Welcome to Week 4 of the One Room Challenge where I am creating an outdoor space at our lake house. We are halfway to the reveal date, and we are getting closer to my favorite part, decorating and styling the space. This week I decorated the side door entrance.
What is the One Room Challenge?
The One Room Challenge or the ORC is a challenge where participants get to show how they transform a space in a few weeks. Apartment Therapy is the media partner for the ORC. It is a bi-yearly challenge that will last 8 weeks. This will be my 3rd time participating in this challenge. You can see Week One with all of the before pictures and my inspiration for the space. I have chosen to do a space at our lake which makes it a little harder since it is 40 minutes from our home.
Before the porch addition
What we accomplished this week
Before porch addition
Before
We had the exterior door replaced a couple of months ago. The first thing I did was caulk and paint the door. I had to order paint to match the Hardie board so I could touch up around the door.
I worked on styling the side porch door and I made a DIY Boxwood Wreath using items that I already had. You can view the Wreath tutorial. This project saved me money and only took a few minutes to make.
Since this is our lake house, and since we do not live at the lake house, I cannot use real plants. I will not be there to take care of the plants. I found these faux ferns at the At Home store. These ferns look more real than any artificial ferns that I have seen.
All I had to do was place the ferns directly in the planter. I thought I was going to have to use tape and cardboard to make the ferns stand up but I did not have to. As soon as I placed the ferns in the planter, I was pleased with the way it looked. I used 4 ferns in the planter on the left.
The ferns were easy to shape and fluff. The best tip is to spread the fern leaves apart.
I only used two ferns on the planter on the right side of the side door.
Layering rugs add so much color and texture to the entrance.
Outdoor Kitchen
My husband and I worked on completely framing the outdoor kitchen. Also, my husband ran all of the electrical for the kitchen. I forgot to take a new picture of the work we did on it this week. We are feeling good about where we are with the kitchen.
Landscape
The yard around the house was completely torn up from building the outdoor porch. We planted grass two weeks ago and it is starting to grow. Do you know the saying that if you give a mouse a cookie? We realized that the original owners did not use landscaping fabric under the pebble rock bed. So we decided to go ahead and remove the pebbles, lay down landscaping fabric, and add more pebble rock. I did get the shrubs in the ground and plants planted in the planters.
All of the furniture and decor has been purchased and is stored in the lake house. I am ready to get it out on the porch as soon as the pollen stops falling.
THE TO-DO LIST
Finished staining all of the new wood.Plant Grass and move pea gravelClean, caulk, and paint windows and trimNew fansMake a wreathCaulk and paint door and trim- Build outdoor kitchen
- 3 large outdoor rugs
- New outdoor seating set
- Outdoor dining table, seating, and dishes
- Gas firepit
- DIY a concrete coffee table
- DIY outdoor pillows
- Possibly add a bar table and bar stools if we have the space
Add plants and plantersRedo the landscaping in front- String lights
- Hang TV
Check back next week to see more progress!
