My secret weapon comes in a rainbow of colours (although I mostly use white).
Nothing, I mean nothing, gives instant gratification for home improvers like a fresh coat of paint. It's easy, cost-effective, affirming. That's why Week 3 of the #OneRoomChallenge is showing us some major progress. Our ho-hum, orange-red garden shed now looks positively angelic in a cloudy hue of white.
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.
50 Shades Of White
Do you agonize over the right white? Do you spend more time than you should going through paint chips? Testing. Holding them up. This light. That. Talking yourself in and out of love with the plethora of choices of this non-colour. Too blue. Too yellow. Thinking, what would Leanne Ford do?
Well, me too.
Thankfully (mostly for Graham who patiently pretends to see the differences in the white paint options), I've narrowed my choices of fave whites to about ten. And for the garden shed, I've selected Oxford White by Benjamin Moore in a matte finish - a classic crisp white with a smidge of grey. Fresh and clean, it will be the perfect backdrop for our new flower studio inside and out.
Getting Our Blank Canvas Ready
Painting and more painting describes Week 3 as we keep the ORC love alive. Here are the week's accomplishments:
First off, we had to clear out the shed and give it a good scrub in preparation for painting
We were able to easily paint the inside of the shed in an afternoon thanks to my in-house work crew, but rain and dreary weather meant we didn't get to the exterior, yet
As we repurpose as much as we can, we gave an old pair of brown IKEA metal shelves that were languishing in our basement a facelift with some white paint - they'll be perfect storage for all my floral vases and bits
Before and after.
Before and after.
Up Next
Week 4 is going to be one of my favourites because we'll be planting in the garden. You'll want to see how this inpatient gardener creates an instant Eden. Hint: I always have way too many plants.
Need More Inspiration?
If you missed it, you can catch up on our progress:
Week 2 DIY Zero-Waste Raised Garden Beds
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.
White paint really is amazing! It instantly looks like a finished space just from a can of paint