It’s that time of year again…already!! By which I mean time for the biannual One Room Challenge.

About the One Room Challenge

In case you have NO IDEA what I’m talking about, the One Room Challenge is the brainchild of Linda Weinstein and happens twice a year, spring and fall. Over this 6 week period I’ll join around 300 other design bloggers around the country to redo a room in just 6 weeks (really only 5 weeks, since the last week is generally reserved for styling and photographing the finished space.) Each week all the featured designers and guest participants will share the process, progress, and pitfalls of their projects in posts linked to the ORC website so you can browse through all your favorites! Better Homes and Gardens is the official media sponsor of the event.

About me

If you are new to the Nestfeathers Blog, Welcome! I’m Janet Lorusso, a Boston area designer and blogger with a passion for making life better one room at a time. I design because I believe that environment has a huge impact on living well, and I blog because I believe information and inspiration on how to live well should be accessible to everyone!

About my space for the Fall 2020 ORC

In the spring, I participated in the ORC for the first time with the Vintage Diva Glamour Den - a bedroom makeover. This time, I’m redoing my home office for the ORC…well perhaps not so much reDOING as reCLAIMING. Where to begin…disaster relief would not be out of the question. I’m quite mortified to share these before pictures. I have been out of my office for about a year now, ever since a heating issue and subsequent discovery of a plumbing leak resulted in an unexpected sprinkler system in my office and these holes in the ceiling from diagnosing the issue. I’ve been meaning to get it put back together, but life keeps getting in the way and it was just never a high enough priority! Soooo… the ORC is the kick in the pants that I need to hold me accountable to getting. it. done.

This GORGEOUS desk setting in a Swedish summer house bedroom designed by Marshall Watson is my fantasy of what my office should look like…it doesn’t hurt that the window has a view of the Baltic Sea! I love the detailing, the wallpaper, the clever custom storage, and the calm and serene colors.

However, my office does not look at all like that. Nor does it ‘spark joy’. If I could locate the floor, it would help, but I still would not have a water view (unless we are counting the aforementioned plumbing leak...)

The whole lower level of my house (which currently looks like a candidate for an episode of hoarders) will have to be involved in the project because things will be shuffled around to new homes and a more organized arrangement. I’m juggling design samples and supplies, staging props, holiday decorating inventory, and a bunch of personal stuff that needs to be sorted and stored or evicted. The office will be home to only the design work and all the samples and supplies that go with that. Other rooms will handle the staging and styling props and holiday inventory…at least that’s the plan!

You may want to avert your eyes for this next bit…these are the hoarders-r-us pictures of the current state of affairs. Most of it is my own fault. I keep launching things in and shutting the door until I need to retrieve something. But in addition, my kids came home to roost in the last few months, and both of them have cleaned out their rooms (the Diva’s room was the spring ORC). Anything they didn’t want landed down here too. Full disclosure, we have already taken 2 car loads of books and games and CD’s out to a donation box - yes, it was WORSE than this at one point! Okay - here’s the lower level that is NOT my office, but will be where the staging and holiday inventory gets organized.

And here are the shots of the current state of my office since everything got unceremoniously moved to the front half of the room and into other rooms out of the way of the leaking pipes…

I’ve dubbed this Overdue Office Overhaul or OOO which is also short for Out of Office, of course, and since I have been Out of THIS Office for a year now, it seemed appropriate. Having a dedicated home office is a wonderful luxury and I am fortunate to have an available space to call my own. It even has its own exterior entrance and a little patio space which could be charming, but currently is very much NOT.

Every project begins with a wish list and inspiration photos followed by a space plan for the room.

On my office wish list for this project are:

• A pleasant, pretty, and efficient work space

• Good lighting and background for Zoom meetings

• Storage for office supplies, samples, client boxes and files

• Comfortable seating and guest space

• A working project in progress/presentation area with lighting for photography

• A snack/beverage area - not sure if I’ll get this!

• A spruced up entrance patio

It may take a backhoe and a dumpster, but I’m determined to make some progress! Check back next week to see what we’ve accomplished AKA if we’ve found the floor yet!

Check out what the other One Room Challenge guest participants are working on HERE, and the 20 featured ORC designers who are doing virtual spaces HERE!