ONE ROOM CHALLENGE // WEEK 1

Life can really move by in a clip, can't it? Just six months and several posts ago I was revealing my last One Room Challenge design to you all. Now here I am again, embarking on yet another design adventure, by the end of which I will have a completely new space to work and create from each day. 

Undoubtedly by now you are all familiar with the 6-week design sprint (I'm not calling it a marathon!) known throughout the blogosphere as The One Room Challenge. Created by Linda of Calling it Home, the event centers on twenty design bloggers hand-picked to lead the charge in making over a room of their choice over the course of 6 weeks, all the whilst blogging and photographing their progress on Wednesday of each week. I'm lucky enough to get to join in on all the fun along with other design enthusiasts who share progress each Thursday.

This will be the fourth space in our home I've tackled thanks in part to all the moral support I've received from so many of you throughout previous ORC seasons. Check out previous designs completed for our guest bath, master bedroom and my husband's home office. For this round, I'll be transforming our unused and oft neglected guest suite into my own personal workspace.

 

Though I'll only reveal one redesign, the collateral effect of this makeover really will address two troublesome rooms. You see, I actually already have a home office I work from each day. While it was one of the first rooms I outfitted when we moved into our home 5 years ago, it has slowly morphed into a hodge podge of storage, project and shipping paraphernalia where amongst I have a desk and computer that I use for my day job. It's no longer an inspiring place to work from and it too is in need of a redesign and reorganization. The current guest room that sits adjacent to it has long played overflow - to both my current workspace, the linen closet and my growing collection of fabric and project supplies. The bottom line: because of the chaos, we have been underutilizing precious space in our house. My goal is to clean out and convert the catch-all guest room into a beautiful and productive space to both work from and create and share that final result with you on Week 6.

Why am I moving into the guest room? To be honest the room gets far better light and it is also in the center of the house and is better situated for quiet daytime work away from the street.  I also like its cozier set up. Give me an inch and I'll take a mile, I swear! I think half the battle in maintaining an organized office is not allowing too much extra space to fill up with "stuff" that really should be stored properly elsewhere. So, I'm looking forward to purging, donating and getting creative in a smaller space.

The "before" photos I'm sharing in this post were brightened up a bit for presentation. The current walls are actually a light gray and are on the target list for some brighter paint and trim. By post time, I've already disassembled the guest bed (it was a fold-away bed from Grandinroad), removed the makeshift headboard and cleared the space of the pileup of linens, gift wrap and artwork that had started to accumulate in the room.  I've also gotten into that closet (yes- doors bulging under the weight of more "stuff" behind them). I've been on a transformative purge, inspired in part by this philosophy (I'm going to Kondo the entire house!).

I'm not tossing it all however. I plan on repurposing quite a bit of what you see (and frankly may not be able to see) here. I'll be giving new life to the hacked IKEA chandelier that currently hangs in the center of the room (originally concepted by Jenny of LGN). It has fallen into disrepair and this makeover seems like the perfect opportunity to give it a more streamlined look. 

I'm excited about the design direction I've chosen and look forward to sharing it all with you in next Thursday's update. Until then, be sure to follow along on Instagram for all kinds of design shenanigans and don't forget to check out plans from the 20 design bloggers and the others taking part each Thursday.  

Until next week... 

New Entryway Tile

Over the years, every house endures a new stage of life - be it through new occupants or renovations alone. We bought Holtwood House both for and in spite of all of the idiosyncrasies that come with those various life stages. It's funny, but walking into the house on that first tour, I looked down at the original, 1960's grimy, avocado green glazed ceramic tile in the entryway and I think it struck me as "cool". Original details usually pique the interest of a buyer like myself who was looking to purchase an older home. It wasn't too long after purchasing that I started to rethink that cool tile - partly because it never really looked clean, but also because I was trying to work in a lighter, more modern palette and the dark, dated tile in the entryway always bore such a challenging contrast to all the progress around it. 

We battled it for 5 years, largely based on budget and other renovation priorities. We tried distracting away from it with colorful artwork and covered it up with rugs and furnishings. I actually even painted it out once in my most epic DIY fail to date (please don't even think of doing this - just don't) and inevitably had to scrape all of the paint off it to live with it yet another year.  I have to admit we even thought about coating over it with feather finish to give it an industrial warehouse type look. Obviously I was getting a bit desperate.

Once we decided that we would finally make this a priority in 2015, we waffled between a colorful polished concrete and tile - eventually landing on the latter. We shopped various tile styles and budgets for our roomy 100sq. feet of entry and eventually made the decision to purchase an inexpensive plank style from Home Depot. 

We played around with different layouts right there on the showroom floor and in the end, decided to lay it in a herringbone pattern. A light gray grout complimented it nicely and will save us from scrubbing out stains that will eventually come in an entryway had we gone with a bright white.

What a difference it makes walking through the front door or looking on from adjacent rooms. It brightened up our tunnel-like entry so much. I also can't help but be amazed at how all of those furnishings that once clashed, now settled in and became part of the overall landscape of the space, the way they were always intended to.

*Tile is Marazzi 'VitaElegante Grigio' available at Home Depot

Grout is 'Delorean Gray'

Recent Event Work // Strawberry Dessert Bar

Chocolate covered strawberries can get a corny reputation- often synonymous with really only one holiday - Valentine's Day. That seems such a sad and unfortunate missed opportunity to indulge in one of the easiest, tastiest and even somewhat healthy sweet treats! For one- February is not even peak strawberry season so while you're feeding perfectly red, large stemmed berries to your Valentine, they are surely some hothouse grown specimen purchased from a restaurant dessert cart at a premium. I say, right now is best time to dip and enjoy those berries. 

So it was no wonder then that I recommended a strawberry bar when asked to create a dessert station for a recent engagement party.

Our grocery had just received their first shipments of local berries plucked right from the field- many of which were giant sized and perfect for dipping. I set out to make 4 dozen dipped and rolled in various toppings to give the guests variety and the presentation some visual variation. This could not have been easier friends (nor more fun!).  I presented them on tiered platters and a bed of shiso leaves which kept things looking bright and fresh.

Looking to do the same (and you should!)- here's my hot tip: Use your microwave to melt your chocolate. The trick is to heat it at 50% power for 90 seconds. The chips won't look like they are melted at first, but stir them up. If you still find you need a little more melting time - again heat at 50% power for 10 second intervals. Full power will surely burn the chocolate. I also found that Ghiradelli now makes "melting chips" akin to those little fondue fountain disks you see. They work great and offer a low risk option to your dipping chocolate. 

I also added a little flair to the adjoining coffee station. Remember these mineral decanters I made for our home bar? I used them to create a flavored creamer presentation. Sometimes you have to sell the coffee- especially at a celebration where signature his/hers cocktails were flowing until the wee hours of the next morning.

The One Room Challenge // Week 6 Reveal

With another One Room Challenge 6-week design marathon now complete, I am happily revealing my husband's newly made over home office. Folks, this was a nail biter, subject to late night electrician work and a last minute design change in the final hours of this challenge. In the end, I shut my eyes last night feeling very good about the space I created and grateful that the end result was just as I had envisioned. 

Some shout outs before we really dig into the big reveal. Thank you to Linda of Calling it Home for once again organizing such a fun and inspiring event. I'm grateful for not only the opportunity to make new friends through this event, but also for the motivation to complete another room in the home we've been painstakingly renovating for nearly 5 years now. Over various seasons, that's three rooms completed now because I had a 6 week deadline and didn't want to fall on my face out there in blog land. 

Also a big shout out to the last minute crew that showed up last night to make sure I didn't: Ryan "The Electrician" who helped trick out the lighting situation with a dimmable wall sconce and Kyle for "project managing". Also, thank you to the dude who added his muscles to some of the heavier projects in this space and worked for 6 weeks at the kitchen table with nary a complaint. 

As a reminder of where we started from, see the unfinished, boring before here. 

To add visual interest to our standard white box room, a faux brick focal wall was added and painted "Nightfall" by Benjamin Moore. Adjacent walls were brightened up with BM "White Dove". Shelves were built and hung to showcase my husbands collectables. I tricked out some IKEA curtain panels and the old aluminum window frame was painted black to mimic steel case windows. I also built a desk from scratch, including my first solid wood table top. 

Previously poorly showcased and unnoticed in the room,  many of the accessories came from what we already had on hand. I also hosted a big 40th birthday bash recently for my husband and in preparation for that, collected some new pieces that made their way into his office. A trip to the flea market over the weekend turned up this set of steel drawers, remnants of an old library card catalog. It actually has several more pieces that form a tower that I'll use to help organize another space.

We didn't get to replacing the door and hardware just yet. I decided to swap those out when we are ready to do so with the doors in the adjacent two rooms so we can tackle that project all at once. Likewise, my lighting selections DID arrive on time. However, a late design change had us sticking to the original industrial pendant as the room sort of grew around this piece and the new one just didn't match up.

The new sconce was hung over the artwork facing my husband's desk. Thankfully this piece arrived on time and was installed just under the wire on the eve of the reveal. 

Aside from the fact that it's a more inspiring place to do paperwork from each day, the happiest outcome of this work space makeover is that it also created a space that my husband can retreat to for some time on his own. It gets the most amazing morning sun and overlooks the vegetable garden right outside that window. I think it's important to have a little corner in our shared home that is meant for each of us to grab some alone time when needed. This space is perfectly suited as an area where he can listen to music or just reflect.

So that brings another round of The One Room Challenge to a close. Be sure to stopover and see all of the jaw dropping reveals by over 150 bloggers this week over at Calling it Home.

Week 1 //   The 'Before'

Week 2 //   The Plan

Week 3 //   Demo + Progress

Week 4 // The Calm Before the Storm

 Week 5 // Projects