

My other planning project for the week involved the mystery of the cabinet hole/broken tile I teased you with last week [above]. When the handyman came over to install my light fixture the previous week, I asked his opinion on whether the wine fridge I’ve never used in all the years I’ve lived here could be easily pulled out so I could use that valuable space for hiding the trash under the counter. Having a trash can out in the open has been the bane of this tiny kitchen’s existence, so I had a random “what if…?” moment and next thing I knew, we were dismantling the useless thing piece by piece and freeing it from its tiled-in prison. Welp, I guess it’s out for good now!

For a cabinet to fill that space in, I searched three separate used building supply stores for a base unit measuring 15 inches wide and with no drawer at the top so that I could fit a full size kitchen trash bin underneath. It seems that most commercially available under-counter pull-out contraptions are made for shorter bins to account for the drawer at the top, but as long as I have the whole height available to work with, why not take advantage of it? However, I did not find one of the right configuration, so I may have to bite the bullet and order a new cabinet from either Lowe’s or Home Depot, which puts a significant crimp in my miniscule budget. This is exactly what I need, if anyone happens to have a spare or knows of a cheaper source:

I also spent a fair amount of time researching replacement tile. In the eleventh hour, I found ONE of the existing 17x17 inch tiles in my garage storage room (thank you, previous owner, but couldn’t you have left me TWO?), so I was able to glean some identifying info from the back of the tile. Seems it’s made by Ceramica Falcinelli in Italy and of a type called “Gres Porcellanato”. However, it’s long since been discontinued, and I was unable to find anything that would even blend in. I have a plan, though it assumes we can get the broken one out without breaking it further. I will replace that with the “new” tile, then use cut parts of the partial tile to fill in the smaller holes. Is it even possible to get a tile out that big without breaking? I don’t know, but if not, it’s on to Plan C (C for more Contemplation).

That’s it for this week’s report. By next week, I hope to have found and installed a base cabinet, patched the tile, and covered the cabinets with a coat of primer. Oh, and I need to get my top secret wall mural printed! See you next Thursday!

Welcome to Gardenography by LAJphotos!

Welcome to my new Gardenography by LAJphotos blog, now right here on Squarespace for easy access to all the latest news and announcements! Some of the posts from my old Wordpress blog may be moved here in the future, but for now, feel free to explore over there, as well.

I’ll show you all the ways you can bring the beauty of your Southwest garden into your home via photography! First, you’ll learn to use your camera and/or smartphone features to create picture-perfect photographs fresh from your garden, and then learn to optimize your photos to make customized home decor - no more generic big box store art!

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