Cabin Vibes Bedroom: ORC Week Four – Fixing The Mural

Are we done yet? Yesterday, I was thinking about how my feelings change as the weeks of the One Room Challenge progress. After seven rounds, I am developing a pattern:

• One week before: I don’t know if I want to do this again.
• Week One: Let’s do this! I love everyone in this big, bright, beautiful world.
• Week Two: This is so awesome. I’m a week ahead of schedule! Maybe I’m the awesome one.
• Week Three: The paint color is wrong. I hate it. Everything is wrong. I am now behind schedule.
• Week Four: I fixed it. Now, I have exactly one week to build an entire room’s worth of furniture.
• Week Five: Amazon, take my money.
• Week Six: We did it! I love everyone in this big, bright, beautiful world.

Repeat in six months.

Fixing The Mural

Last week, I posted this picture of the mural, and I mentioned that I was not fond of the bottom two colors.

Before I started on the second wall, I made a new game plan. Based on some excellent feedback from Instagram, I cut the pallette down to seven colors instead of eight.

Then, I headed to the paint store for two new colors for the bottom.

For four hours, I did a little drawing, color swapping, and rearranging. When I stepped back to admire my masterpiece, it looked like…

…a pair of camouflage pants.

Instead of a bed, this room needed a hunting blind and some buck spray. What a mess!

Almost Back to the Drawing Board

At this point, I nearly sanded the whole thing off and painted the walls a solid color. Looking at the mural with a critical eye, I decided I still liked the top two colors and the fourth one down too. With more guidance from Instagram, I was determined to give the mural one more try. That meant another trip to the paint store.

This time, I chose three new colors. (What am I going to do with all of these leftovers?!)

Now is a great time to mention HANDy paint products. The company sent me several of their products to try for the One Room Challenge. I used the HANDy Paint Pail with disposable liners for each color. However, you know me; I didn’t throw them away. I will use them until they break.

When the latex paint is dry, it peels right off of the plastic liners, but peeling it off isn’t even necessary. Wet latex and dry latex won’t mix. I reuse paint tray liners like this all the time.

I am sure that photo is not what HANDy Paint Products had in mind for a product picture, but Millie is positive that this mural is only happening because she’s here to help.

One of my favorite features of the HANDy paint pail is the magnet on the side. It keeps the paintbrush from slipping down into the paint. Also, the handle on the back makes it much easier to maneuver than a quart can or a heavy gallon.

The Final Mural

After several more pre-dawn hours of work, I finished both mural walls, and they are very different from the original inspiration photo.

For the BHH mural, I redrew some of the mountains on the right side wall, and I abandoned the tree idea altogether. (Sorry!) Now, I have something I am very proud to share. Overall, it feels more sophisticated to me than the original plan.

Here’s what I did:

• Left the top two colors as-is
• The three new brown colors are from the same paint chip color row, but darker.
• Moved the middle color from the first and second attempt to the very bottom (It is now the darkest color on the wall.)

These new color choices created a happy accident too. When the light hits the brown shades, they look like they are glowing. It’s so neat! Can you see it? If you cannot, click on the image to see it full-sized.

Even though it is very different than the original, the basics are the same. I stuck pretty close to the rule of thirds, and the left and right sides are not too symmetrical or matchy-match.

Fifteen hours, eleven quarts of paint, and six paintbrushes later, a little piece of the California Sierras (home!) lives in BHH now. Without even realizing it, that was the image that I was channeling the entire time.

Next up, I’ve got one week to build a room’s worth of furniture. It looks like I am right on schedule, after all.

Are you following the One Room Challenge? If so, are there any projects from the guest participants or the featured designers that caught your eye? Please let me know in the comments.

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