It's gonna be good! ORC Week 4 • Avenue Laurel

Guys, I remember Week 4 of the last ORC I completed. I thought I was ready for it- I’d definitely read other’s blogger’s accounts of Week 4, which is notoriously difficult. And sure enough, I remember feeling like I was drowning in a sea of uncompleted projects.

Believe it or not, I’m feeling okay right now. I think because this week I was able to completely finish the wainscoting, including paint. And it made such a huge improvement in the space, I almost feel like I could stop right now and I’d be happy enough with this room!

A light and bright living room with white and navy painted wainscoting- week 4 of the One Room Challenge! #livingroom #wainscoting #oneroomchallenge

I went ahead and painted the half-wall wainscoting navy- specifically, Deep Twilight Blue by Valspar. Eagle eyed readers will recognize this as the wall color in the library– and in there, I’m not a fan. The dark walls are just too dark, and I’ve been meaning to repaint that room forever.

But in this room, which gets tons of natural light- it’s pretty stunning! Such a lesson on the effect of color in different rooms!

And I painted the feature wall white- my go to, The Perfect White by Valspar. It’s a couple of shades brighter and purer than the white that was there before, but that little change made a huge difference! Instead of the walls looking dingy, they look light and bright.

Plus, now I think that I can go without curtains! I love the interest that the navy wainscoting has added to the walls enough that, between that and the window trim, I just don’t think they are needed. What do you think?

Michael keeps telling me that it was a “bold” choice to pair the navy and white together- maybe?- but I think it works!

I used the Handy Pro Pail to paint the wainscoting, and it was just the perfect size! I’m usually not a fan of the small rollers, but for this project, it was a good choice. The smaller foam roller was able to fit easily between the wainscoting panels, and the Pro Pail is perfectly made to hold these rollers.

I still have one more big project- adding the shelves in the niche- which as you can see, is my dumping ground in this room for now 🙂

The furniture placement right now is just kind of arbitrary. I’m playing around with different arrangements in the room. The boys really like the sectional where it is now, but it’s not the most practical arrangement because no matter what I do, I’ll have lamp cords running across walkways. Plus, it does cut off the room.

I do know that the TV and console will not be where it is now. It’s just there because I was moving it around to paint behind it. I’m going to have it in front of the navy- the dark color really helps camouflage it!