First off, I’m still aghast that I am fulfilling my dream of participating in the #oneroomchallenge. If I could have seen myself today back when I first started out, I don’t think I could believe it. Too often I forget how far I’ve come on this journey and don’t give myself the room to pat myself on the back and say “Good job!” And would have been astounded that I am still just as much in love with this art. I always have this fear that if I love something, I will lose my love for it. But every day, my love grows and deepens. I will try to enjoy every second of it as much as my ego will allow.

Speaking of which, have you guys been watching my IG stories? I didn’t intend to put out “a stylist’s confessional” but I get deep. I feel incredibly vulnerable admitting all my fears and foibles to the vast IG abyss, but I find it also incredibly cathartic. If you’re enjoying and learning something from it, great. You get a peak into the neurosis that propels this roller coaster I call my life up and down the proverbial “peaks and valleys” of absolutely certainty and complete doubt. So much fun, right?!

One of those peaks of the week was the beginning stages of our skylight installation. I was running high that WHOLE day they were ripping and roaring through our bedroom ceiling. Sometimes it just feels good to tear things down.

skylights

This will be my first time installing skylights, although I have lived with them before. I find them… essentially NON essential. A room that needs skylights just will never look right without them, but it’s not integral to its structure or function. It’s like a brunette that knows deep-down she will look better blonde or red-headed. Heather Locklear anyone? Too old a reference? Beyonce?

Word to the wise… they are expensive. The skylights themselves are around $500 each for simple ones, $1500 for the ones that open. Installation for these four skylights (and one in the bathroom) is $10,000. That’s 10K US American dollars. Of my hard-earned cash. I always get surprised when ahem IG followers proclaim $500 or $2000 for something as extensive as this. Why is that? Is that because California is so expensive or has every contractor out there swindled me? Is it lack of experience in construction and interior renovation? Or is there some big IG DIY’er consortium to tell people things cost 5 cents to do? Don’t answer that. No do. Answer that. I want to know.

And then the bad news — our contractor pushed the installation back one week, which pushed back the painter and wallpaper, which pushed back everything else. So, I don’t have skylights installed just yet, but here are the pictures of the glorious holes where they will be…

The reason why skylights are such a serious home renovation is because of the following factors:

1. they must rip out the ENTIRE bottom of the roof/ceiling to expose the joists

2. Framing

3. re-insulation

4. installation of flashing

5. drywall

6. painting

Put them together, you have 10,000 USD worth of work. And this all happens on the ceiling. So DIY is not an option. I famously do not enjoy or participate in DIY. I am accident prone (yes, thank you for pointing that out in my recent unboxing story) and not very patient. Read: not good at DIY.

Oh my, I’m so excited to show you the next bit.

“final” design

I will provide all links to products in Week 8 (or at least further down the road), but I will say this:

I think I am in love.

I really struggled in my IG stories to explain what I was going for, but I just didn’t know how to express it. This rendering is EXACTLY what I want to say and EXACTLY what I want my bedroom to be.

In order to design a truly remarkable and magical room, one must first determine its function and its raison d’etra. This comes from the architecture and the light, it’s DNA. Without getting into all the permutations of what a room can be, I’ll just stick with this one.

It is tall, very very tall but not symmetrical. Almost like too tall and asymmetrical. And so a little like an awkward teenager. I thought I wanted to play with the height, but like putting a voice-cracking gangly teenager in a larger size of what they might have worn when they were 10, that was cruel. It was time to try on something new - a whole new wardrobe for its growing body. Okay I’ll stop with the analogy now.

It reminded me of when I was teenager and how my version of interior design was spookily similar to Lydia and Delia Dietz. All I wanted was Nine Inch Nails on my headphones and black on my walls. My friends and I used to put up little glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceilings. Anything to make our little piece of the world a bit more magical. Maybe I would even put posters up! Posters of rock gods, fresh-faced movie stars, naughty innuendos, insider jokes, a dry rose or two. Every teenager deserves the chance - NEIGH — RIGHT - to decorate their room. I, alas, was not allowed.

This was my chance. Black walls. Inside jokes. Weirdness. I wanted it to remind me of one of my friend’s basement bedroom where we used to watch obscure art movies and never seemed to get dressed in our day clothes. I wanted it to feel like the outside world didn’t exist, except for the stars in the sky and our little garden. This was a retreat, a sanctuary. I am rarely able to be quiet and reflect and when I do… it’s usually in this room.

If this room were a playlist, it would be this:

Once I stumbled upon this idea, the design followed. That why I always suggest that you do some serious soul-searching before embarking on an interior project. It’s more art than you think. Good design evokes feelings without bashing you over the head with it. I’m not saying this is good design, but I certainly think it’s pretty cool and that should be my number one concern.

I feel good. Do you? Let me know in the comments if this helped with your interior design project :). Otherwise, I’ll do better next time!