One Room Challenge – Week 5 – Distracted by the Haunt
Portland, Oregon’s interior designer, Angela Todd is part of the Fall One Room Challenge, sponsored by Better Homes & Gardens. In only 6 weeks participants are challenged to makeover a space. Angela chose to makeover the entry of her 1916 Foursquare in Southeast Portland, Oregon. She is known for fearless pattern blending and bold color palettes. The big reveal will be posted here and via Instagram November 7th through the 10th. Follow Angela here on Instagram and if you need to catch up, here are quick links:
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6
I spent this week mostly distracted from the One Room Challenge. Each year I host a haunt in my 1916 home on Halloween night. We usually have over 200 people attend, some of which are our clients. Our haunted house allows me to give a back to the neighborhood I call home, and a fun way to entertain people I care about. Several neighbors and friends participate in the haunt. I pull out the china and the crystal, a punch bowl with sangria for the adults, filled with dried ice that cascades billows of foamy gas, and we light at least 50 candles and two outdoor fire pits. We entice visitor’s senses with lighting, sparkle, smoke machine filled spaces, a backyard graveyard, a fortune teller, spooky music, and a few unexpected encounters. This year we celebrated with a Day of the Dead and Voodoo theme. The set up is time consuming throughout the week and the day of Halloween leading up to dusk. The makeup work alone this year was elaborate, but I love celebrating Halloween in this way! It is a memorable experience full of laughs and connections.
Here I am in my costume this year with my fantastic window treatments from Thibaut.
And here is the dining room giving you a glimpse of the mood we created at the haunt.
The entry of my home that is part of this fall’s One Room Challenge, was transformed with a ringing vintage phone, a candelabra, blood splashes on the wall, and two neighborhood “twins” – who are actually sisters who are 23 months apart. They were awesome in their costumes and a huge hit! My One Room Challenge weekly post is a couple of days later than usual due to my weekend packing up the haunt artifacts, spending time with my Mom who attended the Halloween festivities, and putting away all of the décor.
The Twins who were downright creepy!
You can see one of those gummy, sticky blood splatters on the back wall that stained my walls!
As the weekend is coming to a close, I have my mind back on the One Room Challenge. I am looking forward to Tuesday when my wallpaper from Manolo Walls, manufactured by Osborne and Little, will be installed by Chuck at Wallpaper Pro. It has been so hard for me to wait for the installation!
I entered week 5 of the One Room Challenge a bit concerned about my stair runner. My wool broadloom rug was re-routed to Los Angeles, and instead of taking the promised 3-5 days to arrive, it was delayed. Classique Floors tracked the broadloom rug and offered to shorten the delivery time by picking it up and hand delivering it to Rayburts. Matt the owner at Rayburts was cutting and hand binding the rug this weekend on his day off in a rush to make the challenge deadline for me. I stopped by on Saturday morning and picked out a contrasting turquoise binding. My installer has promised to install the runner this Wednesday or Thursday based on how his time frees up this week. It is a close call, because Thursday is the day the challenge ends! In the afternoon on Thursday my photographer and videographer will be on site to document the work completed. They both agreed to produce the finished photography and video in a day or two – and I am so thankful I have a committed team. Overall, I won’t have a lot of time to spare before the deadline, but I am optimistic we have this tiger by the tail.
I picked up a five foot Podocarpus tree today at Pistils Nursery and some potting soil at Portland Nursery today, and repotted the plant for impact. When I got the plant into my entry it was a little too unruly, so I checked the Internet for pruning techniques and gave her a sassy haircut.
Once the wallpaper and runner are installed, my last step will be determining if I need artwork on the stair wall above the handrail. I have some artwork set aside as possibilities, but at this point I am not sure if additional art will be a contribution to the space.
As a footnote, in my projects with clients, accessories and artwork are the two things I am not completely able to determine until final installation day. It is possible certainly to determine in advance key pieces, but all of the little detail work like art gallery walls for example, or table top accessorizing, I prefer to determine once all the furnishings are installed. In my process I bring ample accessories that I can shop from on site. I mix and create on that day by using what is already in the space and accessing what it might need for a polished finish. From my perspective this creative flexibility allows for a better finished result.
This week, Juan delivered my bench seat. I love the velvet butterscotch welt from Stark fabrics so much! I cleaned my Nepalese wool entry rug, and replaced the registers I painted a brass paint finish. I am thrilled with how the room is coming together. I do currently have these odd red outlines of handprints and globs from the haunt on my skim-coated walls. I placed red “blood” – gummy substance of some sort – on my newly skim-coated walls for the Haunted House. I had a feeling the red coloring would stain the walls. It did. Chuck told me to go for it, and plans to spot prime these smaller 5 areas on Tuesday before he installs the wallpaper.
I think this week will go well. Please wish me well. I can’t wait to show you the big reveal next weekend.
Visit the One Room Challenge site to see what others are doing in week 5 as well. There are some amazing transformations happening!
Angela Todd
Owner & Principal Designer
Angela is the principal designer at her boutique interior design firm in Portland, Oregon. She is known for creating memorable backdrops that tell the story of fascinating and intricate lives.
