Welcome to Week 1 of the One Room Challenge! The one room challenge this spring lasts for 8 weeks this time - it’s usually 6 weeks, but it has been delayed and concessions made to lengthen it because of the current pandemic crisis. If you are just hearing about the One Room Challenge (ORC) for the first time, it is a national challenge for designers and bloggers to redo one room during the time and document the process weekly. The posts are all linked to the ORC website each week and much camaraderie ensues!
Our ORC room is the bedroom belonging to my daughter (AKA the Diva). The first step in any project is defining the inspiration for the feel of the room. The Diva’s room design is inspired by her collection of vintage hats.. She calls it the Vintage Diva’s Glamour Den, and you can see her modeling the hats in the countdown leading up to the kickoff of the ORC on FB and IG along with hat-paint color pairings.
Along with inspiration for the design, we also need to identify the goals and outcomes we hope to achieve.
Here are the goals for this project:
Full size bed
Storage for edited clothing, both hanging and folded
Vanity
Comfy seating
Storage for the vintage hat collection
A more sophisticated room with a vintage/secret garden feel
We have a surprise plan for the hat collection, but our first order of business was to clean out the extraneous clutter.
Here is a peek at the BEFORE images
The Diva still likes the wall color and it is a favorite shade of green, Limesicle from Benjamin Moore. Since the green wall color is a good starting point for the secret garden feel, we will be working with it.
Last week she read the Marie Kondo book on the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up…(note to self: I should have given this as a Christmas gift YEARS ago)…and proceeded to ruthlessly edit all her possessions and fold her remaining clothing into tidy origami parcels. Much of the editing landed in limbo in the downstairs of our house, a problem for another day, but progress is progress and it is that much closer to heading out the door.
Also last week, the weather warmed prompting a return of the coffee tables to their summer home on the deck.
The second important step is to measure the existing space and craft a space plan so that the elements and sizes needed are clearly defined. This helps establish criteria for determining the suitability of different pieces…i.e. whether the vintage mirrored wardrobe found on FB marketplace will be a good fit (unfortunately not) and whether the vintage vanity we own will fit in the new plan (yes, though it needs some TLC).
Bad news for the beloved sofa - it does not fit in the new plan for the room. It has had a good life - we liberated it from a New Jersey thrift store for $35 and it spent 2 years in the living room of the Diva’s first apartment before it came back here to enjoy it’s retirement when she temporarily moved to Miami.
But good news, the project is making progress! Next week we’ll share some of the inspiration and design elements for the space!
Click HERE to visit the other participants in the One Room Challenge for tons more inspiration!
Special Thanks to the ORC for providing this wonderful opportunity and inspiration to complete a project!
Click HERE to visit the ORC Blog and meet other participants in the One Room Challenge for tons more inspiration each week!