Cozy & Rustic Living Room Refresh | ORC Week 4

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This week has flown by!

It also felt like the busiest week of my life. Why I decided to start a workout class and personal training and join a bags (cornhole for my Hoosier friends) league with the hubs and still teach those mongrels during the day (#thatteacherlife #Tminus26days) and do the One Room Challenge™ and actually take time to breathe…

I'll never know. Scared of boredom maybe?

Ahh… no time to diagnose #stayinginthepositivitycorner (that is actually what we call the corner where my classroom is at school… carrying it on to my home life… I digress).

So as you can gather, the needle did not move as much as I hoped it would this week in my living room. So, I'm popping in for an update on where I am, what decisions I still need to make, and my dilemma's. I could really use your help…

If you have been following along, my goal last week was to basically finish the wall behind my love seat (aka the wedding wall) and find some awesome lamps to replace the ones I moved up (If you are new, check out week 1, week 2, and week 3 updates).

First of all, my shelves for what I've been calling the “wedding wall” (because our wedding pictures reside on it… original, I know) finally came in! Yay, right?? E

xcept I was careless in my research on stain and they came in a more yellow hue than the rich wood look I was going for… womp womp. I'm kicking myself for not taking a ride over to the hardware store to check out the different color stains or consulting the shop owner beforehand.

Instead, I went off of the picture of stain given on the Etsy page (insert sad face).

Despite the color issue that I created for myself, I want to give a shout out to this particular Etsy shop because there was an issue at the post office (which is why it was taking so long to get) because of a sticker mishap and Yari (shop owner) expedited my shelves and offered me a discount on a future purchase, too! Way to be awesome, Rustik Decor Shop!

The shelves are made very well, so I'm excited to get them up on the wall.

In addition to adding “stain shelves” to my list, I made a third of the progress on finding the new lamps for the room.

I saw this lamp at West Elm when I was searching for pillows and I couldn't get it out of my head, so I finally pulled the plug and purchased it.

I think it's going to look great behind the leather chair I ordered because of its oblong lamp shade and cool tripod stand. It's also adjustable!

All that's left for lamps is one for my end table and one for my console table. What are your thoughts on mismatched lamps? Could I go with a lamp base that has color or has a clear base?

Should the two lamps on opposite sides of the room have a similar feel? Leave me a comment below, if you will… I am having an internal debate.

The post this week has minimal pictures, but the one featured image attached at the beginning of this post is this “wedding wall” I have been speaking about in its current state.

However, in order to keep with my theme from Weeks 1- 3, I wanted to include a “phases of the wedding wall” pic so you can get a good idea of where it's been and where it's going.

The top left picture and right side picture is what we've been living with for almost three years… so barren!!

The bottom left picture is what was happening in transition before I decided to move the white mountain picture above the fireplace.

Now the clock resides on this side with a mixture of vases, but I need my shelves up before I can decide what will go on the table and/or shelves. Deep breathes.

Another decision I still need to make… what to put in the gallery wall frames from last week. I have decided that I need color vs. black and white and I'm leaning towards that color being one color, like navy.

I really, really, really want the gallery wall to tell a story which leads me to an idea of having maps of places we've lived.

I'm still doing my research on shops that will create custom 8×10 or 15×19 maps for you of weird cities in a specific color, so if you know a guy or a guy who knows a guy, let me know.

My other thought is getting some navy botanical prints that will complement the fiddle leaf fig I have on that wall until I can find the whole maps thing, but I really don't want to spend an extra xyz dollars for something that I know I want to change anyway… ugh, the struggle is real.

Official to-do list update:

Order leather chair from Pottery Barn that I’ve been eyeing
Style tray next to where the chair will go – Still debating if I'm going to use the tray I have here
New: Re-stain the floating shelves
Hang floating shelves on wedding/side wall
Style shelves on wedding/side wall
~~Change out birch sticks for greenery~~
Create gallery wall of some sort around TV
Find patterned throw pillows
Find cozy throw blankets
~~Find an area rug to bring the cozy area together~~
Find tall “reading” lamps for the two corners or sconce lighting
Find lamp for end table
Find a console table lamp
Move existing floor lighting up to the ledge
Appropriately hang the focal clock
Hang the valley picture
~~Possibly find peel and stick backsplash for around the fireplace~~ – I think I'm going to save this for a rainy day
Find patterned fabric to cover books
Find good way to organize decor magazines
Style the mantel
Style the hearth
Style the end tables (1 down, 1 to go)
Style the console table
Style the coffee table
Miscellaneous perfecting
Fix Gallery Wall around TV
Find a company who will print weird city maps in navy print.

If we are looking at the numbers, I have about two weeks (which really equates to 9 actual days in my personal calendar of events).

The major areas I still need to work with are finishing the wedding/side wall which include the console table, the hearth, the other end table, and the coffee table…

I'm going to need to get going… starting to get a little uncomfortable with the deadline so close, but one step at a time, right?

As for the rest of the ORC crew, check out the week 4 updates on the projects the 16 featured designers are working on as well as the guest participants' week 4 updates.