One Room Challenge Week 1 – Fall 2015

Hi there,

If you are new here, welcome! I’m an Interior Decorator living in Milton, ON (Canada) a suburb of Toronto with my husband and daughter.

I was so thrilled when Linda from Calling it Home emailed me to ask if I would like to participate in the  One Room Challenge again as one of the 20 designers/bloggers. Would I? What better motivation to get a room decorated and get back to blogging on a more regular basis. 🙂  I take forever to make decisions on my home (typical designer lament) so the ORC is the kick in the pants I need.The ORC is a semi-annual, six week challenge where designers and bloggers transform a space in real time and provide updates, inspiration and advice every week. Yes, six weeks – well actually five weeks from today. (Although there are 20 of us posting on Wednesdays, any one with a blog can “link up” on Thursdays.)

If you recall, I joined the ORC as a linking participant in Fall 2014 and I tackled my kitchen.

And then this past Spring I was one of the 20 and updated my daughter’s bathroom.

You can read all of the posts here or click here for the kitchen reveal and here for the bathroom reveal. (And to see what this ORC business is all about.)

Our house is a continual work in progress as there is never enough $ to do everything at once. So tackling rooms one at a time seems to work for us. We have been in our home ten years and thought it was time that we addressed our master or principal bedroom. (Someone in the publishing world has a disdain for the term “master bedroom” so over the years I have become used to calling it the principal bedroom as well as I agree it sounds much better.)

This is the post that I dislike the most as I have to embarrass myself and show the Before photos. Here goes! On Instagram, I have shared snippets of the bedroom, namely the bed and nightstands and haven’t really shown the rest, for good reason.

This elevation isn’t too bad, although I wish I had taken the time to make the bed properly! I am recovering the upholstered headboard but keeping the nightstands as they are new, Canadian made and I love them.  Also, will be lowering the headboard as it is way too high and I want to hang art above. I may also keep the table lamps.  The big changes are:

– scraping the popcorn ceiling

– installing hardwood

– installing panel moulding, chair rail and crown from Metrie.  I think I am the most excited about this because it will really change the room from a basic, nondescript box to a Parisian hotel.

– new furniture, fabrics, drapes, mirror, lighting, accessories, area rug and bedding

– closet makeover

– plus bonus! having my ensuite floor tiled finally so may as well share that too

I have had that Ikea chest since university days. Geez! Time for it to go and all the clothes piled on top too! I will share what I did in that regard in future posts. Although I love, love, love shutters for privacy, light control etc., I think they can be softened up with drapes.

The end of the bed is definitely calling out for something. I love my painted maple dresser but not the hardware so I’m changing that up. I think the door can be a little dressier. My “gym” will be relocated and I will place some furniture there.

On the blog I have talked about art and how it doesn’t have to be expensive blah, blah, blah and yet look at that empty wall! Besides the pretty moulding, there will be art, lots of art,  on this wall. (PS Anyone want the gold mirror you can see here and the pear shaped base lamp in the photo above – I have two. Email if interested.)

The bedroom is about 17′ x 13′ so a decent size. Below is a floor plan (reverse of what we have) but I slightly altered it with the builder: deleting the computer desk, creating a walk in closet for my daughter and then bumping our closet out into where her closet was. The hanging space is slightly less with our configuration but I also have plans for our closet during this challenge so stay tuned!

I have been thinking about this room and what I/we want it to look like in the end. Do we go dark and moody on the walls or light?  Do we wallpaper? Here are some inspiration photos that I keep coming back to and am drawing from. I have over 600 images of bedrooms I love on my Bedroom Pinterest board, but narrowing it down to 3 or 4 images, really helped me to focus.:

The Marlton Hotel, NYC via Pinterest

Designer Patrick Mele via Pinterest.

Designer Monique Gibson

I love elements of each of the three rooms. I want the room to read elegant but also minimal and restful – not too much colour or pattern, save for the art.

Next week I will share the concept board and the pretty pieces that I have sourced and where we are at construction wise. But be sure to follow me on Instagram where I share sneak peeks as well.

The round up of designers/bloggers is pretty stellar this round so go check out what they are working on. I for one, cannot wait to follow along.

Apartment 34 | Arianna Belle | Because It’s Awesome | Coco+Kelley | Design Darling |
Design Indulgence |Design Manifest | Christine Dovey | The English Room | Vanessa Francis | Hi Sugarplum | Honey We’re Home | Jojotastic | The Pink Clutch | The Pink Pagoda | Simplified Bee | Style Your Senses | A Thoughtful Place | Kimberly Whitman | The Zhush | TM by CIH

Hopefully you are linking up tomorrow and joining in on the fun! Bye for now,