I can’t believe we are into the 5th week of this Reno Challenge and it’s been a doozy!  A few late nights and some aching backs but lots of progress!

Let’s get right to all the details shall we?

First things first, I have to say that making the decision to wallpaper the upper portions of the wall in our entryway was one of my best ever!  I can’t even put into words how beautiful this wallpaper from RoomMates Décor is.  This was our first time using peel and stick wallpaper and once we got the hang of it, learned the ins and outs, things moved along smooth-ish!  It is seriously gorgeous and it feels like Christmas every time I walk in my front door these days (even though the space is far from bring finished, I just squint so I can’t see that part)! We already have a plan to use this brand of wallpaper in another room we love it so much.

Hubby has been finishing the board and batten, installing all the new switch plates and coat hooks from Liberty Hardware and I have been working on making over two pieces of furrniture for this space thanks to our friends at Fusion Mineral Paint.

I had mentioned earlier on I was stripping a table top from an old console table to use in our entryway makeover.  I believe this table was a hand me down from my mom many years ago.  It is solid oak but had about five coats of paint on it,  including a coat of Bulls Eye Primer.  Lots of elbow grease, paint stripper and a few hours of  labour, this table turned out beautifully!

After I stripped the top, I cleaned it with TSP and gave the base a coat of Ultra Grip just to be safe.  It then had two coats of Fusion Mineral Paint in “Coal Black” and on the top I used their Stain and Finishing Oil in Cappucino.  Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?  It’s one of my favourite pieces I’ve made over to date. (All of the products are linked above!)

You’ve also heard me mention more than once, a built in bench in our entryway as part of this challenge.  Being the newbies that we are in the laying tile and doing board and batten department, last week we felt we were running out of time and decided to put the built in part of the bench on the back burner.  I already had a slab of pine that I had also stained with the same SFO in Cappucino and I had to somehow, come up with a solution ASAP! Said slab was a fairly standard size piece of pine from Home Depot, cut at 48x16.  So I spent an hour scrolling my local buy and sells looking for something I could use for a base.  I finally got lucky and the next morning my son and I went and picked this beast up, it was solid as a rock (even though it is a wood/mdf combo piece) and other than a thick layer of dust, it was in mint condition.

I brought it home, cleaned it, gave it a coat of Ultra Grip and the base took 3 coats of Fusion Coal Black for good coverage.  It was left to dry and cure and a couple of days later we attached the pine slab to the top and I tell you, it was nothing short of fate that had it being the perfect fit.   Before we attached the pine with some liquid nail and staples, I wallpapered the back of the two inserts in the bench with paper we had leftover to add a pop of colour .  This piece turned out better than I ever expected, especially considering it was a last minute change in plans and I was basically starting  from scratch!

And that my friends, wraps up week five….we are feeling the time crunch over here, our new front door is here, waiting to be installed BUT our hardware is still in transit…..I don’t do well with “in transit” especially with no estimated delivery date attached.  Fingers crossed this all comes together on time!

 Michele xo

PS….you can catch up with what the other Designers are working on here AND STARTING TODAY YOU CAN VOTE FOR US AGAIN through the link below. Seven more days!!!!! OMG!!!!

http://hd.jeffreycourt.com/renochallenge/