It’s Week Three of the One Room Challenge! This week, we’re tackling paint samples and demo.

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We’re trying Magnolia Home Paint for the first time. We sampled (from left to right, top to bottom) Sunday Stroll, Cinnamon Sugar, and Cupola. We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about the Magnolia Home paint, and so far it has delivered!

Note: If you’re paint sample crazy like me, you are going to love this product I found at Home Depot! SureSwatch stickers are clear stickers that you can paint with your wall color sample. They remove cleanly, and for $1 per sticker (sold as a set of 3), you can’t go wrong! I paint two of each color I’m sampling and put them on different walls so I can see the changes with lighting. Genuis product! Magnolia also sells sample stickers that you come pre-painted for you.

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We landed on Cinnamon Sugar! We used up the rest of our sample paint on each side wall, and considered it the winner. Next we started demo — removing the chair rail trim along the back wall. We let the kids paint on the back wall with paint sticks while we demoed and they LOVED it.

Stay tuned for Week Four!

Follow along on instagram @firsthouseonfinn

It’s Week Two of the One Room Challenge! This week, we’re taking this Charcoal Blue room and turning it white (with lots of primer)! The goal is to get the room primed for its final color, Cinnamon Sugar by Magnolia.

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We will remove the white shelves and prime all of the visible walls. To save paint (and money), we decided not to prime the back wall, since it will be covered by the built-ins. For primer, we’re using Kilz Hide-All Interior Primer on the walls.

We tried getting away with one coat of primer, but it definitely needed two. The end result was just what we wanted: white walls, ready for Cinnamon Sugar paint!

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Stay tuned for Week Three!

Follow along on instagram @firsthouseonfinn

I am so excited to be a guest participant in the Spring 2020 One Room Challenge! For the next eight weeks, Garret and I will transform a room and keep you updated on the progress weekly, here on the blog. Follow along on instagram for daily behind-the-scenes looks!

What room are we transforming?

Our front room is a flexible space, currently designed as an office for a dog collar business I no longer own. This room was one of my personal Designer-DIY projects, where I took an inspiration photo from Studio McGee and recreated it on a budget. The wall shelves were chosen to hide all the dog collar supplies, since this room is the first room you see when you enter our house through the front door. I sold the dog collar business after our son, James, was born, and the room has remained untouched. The desk has become our mail/package dumping ground, and I don’t think anyone has sat in the pretty chair behind the desk in over a year.

What are the goals for this room?

Our main goal for the challenge is to turn this room into usable square footage. We plan to add storage and seating, which will make this a room the whole family can use. We desperately need first floor storage, as we don’t have another closet besides the mudroom closet. Keeping the large desk allows the room to work as an office space, while adding extra chairs turns the room into a formal dining room. We want to be able to change things around in the space depending on what we need to use it for.

Project List:

• Custom built-ins made from IKEA Billy bookcases
• Repeat the wall trim above chair rail on left/right walls
• Paint the whole room Cinnamon Sugar by Magnolia
• Spray paint chandelier black
• Source new chairs and styling elements

Before

Design Mockup

Stay tuned for Week Two!

Follow along on instagram @firsthouseonfinn