THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE // WEEK 2

We're moving into Week 2 of The One Room Challenge, a trademarked makeover event created by Linda of Calling it Home. I'm participating in a weekly link up event each Thursday for six weeks, during which time I will share with you my plans and progress to makeover my husbands home office into a polished, masculine home office.

Last week, I revealed the space in its native state. Today, I'm sharing my vision for the room and the design components that are currently influencing my direction for this design.

In week 2, I'm busy making some decisions around the basics including the overall color palette for the room. It's important that the direction really marry up with the other rooms in our house while being a standout space that really speaks to my husband's tastes and needs. We'll be bringing in some of the other colors used elsewhere in the house - like Benjamin Moore's White Dove and will play up some of the yummy warm wood accents that have also been woven into other rooms. However, while we've gone light and airy in most of the rooms we've finished up at Holtwood House, there will very likely be a shift toward a darker palette in the made-over office. Another way this room will be distinguished will be in the coziness we'll achieve through accent pieces and accessories. I'm notoriously spare when it comes to accessorizing elsewhere in the house, but one of the priorities of this redesign will be to curate his collection of cool artifacts.

In concepting the room's scheme, I've been influenced by the re-purposed functionality I'm seeing in more industrial spaces as well as the charm and nostalgia found in traditional Gentlemen's Lounges and English Countryside homes. The finished design will also see some influence from modern Americana- certainly through the artwork selections that will eventually line the walls.

Beyond the palette, I've been considering what already exists in the space and have made some decisions about what should stay and go. We'll be utilizing the existing credenza, which serves the utilitarian purpose of housing electronics and supplies. The shelving planned to sit above it will gain us some extra real estate in the room for display purposes.

The current desk was never intended as a forever piece. In fact during assembly, we broke one of the drawers and have never repaired it. It's boxy and has become a visual obstacle in a rather small room, so we are looking to replace it with a more open design like the options up for consideration above.

A snapshot from the doorway highlights many of the updates we are looking to achieve by Week 6. The current door situation is a bit curious with its old hardware, including a key-only deadbolt installed by the previous owner who also used this room as his office (just one of the leftover oddities and obstacles that we'll have to overcome in this room). Because of the deadbolt situation, we'll likely have to change out the door as well, so I've added that to the punch list.

Week 3 will be all about demo and side projects. Just as I did with the my first and second ORC rooms, I have several DIYs planned for this space as well. So be sure to check in next week on our progress! Of course, I'll also be Instagramming out takes in between blog updates. Are you following along yet?