Oh, we’re halfway there…oh OH! Living on a prayer!

Yes, this has been my theme song of the week, in part because we are indeed halfway to the finish line of this One Room Challenge, and in part because I have needed those prayers, my friends! The flu kept me in bed for a full week. Flat out. And man, that is no fun when there’s so much to get done.

The GREAT news is I kinda married Superman. Seriously. While covering me with the kids and making dinner and all the good stuff that comes with everyday life, my superhubs ALSO managed to squeeze in time at night to get a pretty crazy amount of work done this week. I am grateful beyond words to this man for being my life partner, my support, and my steadfast love. Here’s what he got done while I was laying in bed.

First off, using our delivery of MDF and some poplar from Metrie, he created the built-in for the media room. Here it is pre-paint:

Not to be missed is the genius way that he hid the electrical panel in the left cabinet, which will of course be hidden behind doors. We have full access to the electrical panel, and he has marked the screws necessary to easily remove that upper cabinet should we need to access any of the wiring behind it. He is, to put it mildly, a superstar.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also painted the ceiling and walls out in Farrow & Ball‘s Wimborne White AND got the first coat on the cabinet in Pitch Black.

Now that I’m finally back on my feet, I’ll be diving in to finish the painting over the next couple of days in preparation for the installation of the stunning brass hardware from Upper Canada Specialty Hardware and the installation of our Karastan broadloom this Friday by my friends at Alexanian.

I cannot wait to see this handsome Karastan Leighland broadloom installed in this gorgeous Graphite Cluster colourway.

Not only will it provide a graphic grounding to the entire space while adding a serious dose of sophistication. It will also provide exceptional comfort and an allergy-safe environment for us to enjoy.

Leighland is made of 100% New Zealand wool, which means it is not only a natural and sustainable fibre, but also inherently insulating, stain repellent, incredibly durable and hypoallergenic. As someone who is very sensitive to synthetics and off-gassing (and is concerned about the impact my design choices have on my family’s health and the health of the planet), I am thrilled to be able to install Karastan‘s beautiful New Zealand wool in this space. The classic, geometric pattern satisfies my need for great design, and the integrity with which it is made satisfies my conscience’s need for green design.

Truly a win on every level!

Without a doubt, the most exciting feature in the new media room design for my guys is the new TV. I have to admit, I’m pretty dang excited about it myself.

We decided to go with an LG after I recently had the opportunity to take a tour of their latest innovations. It was a crowded media event, and to be honest I was having difficulty hearing the guy who was speaking so I wound up standing perpendicular to the TV while he was talking. To my amazement, I was able to see the full picture without any distortion, even when literally looking at the paper-thin side of the screen at a 90 degree angle. (Check out the side view below to get a sense of what I mean when I say “paper-thin.”

LG’S OLED technology not only offers a picture quality I have never seen before, but as a designer I instantly recognized that it solves an age-old designer dilemma. “Optimal viewing” distances and angles have historically placed significant restrictions on media room design, requiring significant distances from a 65″ screen in order for the picture to be viewed properly. With LG‘s new OLED technology, designers and home owners are no longer bound by those restrictions.

What makes OLED technology so different? It’s not just an upgrade on old LCD technology. It’s a total revolution on picture technology. Unlike LCD or plasma screens, the new OLED screens are made up of pixels that function independently.

Why would you care about that? Because at any given time, at least half of what you see on the screen is black. Because OLED can shut off some of its pixels completely while others are individually lit to show their cinematic colours, the screen provides the blackest of blacks possible – with no light bleed between pixels that are on and those that are off – for perfect contrast ratio.

Think of it like a night sky.

(How incredible are these photographs of the night sky by Luke Gibson?? His work takes my breath away.)

We’ve all been amazed at how brilliant the stars shine when we are out in nature, away from the light pollution of the city. Well that is what the OLED screen does for your picture-viewing experience. Those individually functioning pixels provide night-sky black, no light bleed and crystal clear contrast for an unparalleled picture experience.

(I had to throw in one more stunning capture of the night sky by Luke Gibson, because gratuitous beauty.)

To make sure the sound experience matches the visual experience, the OLED E6 (the one we are getting) has an integrated 40 watt Harmon Kardon sound bar built into the base. It’s sleek and unobtrusive and creates a surround sound experience without all the extra wiring and speakers required.

Other super cool features include OLED‘s Web OS platform, which basically turns your TV into a smart phone. You know how you can tile between web pages and apps on your phone and when you go back to what you were last doing, it’s right where you left off? You get the same experience with the LG OLED. And the magic remote tracks your movement, so you literally just aim the remote at the show you want to watch and click as if you were using a virtual touch-tracking pad.

There’s even a scroll wheel to fast forward and rewind, and you can use voice control to Google stats on a player while watching the game. Or in my case, to Google who designed Sophie Gregoire Trudeau‘s latest outfit. It’s crazy stuff! I’m pretty sure you can now see why I got so excited about it after the media event. In fact, the OLED is pretty much what sealed the deal on converting our unused basement space into a media room. My guys are not complaining. *wink*

So what’s on tap for this week?

• Finish all our painting
• Get the cabinet hardware installed
• Have Alexanian install our Karastan broadloom
• Install and paint our Metrie baseboards
• Install and paint our Metrie Casing
• Install and paint our Metrie applied mouldings (finally!)
• More painting with all of our Farrow & Ball goodness
• and a whole lot of catch up on the work front!

In the meantime, be sure to check out what my fellow design daredevils have been getting up to. There are some phenomenal projects taking shape in this One Room Challenge, and you don’t want to miss a single step in the process!

Jana Bek | Chris Loves Julia | Shannon Claire | Coco.Kelley | The Curated House

Driven by Decor | The English Room | From the Right Bank | Sherry Hart

Hi Sugarplum | House of Jade | Hunted Interior | The Makerista | Making it Lovely

Marcus Design | Pencil & Paper Co. | Megan Pflug | Place of My Taste | Suburban B’s

Waiting on Martha  Media Partner House Beautiful | TM by CIH

Need to get caught up on what’s happened until now? Here are Week One and Week Two.

Be sure to pop back on Monday when I’ll be sharing the most decadent design find from our Designhounds London trip. The details are truly drool-worthy!