Almost there.
It's Week 7 of the #OneRoomChallenge, which means there's just one more to go until the final reveal of our reimagined backyard cutting garden and flower studio.
What colour did we paint the outside of the shed? What about the door? How have we stocked our shelves and kitted out the interior? How's the garden growing?
We've been busily putting the final touches on both inside and out and I'm so excited to share with you the final results. But, you'll have to wait until next week.
In the meantime, here are some glimpses of how it's going.
In its seventeenth season, the One Room Challenge™, takes place in April and October. Each round, twenty design influencers take the challenge as Featured Designers. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process over six weekly posts (bumped to eight weeks this season due to the pandemic). Better Homes and Gardens is the official media sponsor.
In addition to following along, everyone with a blog or Instagram account, is welcome to join the fun as a Guest Participant by linking their own room transformations up each Thursday, flooding the internet and social media with interior design inspiration, ideas, and encouragement.
This is our first One Room Challenge and the first project in our new house. Follow along as we transform our forgotten garden into a blooming flower studio and botanical backyard. We are #LovingLeuty.
Stocking The Shelves
There's no time for minimalism in this cozy cottage. Every bit of space is being used to store vases, props, floral tools and gardening gear. I find it a fortunate challenge to fit all our stuff in a compact area and still make it look pretty. We've always wanted to have a store and I imagine this is what it would be like to constantly rotate the stock display.
A key consideration in the transformation of the shed into a flower studio is having lots of shelf space where supplies are within easy reach. Remember that wall's length of IKEA shelving that got repainted white in Week 3? Well, they've been put to very good use. We also reused some salvaged floor joists from the house and made them into another bank of shelving. And, there's the six-foot-long shelf we placed above the workbench. Still, it's just only enough to hold all our bits.
An old shelving unit painted white is perfect for holding vases and props.
Every space is utilized. There's room for larger vessels under the roofline.
Chunky, rustic boards made from old floor joists hold heavier items.
But, Where Does The Not-So-Pretty Stuff Go?
There's a corridor that runs behind the shed that has enough room for two, tall storage cabinets. They are water tight and secure. Graham and Theo put them together in an afternoon without any issues and then Graham make some custom shelving to put inside to hold bulkier and not studio-worthy supplies like chainsaws, extra garden hoses, tools and so on.
Planting Container Cheat
We have a beautiful iron garden urn with a gorgeous weathered look. It's white and rusty and the paint is peeling off. It's perfect. We have another garden urn that is black plastic with some brown under-paint showing through. It's not quite as perfect. So to help it along we painted it and distressed it. Now, the two containers which will sit at across the garden path from each other, look like they belong together.
I just love this old urn. It used to be in Graham's mum's garden.
We've had this fibreglass urn for years. It's time to switch up how she looks.
A mix of leftover paint in grey and cream hues.
Sponge on. Wipe off excess.
Once dry, use some sandpaper to take off some of the surface paint to let the rusty-brown show through. Now, it mimics the other urn.
Over time, the paint will fade and chip even more.
Up Next
The big reveal is on. Be sure to come back and see the culmination of this project.
Need More Inspiration?
If you missed it, you can catch up on our progress:
Week 2 | DIY Zero-Waste Raised Garden Beds
Weeks 5,6 | DIY Moveable Workbench And Reflection
And be sure to visit One Room Challenge and Better Homes and Gardens to follow along with hundreds of other inspiring home-loving kings and queens working their magic during the #OneRoomChallenge.
