ONE ROOM CHALLENGE {WEEK 1}

Hi everyone!  If you're new here to follow along with the challenge, welcome!  I'm so glad you're here.  

It is with a great deal of excitement and an equal amount of fear that I kick off my project for the One Room Challenge today.  This is my first time to participate, and I'm afraid I don't know what I'm in for!  If you're new to the ORC, it's a challenge to design and complete a space in just 6 weeks.  There are many home and design bloggers participating, and it's so much fun to see what everyone gets accomplished during such a short amount of time.  For years, I've enjoyed following along with others who are participating... Wednesdays and Thursdays are easy to waste away on the computer checking up on everyone's progress.  And the week of the finale?  It's like Christmas morning for design bloggers!  Many thanks to Linda of Calling It Home for dreaming up the ORC, and keeping it all so well organized.

For the next 42 days, I'll be doing my best to transform my Master Bedroom.  I'm considering these my true before photos, since it's the last time the room was finished.

It was full of nice things, but what was I thinking??  I think I did this room right at the end of the Tuscan look and Restrained Gold paint craze.  All of that is SO far from what my style has evolved into.  I just consider it a part of the process...

We started a makeover of this room 2 1/2 years ago with a new paint job (did you see the swatch on the wall in one of the photos above?), but then it totally got stalled.  Other projects kept jumping to the front of the line, and it quickly became an extra storage spot.  THIS is why if you were to ever visit my house, the bedroom door would be closed... this is where every oversized accessory and furniture cast-off without a home sits in a holding pattern... so we'll just call these the transition photos, where the room has been stuck for years almost 3 years.

 Let me just give you a full tour...

Niiiiice....  mismatched lamps, outdated orange nightstands, no proper bed, just mattresses on a hollywood frame, thrown together bedding.  But a cute leopard pillow makes everything better, right? ;)

Or how about this view?  I talked about this armoire oh, 2 YEARS AGO trying to decide what to do with it.  As a reminder, my Dad made it from scratch.  It's a really nice, sentimental piece with tons of storage, but the orangey-oak color isn't working.  Remember when I finished my green china cabinet  over 2 year ago?  I stole two knobs from the bottom drawers here... yep... still missing a replacement.  I think I have a plan now, but still need to do some experimenting.  The doors that lead to the bathroom right next to it are a similar size and shape and give a bit of an odd look on that wall, so I have some ideas to make that look better as well.

Let's rotate a bit more... loooovely.  See?  I really have been collecting parts and pieces for this makeover for way too long.  Fabric, frames, artwork, furniture... etc. etc. etc.  Most of the parts are here, now it's time to get it together!  Believe it or not, I cleaned this side of the room up a lot before I photographed this yesterday.  Yikes.

Lastly, the window wall.  When the old silk check drapes came down, nothing else has gone back up since.  I'm SO looking forward to having some room-darkening drapes back!

You guys, you've seen behind the veil today.  Embarrassing, but as they say, bad before photos make the after even better, right???  That's what I'm clinging to.  ;)

OK, you've seen the bad and the ugly, now how about some good in the form of my plan?  There are some big pluses in this room.  It's a nice size, the ceilings are tall (10 feet), crown molding throughout, good light, and it has nice big windows.  I shared some of my inspiration photos on Monday, but this should give you a good idea of where I'm headed with the room.

Lots of things are still up in the air.  I think I want a gallery wall on the fireplace side, but I'm pretty clueless on artwork for the wall that the bed is on.  The plan for the armoire is still not solid.  I also have no idea on lighting yet, other than the overhead light.  And, an accent fabric or two might still be in question.

Alright, the clock is ticking!  See you next Thursday to hopefully share some progress!

If you want to get in on even more fun, you can see the entire list of One Room Challenge Designer/Blogger participants here, or look through tons more projects here of people like me who are joining in the challenge also by linking up our room progress on Thursdays.