There hasn’t been much happening on the blog the last few weeks (blame the new puppy!), but it’s like with kids… when they are quiet you need to worry about what they’re getting up to. And while it’s been quiet on the blog I’ve come up with the crazy, last minute idea to jump into the One Room Challenge again this spring.
If you’ve been reading the blog for a while now, you’re probably pretty familiar with the One Room Challenge, which I’ve participated in a whopping seven times before (which I think makes me certifiably crazy). But if you’re new, let me give you the inside scoop…
The One Room Challenge is an awesome, twice annual blogging event hosted by Linda Weinstein. Each spring and fall, a large group of design bloggers come together to each completely makeover one room in a short five weeks. Throughout the challenge, each participant posts a weekly progress update that providing insights into the design process. Typically, in the first week the posts include before photos of the space and talks about the challenges and goals, and the second week’s posts include the design plans for the space. Then, in subsequent weeks, each participant shares progress photos and talks about the week’s accomplishments and challenges. At the conclusion of the ORC, each participant posts a “reveal” of the completed space with lots of beautiful photos, as well as a source list (cause we know you love all the details).
Each ORC round, there are twenty amazingly talented designers who headline the event, posting their updates every Wednesday. Participation in the ORC is also open to other design bloggers, referred to as Guest Participants, who post their progress updates each Thursday. The ORC gets bigger and more exciting every round, often with 200 or more participants! All of the participating bloggers share the links to their weekly progress posts on the One Room Challenge website, allowing us to follow along with one another, cheering each other on and drawing inspiration, and giving readers access all of the ORC progress updates and final reveals in one convenient place!
Let’s take a quick look back at my past One Room Challenge spaces, and then I’ll tell you what I have planned this time around!
I participated in my very first ORC back in the spring of 2014 when I converted a blah workout room into a menswear themed bedroom fit for my little gentleman, who was 2.5 at the time.
The next round, I finally gave some much needed attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected since we’d move into our home 6 years before. I was able to make a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the layout of the room.
In the spring of 2015, I transformed the 3 foot by 12 foot storage space under our basement stairs into a rock ‘n’ roll inspired playroom for my boys. This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine last summer!
That fall, I made over our laundry closet, adding tons of style and storage to make it feel and function more like a room than a closet.
The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to add some bold “graphic glam” style. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing tile or cabinets.
Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover recenlty featured on a two-page spread in the March issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!
Last spring, my boys were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with tons of color and storage for books and toys.
After taking a break from the ORC last fall because I was busy with client decor projects, I’ve been itching to make some more updates around our house! I spend at least half of my day (often more) in our kitchen… cooking, cleaning, and often working at the table for hours on end… and yet I rarely share photos of the kitchen on the blog or on Instagram, in part because I find it hard to photograph, but also because I’m just not digging it these days.
Our house doesn’t have a great room style layout, with the kitchen open to the living room. Instead, our living room and kitchen are separated. Fortunately, however, the kitchen is quite large, and we spend much of our family time in there.
Let’s go a decade back in time and I’ll show you what the kitchen looked like when we first bought the house.
One of my favorite features of our kitchen has always been the double-sided stone fireplace that looks out on to our back patio. We created a cozy seating area in this space and chose swivel chairs that allow us to sit facing the fireplace, or toward the table, which is great when we are entertaining.
I still love the fireplace seating area, but the glass table, sideboard, and wall of curved glass shelves at the other end of the dining area are feeling a little dated to me.
They were among the very first purchases I made thirteen years ago when I graduated from law school and bought a loft condo in downtown Denver. When Scott and I moved to our current home ten years ago, I was thrilled with how well they fit the space (good thing – because we had so many other empty rooms to furnish), but now, 10 years later, I’m ready to give this space a facelift.
And a facelift is really all we are talking about here. This isn’t going to be a One Room Challenge where we gut the kitchen or anything crazy like that! We’re thinking more along the lines of painting, replacing the kitchen table and chairs, adding some new storage in place of the glass sideboard, and updating the lighting.
I’m also trying to come up with an interesting way to dress up the island wall in front of the barstools. I have an idea in mind, but I’m not sure just yet if I can get Scott on board with it.
Over the next week, I’m going to be asking your opinions about a few possibilities for the island over on Facebook, so please be sure to chime in and tell me what you think!
In addition to the fireplace seating area, the cabinetry, appliances, and backsplash tile, other things that won’t be changing in this space include the chalkboard wall…
…and the mudroom area that we added by the back door few years ago. This was literally just an empty wall when we moved in, and now it provides so much function!
Although, the original plans for the mudroom did call for shelves on the right side to not have the wood grain behind them. The idea was for the wall color to show through, but we weren’t home when the contractor installed the backer, and decided not to make him pull it out to redo it. Now I’m thinking that I might want to add some kind of temporary wallpaper behind the shelves, but I haven’t quite decided yet.
Ok, so that’s where we are at right now. We know what stays and what goes, and we know we want to do something the front of the island. Now we need to actually get some details and plans in place so we can get to work. So this week I’ll be doing a lot of shopping and asking for a lot of opinions on soical media. Keep an eye on Facebook and my Instagram stories as I shop for lighting, chairs, and, well, everything else, then chime in to tell me what you think!
