For the first time I am participating in the One Room Challenge as a guest participant. If you are not familiar with the ORC as it is affectionately referred by many, it is a challenge to bloggers, designers, design enthusiast and anyone who wants to exercise their decorating chops to makeover a room within six weeks.
The games have begun this week and will continue for the next six weeks.
The One Room Challenge was started in 2011 when Linda Weinstein challenged a couple of her friends to complete just one room in their homes. The decorating event is now held twice a year in the spring and fall.
The One Room Challenge has grown to be quite the phenom with sponsors and Better Homes and Gardens as a featured publication. Also, be sure to follow along with other guest participants in the challenge here to see what they are doing with their rooms. There are tons of decorating inspiration from all of the participants.
The room I will be focusing on for the One Room Challenge is my teen daughter’s bedroom.
*Lord give me strength!*
As anyone with a teen girl can attest, coming to an agreement on similar likes, dislikes, styles, and opinions are a challenge in and of itself without throwing a zany, room makeover into the mix! If your teen is like mine, she thinks I know nothing. Absolutely. Nothing.
If I even hint at liking something she instantly loathes it. So yeah- this will be a challenging six weeks for sure.
So the problem with Ms. K’s room is it has not been redone in about 13 years since she graduated from her crib to a big girl bed at age two. Needless to say, it is no longer stylish nor functional for her creative, artsy, musical-theatre-loving, pink detesting, wickedly smart and fiercely independent ways.
I know, I know, the cobbler’s children have no shoes.
Below are a couple of before photos after months of decluttering and clearing out to prepare to paint.
Ah, speaking of paint we are going dark with our new paint color. Ms. Thing thought she would scare me requesting her room be painted black….please! I kept my cool while jumping for joy inside. If I act too excited, she won’t like it.
Ah, speaking of paint we are going dark. Ms. Thing thought she would scare me requesting her room be painted black….please! I kept my cool while jumping for joy inside. If I act too excited, she won’t like it.
Room Highlights / Challenges
The bedroom is approximately 13′ X 12′ with a large bay window and gets lots of light and has 10+ foot vaulted ceilings. The bedroom is a decent size but only has two functional walls in reality, because the bay window occupies one wall and the closet and entrance to the room lives on another wall. Lots of space-planning challenges to work out.
In the winter K’s room is very drafty and feels at least 15 degrees colder than the other bedrooms. This is because of the drafty single-pane bay window and the lofty 10′- 10″ ceilings add another comfort concern to be solved. These are the types of issues designers solve.
We have our work cut out for us and lots to accomplish to turn this former toddler bedroom into an urban industrial bedroom a teen would love to hang out in.
Check in on me every Thursday to see our progress leading up to the big One Room Challenge room reveal and to make sure I’m still sane. Sign up here to get the updates directly to your inbox.
