Week 1 // Fall 2017 One Room Challenge: A California Casual Living Room

Today marks the start of another round of the One Room Challenge, a biannual room makeover event hosted by Linda of Calling it Home. As I've done many times before, I am throwing my hat into the ring to makeover a space in my own home and will blog about my progress over the next 6 weeks. Each Thursday, I'll share an update here on the blog and I will link up with other guest participants sharing their own progress report. I'm certainly no newbie to this event and all the work that goes with it - last round I even redesigned our Modern Farmhouse Kitchen. For the Fall 2017 One Room Challenge, I'm completing the design of our Living Room/Adjacent Dining Area. To get a better idea of the design scheme throughout our home, you can see other rooms I've completed for the One Room Challenge linked up in the sidebar.

For now, let's take a closer look at the focus for this challenge.

In full transparency, you can see that our redesign has been underway for some time. We've been slowly renovating and remodeling our 1967 rancher here in Orange County, California for the last 7 years. I would have liked to have come right out the gate of our purchase with a full remodel done the right way. But as first time buyers looking at original 1960's everything, it took some time to find financial footing to back our plan. In the end, time was on our side because our plan has evolved quite a bit while living in our home these last years. After laying some of the groundwork, today we're finally feeling sure of our direction.

We gutted the room immediately upon purchase and started with a clean slate. Lighting, paneling and paint went a long way for a long time. We almost didn't want to clutter up the space with furnishings because after living for 9 years in a cramped beach area back house,  it felt so, so good to finally have these big empty rooms to call our own. We picked a glossy dark floor in haste and it would be nearly 7 years until we realized that it was the root of our mistake. In the process, we threw some good money after bad, redecorating and trying to brighten up a room darkened by the heavy contrast of the flooring we chose. It also took some time to find the tone of our home. Home trends and the romantic idea of owning a midcentury rancher with a pool sent us traveling down a decor path that leaned too desert glam for our everyday tastes. What resulted was a lack of cohesiveness in all the mass produced, hollywood regency-meets-boho accessories that had started to accumulate.

We recently brought in a more muted white oak floor that was a game changer for us. The path was clear and even more defined as we wrapped up the remodel on our kitchen for the Spring 2017 One Room Challenge. There is now a greater synergy from room to room as you walk our halls and ultimately there is a greater vision for what we want one of the most lived in spaces of our home to reflect about us.

In next Thursday's post, I'll share the game plan with you.

Want to be inspired? Check out the other guest participants in the One Room Challenge over on Calling it Home.

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