Taking the Man Out of the Man Cave: WK 6

Personal Home Decor Details Make the Difference

Home decor sourcing and adding personal touches is the focus for Week 6. Boy I am glad this post is not the final reveal yet! The final reveal will be November 16th! The man cave is NOT ready yet! Yikes, so much to do still…

So far I’ve learned how to use an airless paint sprayer, painted 20 things, wallpapered doors and walls, applied marble contact paper to counters, framed pictures and a T-Shirt, recovered an ottoman, assembled 3 pieces of IKEA furniture and an office chair, installed cabinet hardware, changed out a can light, installed a new light fixture, and I’m not done yet! Oh yeah and filmed a couple of YouTube how-to videos too – phew.

If this is your first week visiting my One Room Challenge™ progress, welcome! If you are coming back to see more, thank you so much 🙂 To follow along from the beginning, I’ll link the previous weeks here:

WEEK ONE | WEEK TWO | WEEK THREE | WEEK FOUR | WEEK FIVE | REVEAL

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Since we have an extra week to post on the ORC, I thought I would dedicate some of it to my MOM! Oh how I love her. Isn’t she beautiful? If I told you her age (which I won’t, because she would kill me) you wouldn’t believe it! A natural beauty 🙂

Literally I am walking around the Man Cave on FaceTime with my mom. “What do you think about this detail? What about that height?”

Her design skills are AMAZING and I owe so much of what I can do to her great advice. In my 20’s it was hard to take it, but now I crave her approval. A compliment from her means EVERYTHING.

This week it’s all about the little personal and home decor details of this massive man cave makeover and my mom is at the heart of it. When it comes to home decor and making a beautiful life in every way, she is my teacher and guide.

Projects Completed This Week

Honestly, everyday I’ve had to work on something related to the Man Cave and I am not sure I can get it all done and photographed on time with a new full time job, travel, and life stuff!

Getting up at 5:30am to write or staying up late to finish projects is my new norm. You do what you have to do.

Save Money and Shop in Your Own Home!

Many items, whether old picture frames, throws, decorative accessories, trays, pillows, books, and artwork can be sourced in your own home.

Remember to go through rooms, drawers, attics, and closets to find or repurpose current home decor accessories you have. It’s saving me a ton of money to use things I already own!

What can you repaint or repurpose? Start shopping in your own home before hitting Home Goods.

Fabric Removed from Seats!

The hardest part of the chair makeover is complete, which included priming and painting the black chairs white and removing the fabric. This is how many staples came out of those 6 chair seats. Next, reupholster the seats in a navy and white ticking stripe fabric.

This I will tackle in the evenings, while watching TV…what’s funny is the original neutral fabric underneath isn’t so bad.

Navy Trim Added to Drapery Panels and Installed

Wow, what a difference it makes to take a plain white drape and add an accent trim! When you see the reveal they look much more expensive than they were and are now customized for this space.

The numbers of hours I spent ironing 6 panels is unreal and I am happy to be finished 🙂 Ironing is a task I do not enjoy!

Plus hanging them behind the sofa was a challenge. I had to be a gymnast balanced on the the back of the sofa edge because moving it to use a ladder was not an option!

Beautiful New Pillow

The little bench in the office needed a pillow! At the High Point Spring Market, I fell in love with a Thibaut watercolor fabric. I could SEE it going beautifully with my plate from Italy, in the office bookcase.

Have you ever had home decor kismet? Googling Thibaut watercolor fabric led me to an Etsy shop, that was in Charlotte, AND she had a pre-made pillow cover, in the fabric I wanted, with a navy back, that was the perfect size. Crazy luck!

The pillow is extremely well made, so is the insert I purchased to go with it. It is as beautiful as I knew it would be!

PLEASE VISIT this shop for designer fabrics at affordable prices by clicking this link: The Pillow Spot

Decorative Trays Painted

After getting the man cave and sitting area more organized and walking through the room on FaceTime with my mom, we both agreed that the trays I currently owned that were in the attic were perfect for the room.

It also was apparent that I needed to paint them both navy blue to match the office cabinet color and pull the color through the entire space. This tray used to be a dark brown, then I tried white, and now its going to be navy!

Pictures Framed and Hung, Shelving Ordered

As I mentioned from the beginning, football will still be the theme of the man cave. It was also important to emphasize my son and our life together in other ways.

Now framed are pictures of me and my son, my family, and even some landscapes from our trip to Sydney, Australia this summer.

It’s been fun to find decorative ways to incorporate footballs, photographs, mini helmets and other personal items into this space.

Fortunately, I have a series of photographs of his first college tackle that are now a focal point in the room! A college T-Shirt has even been framed.

White floating shelves have been ordered to display footballs from our favorites teams. We agree on two of them: Clemson, Carolina Panthers, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

New Dog Bed for Mick and Trash Bins

Do you have a fur baby? Mine’s name is Mick the Maltese and it was time to get him a new dog bed.  He was sleeping in a cat pod, so this was a major upgrade and he LOVES it!

I found it on Amazon and it matches the WALLPAPER! Amazing. Plus he now can sit right next to my office chair and that makes me happy.

It really is the little things that make me happy 🙂 Being mindful of the extra trash and paper I’m going to create working from home, I added two new bins and labeled them, so I can be more conscientious about recycling.

The To Do List

It feels like a LOT. Here is the list running through my head daily:

1. 1. Recover chairs
   2. If there is time, slip cover office chair
   3. Faux finish table
   4. Antique coffee table and Scotch-guard top fabric
   5. Place the rug and tack down with rug tape
   6. Hang floating shelves
   7. Accessorize with what I have and buy a few more items
   8. Take pretty pictures (praying for sunshine this weekend!)

Yay! The list is getting much shorter and I see the end in sight. I’ve been able to accomplish SO much its hard for me to believe it!

Sources and Shopping

Here are the items I have or will install this coming week. The rug is GORGEOUS and I can’t wait to install it as one of the final touches. Plus after all the painting I’ve done I cried uncle and splurged on some new pharmacy lamps that look great!

While you are waiting for next week’s post, check out The One Room Challenge and all of the Week 6 Progress or the 20 Featured Designers to see their beautiful work too!Thanks to the sponsor Calling It Home and media sponsor House Beautiful for hosting this fun event. There are some amazing projects in the works and I can’t wait to see them with you.

Until next week…

Porch Daydreamer

Tracey