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] 

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? 

And The Oscar Goes To...

Remember that gigantic and hideous "hi-I-sell-drugs" security doorknob I posted a couple of weeks ago?

Well my friends, I feel it's time to tell you about the tall tale of Oscar's room. Oscar is not a roommate nor is he a pet of any kind. He is not a family member who mooches from us either. Oscar is the name of our spare bedroom. And yes, he is real.

We met Oscar over a year and half ago when we closed escrow on our home. Oscar was renting a bedroom from the previous homeowner and he was a tad late getting all of his belongings out of our bedroom. We had the opportunity to chat with him a bit (mostly to find out what the previous homeowner was like since we never met the gal nor did we ever receive the "keys" to our [then] new home). Oscar was a bit of a character. He looked like a Mexican version of Donald Faison, you know, that guy from Scrubs? But with more of a 'Stand and Deliver' persona. All and all a nice guy.

Oscar was kind enough to leave his manly doorknob lock with us. He divulged the secret code, ahem, 420 and even left behind some 'panama red' in the garage...under a home depot bucket. Perhaps it was a housewarming gift? Nah, the chow chow they left behind was our "housewarming gift."

On our Twenty-Ten Project/Goal list, I pledged to makeover Oscar's room and bury his name for life. This past weekend, we broke the ice.

I do have a confession (but more like a warning), and please tell me I'm not alone! Oscar's room is what I like to call my Monica Closet. It's my version of my chaotic space. I'm a fairly neat person all around, but when I come across a future DIY project I tell myself I'm going to get around to it later and promptly stick it in Oscar's room. I stick everything in Oscar's room, including our college degrees signed by the Terminator himself...they are inside my hello kitty sewing machine box. Sigh. I'm a closeted disorder-er, you could probably find me in the DSM IV.

As you can see, most of the items in the room are empty boxes. But before we rummaged around, Chris declared several arguments will ensue throughout the process. He was correct.

I'm relieved to reveal the not so embarrassing aftermath snapshot.

Let the decorating fun begin!

And please tell me there are others out there with their own version of the Monica Closet.

Not Your GrandDad's Library

Half way into January, and I have yet to (physically) tackle ANY of my projected goals for the year. I have semi-truck loads of ideas running around in my head, from paint colors to fabric and furniture placements...all in my head...not even in google sketchup! Wait a minute! I kind of fibbed there. We did receive our hundreds of Lego pieces for our scandalous Lego Project but the inner 7yr old in us came out and we've been playing (when we should be working) with them.

Aside from our Lego Project, I will be confronting "Oscar's" room. Let me share a snapshot of his doorknob.

You can only imagine what's inside. Seriously, what kind of person needs a doorknob like that?! Guess what the code is? Ready......420....dude.

I will elaborate more in future posts. 

Since today's post is a snooze, I will leave you with this video, written and produced (even the music)... and staring Mr. Humble Ablog...aka Chris. He and the media crew at his employer (a library) are developing a series of goofy videos to be shown throughout the campus. This is their pilot of sorts. Enjoy.

[In my best Ricky Gervais impersonation] Are you having a laugh?