It's reveal week!!!!
It's week 6 of the One Room Challenge which means everyone is revealing their final spaces. Did I get the space 'finished' the exact way I envisioned it? Not quite. Did I get an enormous amount done and am incredibly happy with it? Absolutely! That is really the point of the One Room Challenge for those of us who aren't regular design bloggers - an external motivation and sense of community driving us forward.
I'm taking part in the One Room Challenge, a design event where 20 featured designers and countless guest participants transform a single space over 6 weeks. Check out all the other great designs at the One Room Challenge blog.
Catch up with previous weeks of my side verandah plans
Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five
Six weeks ago, walking past the middle of the house revealed a cluttered, aimless space with concrete the same colour as the path, so there was no clear distinction between them.
 |
| The view six weeks ago, as a reminder of where we started |
Look at it now!
 |
| And the same view today! |
The paint colour visually separates the verandah from the path, and the stencilling adds some character that fits with the age of the house. As for the contents, there is a world of difference between furniture that is chosen to be functional in the space, and deliberately for its looks, rather than it being a dumping ground for falling apart things and bits on the way out.
I showed a lot of details of the work corner in the
week five post, but I'll show you more now!
 |
| The revamped potting bench is already in use. |
 |
| The new storage cabinet! More details on this are in the week five post. |
 |
My pretty gloves, my notebook and my amazing new seed storage box
on the working surface of the potting bench. |
My favourite new accessory for the potting bench is my seed packet box. I had a blank balsa wood box with room for photo insert in the lid which I had been planning to use to showcase a small piece of embroidery a few years ago. I ended up doing something different with the embroidery, and the box went into my craft stash. When I was planning this ORC, I decided I would paint it and add an art-nouveau-inspired design in the lid. If the space had been square, I probably would have copied an existing tile pattern from
my Pinterest board for this project.
I'm so glad it wasn't a square, because the odd shape inspired me to commission my incredibly talented friend Leigh of
Pen and Inkcap to do a charming watercolour floral design for me. She is a brilliant calligrapher and artist, and she'd been watching my ORC progress so had a good idea of my overall vision. She drew on the colours in my mood board and the tiles I'd pinned to create this original design that perfectly fits the space. I love how well it coordinates with all my existing patterns and colours. She came over last week and took some 'in situ' shots of the box, and has graciously allowed me to share her photos here. She has more on
her instagram here.
 |
| It works so beautifully with all the other elements of the verandah. Photo credit Pen and Inkcap |
Moving on from the work area, we hit the sitting area where I'd planned to have a table and a chair, where I could sit and have a cool drink or a cup of tea. What have I ended up with? Look and see...
 |
| My sitting area - I have a chair, but only sort of a table. |
 |
| The view from the other side |
This area has caused me the most hassle, as I impatiently refreshed Facebook Marketplace and wondered why nothing was right. I finally picked up this chair last night! Talk about last minute. It is almost exactly the style and size I wanted, but it isn't in the best condition (and not all of the damage was evident in the listing photos) - it has lost some of its caning. However, if it was in perfect condition I might be more hestitant to have it as an outside piece. I made the pillow from fabric I grabbed at Lincraft last week in their 40% off sale. I had been looking for a William Morris-esque print, but I saw this small flower repeat and decided it would work well. (Also, did not find a Morris-esque print)
I still haven't found a table which works, so I grabbed a stool from the bedroom and placed this
IKEA tray on top to act as a table. I had always planned on the tray being part of the verandah scheme, just not quite in this way.
 |
| This is just the place to sit with a cold drink and plan the next steps for the garden. The small flowers are from the garden and I've put them in a Denby eggcup from my collection. |
The 'mystery plant' I gained with my FB marketplace pot purchase has been very busy flowering over the past two weeks, and is now clearly a mandevilla or rock trumpet. I got it this fan trellis to start climbing up.
 |
| The flowers on the mandevilla are a stunning red. |
Now normally I'd say getting an almost $50 pot PLUS a well established plant for $10 would be my bargain win of six weeks, but... I also found this amazing plant stand. While it wasn't cheap, it was a very fair price for what it is.
 |
| I love its lines and the colour - it fits beautifully in my vision. |
 |
| The new approach to the door is much nicer. The stand is narrow enough not to impede the walk in. |
The final area is the 'gas metre' corner, where I had an ambitious plan to create a moveable plant screen.
 |
| It moves, and screens. We'll work on the plants. |
I had always intended to repurpose this old gate, and I attached it to an old, spare shelf and added castors to the shelf. I hadn't registered that the gate would be incredibly heavy and just tip it all forward. It is currently counter balanced with a chunk of wood, a brick, and held slightly leaning back with string, while I work out what to do. I had planned to hang multiple plant pots off the front, but that was upsetting the balance. I think if I get a rectangular terracotta trough to rest on the shelf, it will be heavy enough to balance it, and then I'll plant a climbing rose, a climbing ficus or a bougainvillea to climb and grow 'forwards' through the slats.
 |
| Lemon thyme and basil in some customised pots. |
The two pots currently in front of the gate were kindly gifted to me by a friend who was following along with this on instagram. I painted one in leftover paving paint and the other got the spray treatment with Rustoleum Hammered Copper.
There are so many leaves still in the pictures despite my sweeping - it is all the blame of this fellow who looms over the gap between the houses. He does provide nice shade though, so I can forgive him.
 |
| The gum tree that is responsible for the leaves |
I still haven't worked out if I will be storing the scooter on the side verandah - right now it is in the locked shed, and that hasn't been too inconvenient and is safer. We will see, but if it does, it will be either behind the gate screen, or between there and the plant stand.
I'm incredibly happy with how it all looks, and I'll take my time looking for the right table for the space.
 |
| I love everything about this space now. |
Now on to the more boring bit: the budget. Overall, this transformation has cost $1044.38 for the new things we bought. (That's $717.28 US Dollars for the readers finding me through the one room challenge site, so you can compare to the others) The bulk of that was the verandah preparation and painting - between the cleaner and concrete bog, the painting supplies and stencil, and most of all the paving paint, it came to $410.94. I spent $250.96 on furniture - that's the IVAR, the marketplace chair and stand, and the hardware (castors, etc) for the gate screen. I spent another $82.44 on 'other painting' - all the paint for the furniture, pots, etc. $84.99 went on accessories - but that includes a custom commissioned watercolour design! A lot of the little accessories in the shoot (notebook, eggcup, duck, glass, etc) are just from around the house and will probably not live outside. Ok, I may leave the duck. I also spent $215.05 on pots and plants, including some soil and the fan trellis. Some of the plants and pots (the bay tree and its pot, the mint, several of the ferns) were either free or I already had them elsewhere in the garden and decided they would better suit the conditions here.
