Operation Oscar's Room: Done! Well...Almost

After finishing all of the painting, molding, etc...some 8 months ago, I'm happy to report that "Operation Oscar's Room" (which was re-badged "The Kanye Guest Room") is about 90% complete! You can revisit its historic timeline, here and here oh and here. But enough of my mumbo-jumbo; lets get on with the show! 

I'd say its darn-tootin close to our original sketch-up idea. 

While some of you may have already spotted the photos of the room over at Apartment Therapy's Room for Color 2010 contest last week, there are still a few things left to do, including: installing floating shelves, doorknobs and new lighting.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

[Photos courtesy of Chris Johnson] 

Neglected Nacho

Whenever I eat nachos, there is always that one funky looking tortilla chip I ignore and push around the woozy cheese mountain until it's the only one left on my plate...and even then, I won't eat it. Well that's exactly what I feel best describes our master bedroom in terms of design. Meet our neglected nacho.

eh. Nothing to write home about.

Chris and I spent the majority of our "tool time" hustling and bustling the main living quarters, but when it came to our chamber, we were completely out of design fuel.

Our bedroom isn't very big to begin with and I doubt I could ever fit a regular dresser in there. Thus, it leaves me no choice but to work with what Mr. Lusk built;  jam every article of clothing in the closet and improvise with the limited space we have.

Instead of hiding my everyday jewelry in a box, they are hung at eye level on a criss cross shaped wall shelf. Ten times out of ten, I pick a fun piece to wear off the shelf. 

And since every inch of floor space in the closet is stuffed to the gills, my homeless shoes are neatly stacked on wine racks.

But nine times out of ten, I have an OWL of a good time.

-d

Awesome Blossom

When Chris and I flew our respective nests and moved in together, I promised myself two things: one- I would never wear frumpy sleepwear (guilty!) and two- I would never purchase a flowery bedspread for our bedroom. I figured it was only fair to stay gender neutral in our new communal space. I've kept my promise for over 3 years without any trouble or temptation...that is until I heard the siren song of this little son of a sandwich pictured below. 

[Orla Kiely]

I may have to break my promise. 

Two Girls, One Pup

Don't let the ill title fool you, this post is rated G as in Girrl, you did this all by yourself?!

A few days ago, I offered to help my friend Annel assemble a cargo-load of Ikea bedroom furniture for her new digs. I've experienced countless hours of abstruse illustrated instructions in my life, not to mention imma pro working with their "z" shaped allen key, so what better time than now to expose the 'Rosie the Riveter' in us both.

Exhibit A: Hopen bed

It was smooth sailing assembling the base until half way through the booklet, we realized we needed an adjustable wrench...which we didn't have. So the buck stopped here:

Fast forward, with wrench in hand, and we were hoppen'.

The only other hardship endured, was the fact that I could barely get my gangly self in a comfortable working position.

Exhibit B: Mavas Entertainment Center

This doodad had three times as many puzzel pieces to put together. We never planned to imitate Paula's Abdul's 1990 billboard hit, "Opposites Attract", because we were literally going two steps forward and two steps back for an hour on the piece pictured below. 

(aye!)

The remaining 14 steps were a one-way street and did not involve any disassembling of parts.

And now for the pup.

::Kobe::

As far as I know, the furniture is still intact. ^_^

En Route

I am convinced I'm in the process of developing a hunchback...probably because I've been ogling goodies for Oscar's room.

wall Art

valorbis

maptote

scandiphone

polli pendant

subway map dress

I gotta look the part too, right?

I guess 1 out of 6 isn't too bad. Guess which one is in transit to our house?

...The Lines Are Our Friends

Now that the Lego Project is officially crossed off our twenty-ten projects/goals list, we're back to focusing on (fake) Oscar's room.

You are probably wondering why we haven't posted a full room view (and if you're a LOST fan, you're also probably wondering about Richard's permanent eyeliner secret). Well that's because Chris wants to "stage" the room before the reveal... and when I say "stage" I mean moving (all) of our current master bedroom furniture into the room. I bet you dollars to donuts, he just wants another excuse for a workout.

But that doesn't mean I can't show you the vigorous process.

Remember our inspiration?

Well it involved A LOT of tedious (and steady) taping...threefold.

Magenta

Cyan

Yellow

Tomorrow, let's talk about accessories.

Oscar In Disguise

I'm stoked to announce that the paint job in Operation Oscar's Room is officially done! Done. Done. Done! Just a few paint touch ups are in order and then we're (almost) golden. 

In the coming weeks we are getting down to the nitty gritty with some DIY baseboards. Wish us luck!

Much like fake-Locke, this is now definitely fake-Oscar's room.

What's in store for us until then you ask?

The 1,060+++ Lego Project is in the works. 

For reals.

Color Me Badd

I kid you not, we have been slaving over the transit map paint drawing in Operation Oscar's Room every single night. The math is incredibly exhausting. Taping is just as bad. Why do we put ourselves through this? Oh, this is why.

We love color.

You should've seen the faces of the two jabrones working the paint center at Home Depot when I handed them our selected paint swatches. They probably thought I was color blind. I don't care; these colors are awe-some. It didn't occur to me until way later that our trio of paints are akin to the CMKY color model. Great minds think alike...anyone? **tap tap tap**

Now the universe has toyed with my daily web browsing and flooded my google reader with heaps of items of the same colors.

::Diana F+ CMYK::

::Love Birds::

::Anime Flower Ring Set::

::BB Dakota Mia Skirt::

Below is a little teaser.

I have a Joey Lawrence "whoa!" moment every time I enter the room.

Stronger

Transit map it is!

We've got a couple of other additions that we're still toying with the idea of...we'll see.

Hmmm, is it just me or does it give off a Kanye West kind of vibe? 

Operation Oscar's Room: Primetime

For the first time in ten years, I was able to participate in the 3-day holiday weekend. I usually work all recognized holidays, save for the biggies, and every holiday eve Chris proclaims, "domestic violence doesn't take a break for (insert holiday's name)" which turns my frown upside down.

While I would have loved to have lazed around and do nothing but watch the winter Olympics, Chris and I were two handymen in action all. weekend. long.

We went full throttle in Oscar's room.

First order of action; remove the chair rail molding. Isn't chair rail molding traditional used in dinning rooms? I cannot fathom why someone decided to nail up chair rail molding on one wall! I guess they were going for one dramatic wall? Talk about drama. 

Two crowbars, a hammer and a utility knife in the works...

...while desperately praying that the molding does not bring along the drywall with her (molding is beauty therefore she's a lady).

We breathed a sigh of relief as the molding came off with only minimal scarring. Chris felt that the chair rail removal went so well... he decided to pull up all of the baseboards. I guess somebody got a little crowbar happy.

The walls in Oscar's room felt rather wallpaper-textury underneath the paint. We figured we'd sand-down a few spots on the wall to see what new affliction lay in wait.

And while Chris buffed-down the walls, he dodged himself a trip to the swedish kingdom, Ikea.  My little sister, Pita, joined me in the Ikea quest. (cue the sister love)

(Hi Pita!) (Don't pay attention to my freakishly long arms)

After the noteworthy trip I came home to this:

Wallpaper verdict? Negative (hallelujah!) but the bubble gum pink paint underneath is totally Elle Woods inspired.

Ended the weekend with a little spackle and a whole lot of primer.

George Washington would be proud.

Anyone else have a productive 3-day weekend?? 

Operation Oscar's Room

I feel the first order of business to Operation Oscar's Room is narrowing down some paint selections. I'm not quite sure what color hues to go with as of yet but I have a few paint pattern ideas in mind that may make my heart (and hopefully Chris') go pitter patter.

                                                     ::my first try at google sketchup::

                                   ::not to shabby ^_^::

I know, it's basically a giant paint swatch, but seeing it in a large scale kind of makes me say, "oh la la." I wasn't going for a focal point here (like we did with the family room) but rather, more of a backdrop. I think it might work nicely with all white furniture.

Another idea we have is a bit tricky...trickier than anything we've painted before. Our inspiration? A subway transit map. More specifically the NY city subway map from the 70's. 

Could it be done? Perhaps. Would it look good? Tough to say. In either case, we'll be buying enough 3M painter's tape to make a whole village of Smurf Mummies.  

What are your thoughts? Giant swatch or transit map?