It’s the 6th week of the One Room Challenge. 6 weeks down, two to go! And I actually feel (somewhat) better about the state of the kitchen this week than last week. But it’s still crunch time!
I’ve felt overwhelmed and stressed through this process. Putting a kitchen together in 8 weeks is probably (definitely) too fast. And absolutely ill-advised right now since most trades are behind and products are hard to source. But we’re still working hard and I’m excited to show you what we accomplished this week!
Catch up on all the Kitchen One Room Challenge Posts!
Floor Plan / Interior Window / Mood Boards / Stairs Plan / Demo & Flood / Drywall / Rainbow Wallpaper /
THIS WEEK’S PROGRESS
The first big thing that happened is that the tile went down on the floor! My father-in-law came and helped us lay the wood looking tile from The Tile Shop. It’s the perfect white oak color and looks beautiful with the stair railing.
It took a few days to fully complete all the tiling and grouting, but one full item is crossed off the to do list!
While sweeping it the other day, I remember one thing my boss had told me when I was in my 20’s. She was redoing her kitchen from laminate to granite countertops. And she told me how much more fulfilling it is to clean a high quality item. Since it cleans easily and looks gorgeous with a little work.
I was thinking the same as the floors are so satisfying to clean!
Then, we started working on building and installing the IKEA cabinets. A room with cabinets? That means the kitchen is really coming together!
Another big project we tackled is the shiplap ceiling! For this, we used shiplap from Novo Building Products. After a full day’s work, the room felt so much more complete. It was a huge push to complete, but that ceiling will add interest and looks high end. Thank you to our friend Trevor who helped us all day to get it done.
After the installation, we filled the nail holes, sanded them down, and painted. Now the ceiling is officially complete!
templating
On Monday, something momentous happened- our kitchen was templated for countertops! This is a HUGE deal because the town I live in is having a building boom. Plus, lots of people are focusing on their homes (which means remodels). Thus, most companies are 8-10 weeks out. Or at least 4-5 weeks.
So, to find a company who will template and then fabricate countertops in 10 days, well, that’s a miracle. I am paying a rush fee, but that’s what I get for doing it so last minute. This means I’ll get countertops on June 18 and then have to have the room fully put finished four days later. It’ll be a project filled weekend!
For the quartz, we’ll be using Calacatta Gold by HanStone Quartz. I love the neutral color with the prominent veining. It’ll be so nice to have countertops again!
The last thing we worked on with this room is the cabinet doors started going on! I’ll have a bigger post on these soon, but they’re from Nieu Cabinet Doors. The quality is superb, they look high end, and fit perfectly on my IKEA cabinets.
Isn’t this looking like a real kitchen?!?!?!?!?
ITEMS ARRIVING AND BEING ORDERED
I have now ordered everything that’ll be going in the room so that it has time to arrive. Want to see some of the items I’m excited about?
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I spotted some pink classic books in the above image. Then, I tracked them down and found them on eBay. I thought it’d be cute to have a stack on the kitchen fireplace mantel. Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, and Persuasion by Jane Austen will be the perfect pink trio. These have the prettiest covers and the pink is just so cute!
These are from the eBay seller Treasure Book Island. Their shop has a bunch of classic books with gorgeous covers!
For the sink area, I ordered a scalloped jute blue rug. It comes in a bunch of colors too. The scallop edges are super sweet and I think the warm natural will be nice. This would also be cute for doormat layering on a front porch. It’s from the eBay shop Oriental Looms.
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Here’s the same rug in another color looking cute in a bathroom!
new arrivals for the kitchen!
Some cute items arrived this week! First up, a porcelain Macau vase arrived. It’s for the center of my dining table and will go with the ginger shown here and one more that’s on its way.
If you look up close, you can see the brush marks and the soft lines from it being hand painted. Won’t a few stems of flowers be so pretty in this?!
The last thing that arrived that I wanted to show you are these rattan wrapped glasses. I’ve been seeing glassware like this, but it’s purchased on high end sites and can be very expensive. The joy of eBay is that you can find the original items the new trendy items are patterned after and save some money but still get the same look! It’s from the eBay store Buddy Higgins.
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Aren’t these all so cute?! What are you excited about to see in the room?
WHAT’S NEXT?
For next week, I’d like to have all the cabinets hung. It’d be nice to have all the chinoiserie wallpaper up. The new ceiling medallion should be in and it’d be great to have that up as well as the over the sink light. Next, I’d like all the doors installed on the cabinets. It’d be super great to have the fireplace mantel built. We’ll see what we can get to!
The big huge list of things still to do
Now that you’ve seen what’s been done this week, and what I hope to do next week, here’s the master list of things still to do-
- Hang the upper cabinets
- Install cabinet hardware
- Put cabinet doors on
- Backsplash tile and grout
- Install the windows in the wall to the living room
- Under cabinet lighting
- Finish the drywall
- Crown molding
- Base boards
- Casing
- Stair balusters
- Trim on the stairs
- Wallpaper- chinoiserie on two walls
- Build a hood for the microwave
- Fireplace mantel
- Shelf under upper cabinets
- Wallpaper- rainbow above shelf
- Hang the chandelier and light over the sink
- Beam and corbels in the doorway
- Put in rug, table and chairs
- Hang mirror
- Accessorize
- Extra credit- build a plate holder
- Extra credit- jib door
So the question is- do you think I can finish this long to do list in 13 days?
ONE ROOM CHALLENGE FEATURED DESIGNERS
This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy. Thank you to eBay, HanStone Quartz, Nieu Cabinet Doors, and The Tile Shop for gifting the items listed in the post.
You’ve done amazing so far, you can do it!!
Thank you Mariele! That’s so nice of you! I so appreciate it!
I love it! It’s really coming together and what I love even more is that hunting classic pink books is an important part of kitchen design My kind of girl!
Thanks Maggie! I guess technically it’s strange to have. But I’ve been thinking about the mantle decor and thought those would be so cute! I can’t wait to get to the decorating part!