THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE | The Yellow Bathroom Revealed!

I set my alarm for 6:45 am today. Right around sunrise. My little yellow bathroom gets the best light right at the start of the day. Sunbeams stream in and the whole room glows and it’s really pretty. I wanted to show you that.

Instead, I opened my eyes at that ungodly hour to find … a cave. My whole house looked like a cave. It was pouring rain and heavily overcast. Sigh. I went back to bed.

It feels a little like nothing about this One Room Challenge went right.

My room is finished. Or as finished as it’s going to be for now. But along the way, I didn’t feel inspired. I wasn’t happy with any of my choices. And as a result, I completely rethought my design on Monday morning. Yep. I scrapped the whole thing. Wallpaper? Returned. Gold-painted cupboard? Finished, and it looks good, but it feels crowded in the space. I will have to use it somewhere else.

On a whim, and against the will of my husbutt and child (who declared that the colour I chose would look “so so yucky”), I rolled out and bought a quart of paint and a small can of good primer. I went to town painting on Tuesday. I was up until 2:00am “styling” and changing the light fixture, and doing touch ups and stupid little things like decoupaging the switch plate.

Things went wrong along the way, even over the past couple of days.

A part of the dry wall crumbled away. Turns out there was water damage from a past roof leak in one corner that the sellers had TAPED and PAINTED over and never disclosed. Push a finger against the “drywall” and it went right through. We replaced the roof during our first year in this house, but are still coming across little surprises like this, courtesy of the shady sellers. It’s fine. I cut out the mouldy, crumbly patch. I’m not that bad at drywall repair. BUT THERE WAS NO TIME. Ugh. I have hidden this part of the bathroom in today’s post. The fix is ongoing.

I just. As of last week, I was thinking about dropping out of the ORC entirely. I mean, what even is the point? The election has me so stressed and anxious. And that stress hasn’t really resolved. I mean. What will happen next? My stupid bathroom project feels so frivolous.

Nonetheless, it’s done and I don’t actually hate it. I think the black looks pretty darn good, tbh. (And my demon child has revised her initial opinion and says she now likes it.) And I like some (not all) of the decor I’ve used. It will have to do.

The ORC is all about motivating ourselves to get something done, and it works.

I appreciate the push. This time around, I enjoyed it more than last time because I didn’t get caught up in the faux-sisterhood vibe, so I didn’t feel resentful. I stuck to following only the people and accounts I actually liked and tried not to worry about getting anything in return.

One issue with the ORC, however, is that it puts me in headspace where I make snap decisions because I don’t have time to think things out, and I don’t always love the results. I am planning on redoing the other bathroom entirely, by the way. And I guess that’s fine. I’ve said it before: This is not my forever home. There’s room for things to be imperfect. It’s fine for now.

Quickly, here are some sources and information about the stuff I’ve used in the room:

Wall colour: BEHR Blackout No. N510-7d (from Home Depot).

I would love to use fancier paints, but the HD is five minutes from my house and like I said, I did this on a whim. This was the blackest black I could find in the store. And I like it. It’s rich. Nice depth. You need to do at least three coats, as is the case with all really saturated colours, I find.

Sponsor: Huge thanks to my friend Melissa of Hop and Dot.

Melissa gifted me the golden SYROCO (Dart Industries) resin bird art. It’s from the late 1960s and I like the period touch. And it looks bomb against the black. Melissa’s booth is right across from mine at Trunkshow in Raleigh, and you should totally check it out because she has the BEST stuff. Better than my stuff, tbh.

Gold Metal Candle Sconces: I scored the sconces that I put on either side of the medicine cabinet at Trosa Thrift Store here in Durham.

TROSA used to be my favourite thrift store in town, especially for furniture, but their prices have gone through the roof in recent years. They should really drop the “thrift” from their name. So alas, I can’t fully recommend the place, but there are still some finds, especially among the smalls.

Light Fixture: Zeno Globe 2-Light Wall Sconce in Brushed Brass/White by Light Society.

Light Society is one of those everywhere brands. Amazon. Walmart. Home Depot. Eight million other places. This fixture costs about $65. I chose it because it goes well with the rest of the fixtures in the house, and because it’s vaguely midcentury. Also it wasn’t very expensive. Not as cheap as the free fixture I used in the other bathroom, but not bad.

Key: it takes regular medium based bulbs which was a major factor in my decision making, however, it turns out the globes are not big enough to accommodate my favourite high wattage LEDs, so I ended up having to make a trip out for shorter bulbs. They’re 60 watt equivalent LEDs that supposedly provide 800 lumens and they’re fine, but I was irritated that I had to buy special bulbs after specifically shopping around to avoid that.

Window Treatment: Artscape Magnolia faux stained glass (sorry, the link is from Amazon — boo, evil!).

As it was, my neighbours were being treated to my nude buns on the reg in this room. I needed something to provide privacy and settled on window cling because I thought it would be the least fussy option (lol, so much for that). I was going to go with something frosted and mid-century inspired (there are a million options online), but at the last minute, I ordered this and I am seriously in love with it. Yes, it makes the room darker, but I think it looks quite beautiful. This kind of window cling is easy to install and adhesive-free. I had no trouble matching up the pattern on the two panes, but the rolls are not big, so measure first.

Rug: This is an antique Turkish beauty and kind of an insane thing to put in a bathroom.

But I will reiterate here that this is really more of a powder room. We don’t use the shower. Also, I plan to declare it Mama’s Special Bathroom and not let anyone else in my grubby family use it. The rug is currently for sale in my Etsy shop, and it’s not cheap. It’s so so beautiful though.

Finally, a few little details nobody but me will care about:

I bought four midcentury Chinoiserie towels four years ago from an Etsy seller and actually intended them for this bathroom, but then … never did the bathroom.

The towels have been in the linen closet for years. I tried to make them work in the pink bathroom, but they didn’t look right. And anyway, I don’t want my gross family using my good towels. Anyway, I actually love them in here with the black walls. Hooray for acidic birbs.

I wrapped the bar of soap with a scrap of beautiful Chinoiserie paper.

My paternal grandfather broke his hip waterskiiing when he was fifty (before I was born). He was laid up for a really long time, and took up decoupage to keep busy. He made really beautiful pieces, boxes usually, meticulous and fine. Before he died, he gave me his decoupage books, and all his remaining papers, including designs he’d already cut out. I’ve been saving them for about 20 years and slowly using them here and there, though I don’t generally have the patience for good decoupage. This scrap of paper is one of his.

The black stone soap dispenser was thrifted for a dollar, but I think it originally came from Target. The fake flowers I got from my old lady neighbour. They’re horrible and funereal, but I kind of love them. Initially I meant to toss them and keep just the Haeger planter base, but they’ve grown on me.

I may add to this post in the future if/when the wall is fully fixed, but to quote teen-angst goddess Judy Blume, then again, maybe I won’t.

Thanks to Linda Weinstein (creator of the One Room Challenge) and @betterhomesandgardens (official sponsor of the ORC) for this event, without which I would probably never have been motivated enough to get to this bathroom, and therefore, would not have discovered the mold/drywall situation. That’s key.

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