Hi hi! Welcome to week three of the One Room Challenge! If you’re here for the first time, we’re tackling our son’s nursery and we’re a couple of weeks in to the six week ORC! Be sure to catch up on the design plans from week one and our shopping haul from week two.
This week I got some major work done in the room, and I’m a few pieces of wood, tubes of caulk and paint strokes away from calling it good! Okay, so that’s a lot, but I did get most of the molding done in the little guys room despite being on vacation for 4 days, and it’s looking like progress!

At first we thought about doing traditional board and batten, but last minute decided to jazz it up a bit and do squares instead! And then it somehow turned into a giant math puzzle to figure out what the best size was for our walls, outlets and overall height.
The project itself was really easy. We decided on 21″ squares after measuring everything out. The horizontal pieces are full pieces of trim (I used 1×4″ wrapped MDF because that’s all our Depot had in stock when I was shopping, but we normally prefer pre-primed pine), and then I cut 21″ pieces to hang vertically. The bottom pieces got a 45 degree angle on the bottom to transition to the baseboards, and loads of nails later we have custom molding!

There are a couple of outlets to cut around, and we plan on adding a 1×2 to the top to finish it off. After that it’s going to be hours of caulking and wine drinking to get it to the finish line!
The one spot we haven’t finished yet is where the little reading built-in bench is going to go. We’re playing with a few ideas before committing, but should have an update on that next week 🙂

After that all that’s left is paint! We chose a charcoal for the bottom trim work, and it will continue along the window trim and door casing. The top will be a fresh white color to balance out the darker base, and allow the fun accents in the room to pop.

I am loving them next to the blue green curtains! The only thing that’s undecided at this point is the windows. I’ve already popped the wood grates out of the bottom to make them feel less heavy, but I’m open to opinions on if we should leave the top ones in or not! I’m also leaning towards leaving the window the stained wood instead of painting. The trim will be dark so white may be too much of a contrast, and all of the doors in this home are stained wood so it would tie into the closet and entry doors.

Decisions decisions! Also never mind the curtain rod, I’ve yanked the curtains open too aggressively at 6am while half asleep waking up with the babe too many times. I cannot be accountable for anything that happens prior to having my first cup of coffee for the day 🙂
That’s all for this week, we’ll see you at the same time in the same place for the next three weeks until the room is finished! Cross your fingers we get a lot done this week, I’m aiming for finished trim and bench, and to hang the new light fixture we got in the mail last week! Eeek!
Pst. Before you go, be sure to check out all of the amazing designers and participants over on the One Room Challenge blog! So. Much. Goodness.

That paneling looks great! Will be so beautiful!
I hate when curtain rods do that, and then you have to get a stool to tighten the screw at the top again… such a pain! 😛
Wow! The moulding looks great! Can’t wait to see it all come together. Nurseries are my favorite <3
It’s looking great!
Someday I want to do this in our game room. That math scares me!! 🙂
Great job on the paneling!!! So much math!!! Can’t wait to see this room all finished!
I don’t bother opening our nursery curtains! I’d only have to close them again for nap time, so we just use the overhead light (with a dimmer, of course). I vote for keeping the window wood. I think that would be a nice contrast with all of the painted finishes.
I love room paneling so far. It’s looking great so far. So wish I could do some trim in the nursery I’m working on , but it’s in a rental. 🙁 Cant even trim the windows. boo.
Ugh math! But the trim work looks great and I love the deep charcoal!