ORC Spring 2023 Week 1!

Week 1: Build it and they will come!

Welcome to our first project on Luecky Home! We aren’t newbies to DIYing by any means, this is just the first project (of many to come) in our first family home. I’ve been a DIYer since I was five and Jake and I have been rehabbing and DIYing together since the beginning of our relationship in 2016. When we work together and get into a flow, we have a great time and the results are so satisfying!

Today is the first day of the #OneRoomChallenge for the Spring 2023 season and we’re so excited about it. We’ve been itching to give our baby boy, Jaxson, his very own nursery for a long time and now we can finally do it. We're moved in and ready to go. Below is the vision for the room:

The overall look was inspired, long before Jaxson was even born, when I first saw this image from Katie Kime with her wallpaper paired with this beautiful trim work. It was stunning! The buffalo check was this perfect image of masculinity and fun set against the elegance of the millwork. I was in love and immediately saved this to pinterest!

Source: Katie Kime

As the idea started percolating I was looking for more buffalo check inspiration. The wallpaper is beautiful, but not quite the right tones and size of check I wanted in his room. Other options I explored were either too big, too muted, or too expensive. I was having a goldilocks moment–I wanted it to be just right. Then I happened to stumble upon this blog post from Jamie Costiglio with an amazing board and batten bathroom with a hand painted buffalo check. That’s it!! That’s the feel I want for him. Masculine, fun, with a hint of sophistication…and totally something DIY-able.

Source: Jamie Costiglio

Off we went exploring all of the different ways to do board and batten and one of the key things I saw setting apart designer done spaces from DIY-ers was the use of clean walls. Meaning no texture, no paint, everything was starting with a clean foundation.

This week is all about prepping the foundation of the project–SKIM COATING! Since we are going to do board and batten as a wall treatment, I want smooth walls as the foundation to give it the true designer feel. (My secret wish someday is to have a home in my local Parade of Homes–here’s to manifesting.)

If you’ve never skim coated before, it’s not as bad as you would think. The key is having the right tools. After doing some research and watching a lot of videos (I particularly learned a lot from Vancouver Carpenter) on how to get your technique right, I really saw an importance in using the right tools. I came across a company called Level5 (for level 5 smoothness of walls) that sells skim coating equipment that looked amazing for making the job easier. We have a brand new house with texture on every wall (despite my multiple requests to not do it) so I figured it would be worth it to get some high quality tools to help with the process. I took advantage of one of their sales and bought this kit that comes with multiple blade sizes, a roller, and an extension handle to use for your blade and the roller, all in a cool carrying case.

Jake and I tested out the different blade sizes depending on the area we were working on and it definitely made a huge difference in the ease of things. For large areas, we made quick work with the biggest blade. For areas near windows and corners we found it easier to work with the smaller blade for tighter control. It was almost like applying smooth frosting to a cake. You apply the joint compound with the roller in a thick, but not too thick layer to make it easy to smooth with the blade. Then apply your blade at an angle to smooth the joint compound down. Depending on your angle, you’ll get different amounts of “icing” coming off of the wall onto your blade. Once you get comfortable with the blade and the joint compound you can make quick work skim coating any wall.

The next step was sanding. Depending on how uneven the surface of your wall was to begin with, you’ll likely have to do two coats. In between the coats, YOU MUST SAND. I know everyone hates sanding, including me, but it is an absolute must to smooth down the imperfections before applying another layer on and then paint on top of that. Believe me, when you paint, you’ll see where you missed sanding, so it will be worth it in the end.

After sanding, we took a wet rag and wiped down the surface, let it dry, and went for round 2! This layer is much faster since it is already smooth. We let that dry overnight and came back for the final sand in preparation for our paint…which won’t happen for a bit, but this step is the last opportunity to really get the designer professional smooth looking wall before moving onto the next part of our project…the Board & Batten!

A couple of key take-aways we learned from skim coating the walls and the ceiling.

1. Invest in wheeled scaffolding-we got ours from Home Depot and it’s come in handy on so many occasions, but was absolutely necessary for completing the skim coating quickly. One of us could be on the scaffolding working on the ceiling while the other worked on the walls. We could cover a lot of area in a quick amount of time and with a quick unlock of the wheels we would move onto the next section.

2. Use soap-I know this sounds weird, but we saw it on several videos to add Dawn soap to your joint compound. It makes it smell good, but more importantly it helps reduce the surface tension so there are fewer issues with bubbles during the application process. Plus, it seemed to help with cleaning up in the end as well.

3. Use a roller!-Using a thick texture roller made applying joint compound fast and a total breeze. Just dip in the bucket, load the roller, and roll it onto the wall or ceiling. No trowel needed!

4. Get good quality blades-We’ve done some work with joint compound before and the difference with using high quality Level5 blades compared to the generic stuff you get at a hardware store was amazing. From the ergonomic handle to the quality of the blade, it made everything easier from application to clean up. It’s worth the investment, particularly if you have a lot of skim coating you want to do in the future.

5. More is better-Jake and I quickly saw a difference between his coats (thicker layer) and my coats (thinner application). His were easier to fill the voids of the texture and easier to smooth down, where mine felt like we were fighting the joint compound. Over time, we found the right rhythm of applying a thick, but not too thick layer that really created a very smooth coat the first time, requiring minimal sanding, and a much thinner second coat and second sand afterwards.

Well, that’s it for Week 1 of the One Room Challenge! Now that our foundation is set

(like putting on makeup) we can move onto the next step, MILLWORK! I’m so excited!

For our day-by-day insights into how Jaxson’s room is coming along follow us on stories in instagram (@lueckyhome). We’re also on a new platform, called lemon8. We’ll be launching our Youtube channel soon with more in-depth how-to’s and reveals. So sign up for our newsletter if you want to be notified when our latest DIY or reveal video is released.

In the meantime, Happy Spring and keep DIYing the house of your dreams!