One Room Challenge: Sun Lounge (Week 3)

How is it already Week 3? That means we're already at the half-way mark of the One Room Challenge. Yikes!

Firstly, here's a reminder of the goal for this room ...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSivtT7h4Tz/?taken-by=thehousethatwill

Follow The House that Will
Facebook | Instagram | Bloglovin'

This week, Project Sun Lounge has been all about the woodwork. When we left off last week, I had painted the walls and primed the woodwork, but the archway through to the kitchen/dining room still looked like this:

The House that Will | One Room Challenge: Sun Lounge (Week 2)

Beadboard Panelling Feature Wall

The very next day, Hubby got to work on installing the beadboard panelling for this wall. Just as we do for tiling a wall, we started by placing a level baton as a starting point.

Rather than use individual planks, I decided to use these sheets of MDF panelling instead because I didn't want to have to remove the skirting boards (baseboards), and these were slim enough to sit on top of the skirting.

After fixing them all to the wall, I filled each hole and joint line with woodfiller. I prefer to do this with a gloved hand as it gives me more control.

Once it dried, I sanded the filler and then started painting. A brush worked best because the roller didn't reach into all the grooves on the surface.

Some of these work-in-progress photos were taken at nighttime under artificial light, by necessity!

I love how this beadboard feature wall turned out!

Given that it's painted the same colour as the walls, the impact is quite subtle really. Yet it does change the character of the entire space - including the adjoining rooms - even if they still look quite messy for now because of all the sun lounge furniture being shoved in there.

I can't bring the furniture back into the sun lounge yet because I still have some paint touch-ups to do: I left a gap in the paint around the top of the walls so that I could take my time to cut in neatly along the ceiling, and I need to touch up around the skirting boards and windowsills too.

Skirting Boards & Windowsills

In the meantime, I also finished painting the windowsills and skirting boards around the room. I can't bear the smell of oil-based paints around the house, so I always choose to use water-based paints even for the woodwork. The products I use make the job more labour-intensive, but I'm happy to trade some of my time to avoid the lingering odour of stronger-smelling paints.

On top of the primer (which I completed last week) I painted two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White. I like to dilute the paint slightly to make it flow better.

Then I used a foam brush to apply three coats of General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in matt finish. See my caveat about this product here.

The top coat seals the chalk paint and gives it a hard-wearing finish. I have used this method of painting woodwork all over the house for the past couple of years, and I'm really happy with how well it has stood up even to the dog scratching at the doors!

Progress & Planning

Because I still have a little cutting-in to do with the paintwork, I haven't allowed myself to cross "Paint the walls" off my checklist yet. That will only take me a few hours to do, but I have to wait two weeks for the sealant on the woodwork to fully cure before I can do it.

TO-DO LIST:

Clear and clean out the room.
Paint the ceiling.
Paint the woodwork.
Add the beadboard panelling to the feature wall.
Paint the walls.
Sew four Roman blinds.
Sew a pair of curtains for the patio doors.
Replace the curtain pole.
Buy and make new scatter cushions.
Introduce texture through the accessories.
Replace the plant stand with a new side table.
Add lots of greenery (faux because of Hubby's allergies) to help link to the garden.
Find new artwork for the feature wall.

ORC One Room Challenge

Looking at all the progress made by the featured designers and the other guest participants, I'm starting to feel a little anxious about my timeline. The next step for me is to start making the curtains and blinds for the room. Because I haven't done either of those things before, I'm a little nervous about getting them done on time, so please wish me luck! As usual, you can keep an eye on how things are going by checking out my Instagram stories @thehousethatwill - that's also where I'll be sending out my S.O.S. messages if I need help during the week!