Attic My Office One Room Challenge The Victorian House

One Room Challenge: Week 4 (Putting it Together)

First, a One Room Challenge update. For the first time ever, the reveal has been pushed back one week for all ORC participants. Everyone is well (thankfully!), but with natural disasters affecting various parts of the country at once, many have had to endure unusual circumstances. We are supporting one another with a one week extension. This means the final reveal for the official participants will be Wednesday, November 15, and the final reveal for guests is the day after, November 16.


Let’s see some sneak peeks of where we’re at so far, shall we? The individual pieces are all here and really pretty, it’s just that there’s paperwork to file and whatever randomness spilling out all over the place that needs to get organized and/or purged.

Globe Lamp on Modular Office Storage

Starting to Pull the Office Together | Making it Lovely, One Room Challenge

Wood Desk, Oversized Red Lamp, Upholstered Wingback Office Chair

You can see it though, right? It’s starting to come together!

Ikat Blue and White Vase

There will be real flowers instead of fake (although those are very good fakes), the most amazing brass quatrefoil pendant hung above, and mod green chairs at that marble table. Also, perhaps I shall finally hang a set of matching curtains! You know, if I’m feeling extra.

Remember, here’s the plan.

Office Layout (Made with SketchUp) | Making it Lovely

Home Office Mockup | Making it Lovely, One Room Challenge

I did go ahead and steal that convex mirror from the snug and I’ve hung it above the radiator. The roofline cuts across and makes it tricky to hang something of substance over the radiator and have it be centered, so the planter in the corner is supposed to cover that corner a bit for some design trickery. I propped it up for some height, but may put it on the floor depending on what plant ends up inside it. The fiddle leaf fig in there now, like the flowers, is a fake. A placeholder.

Convex Mirror and Fiddle Leaf Fig in Blue and White Planter

And an update on the curtains! I found these blanched flora curtains in Anthropologie’s sale section, and they’re exactly what I was looking for. Slight problem though, they might not arrive in time for my final ORC photos. Or maybe they will now that it’s been extended? Anyway, the plan is to borrow the sheers that I already have and love, tuck under the excess at the bottom (I don’t think it will be a big deal in photos), and then swap them out when the others arrive.

I ordered Anthro’s pink Parker curtains at the same time, and they’ve already arrived. They’re very pretty in the photos, I’ll say, but possibly too crayon bright for my liking in real life. Such are the problems with ordering online sometimes. You don’t know the exact color until they arrive, and I’m super picky about my shades of pink. It has only been rainy and gloomy since I’ve hung them — maybe I’ll like them more once I see them on a sunny day.

Honestly, if the curtain saga is the worst of my ORC troubles, I’m in good shape.

Window Nook, Making it Lovely's Home Office in Progress for the One Room Challenge

The sconces are here, and up, and boy are they ever pretty. And since it has been so dreary lately, they’ve been especially helpful in bringing up the overall brightness of the room.

Between this week and next, I’ll be continuing to clear the clutter, which includes emptying the very full closet. Because it’s just about wallpaper time! Woohoo! But that also means paint the trim a color time, and I’m still indecisive. Now that we have an extra week, maybe I’ll post my options next week and we can weigh in?


Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

One Room Challenge• Boxwood Avenue • Coco & Jack • Design Manifest • Dwell with Dignity • The House That Lars Built • Little Green Notebook • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Old Brand New • Old Home Love • The Painted House • Megan Pflug Designs • Pink Pagoda • Erica Reitman • Sacramento Street • Simply Grove • Jill Sorensen • Sugar & Cloth • Vintage Rug Shop • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: Hello, Office • Week 2: Design and Layout • Week 3: It’s Curtains • Week 4: Putting it Together• Week 5: What Trim Color?

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways

Sources & Paint ColorsNeed design help? Let's work together.

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  • Caroline @ The Hyphenated Home
    October 25, 2017 at 9:20 am

    I love love love the sconces! I wish I had an excuse to buy them for myself. Looks like things are really coming together!

    • Making it Lovely
      October 25, 2017 at 8:23 pm

      They’re a statement, but not TOO much. They’re my new favorites!

  • tim@designmaze
    October 25, 2017 at 3:10 pm

    wow loving the way how this room turns out and that color palette is delicate yet inviting! those sconces are beautiful! Can’t wait to Week 5!

  • lauralou
    October 25, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    So the pink curtains with the gray chairs and the pink pom pom pillows? It’s awesome. I want it. And I never want pink (I like seeing it on your blog, it’s just not in my house), but I want to sit there!

    • Making it Lovely
      October 25, 2017 at 8:34 pm

      It’s a really sweet sitting area! Nice for flipping through a book, or sometimes the kids hang out up there while with me.

  • Van Winkle Home
    October 25, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    Those not-tassel-but-kinda lights are very you! Love them in this space.

    Question: Do you have a color palette in mind when you start or do you just pick stuff you like? I see you have pinks, greens, grays, blues, blacks, gold, etc. and somehow you make it all look pulled together and so sophisticated. What’s the secret?

    • Making it Lovely
      October 25, 2017 at 8:30 pm

      Yes! All of my favorite sconces have that vertical descender element in common. The rope and tassel brass sconces with black shades, the pink carved tassel sconces in the library, and now these. I have a type, I guess!

      The color palette, I don’t start there. Sometimes I’m inspired by something (a rug, a patterned textile, a statement piece of furniture), but sometimes it all starts to come together from the sum of all parts. In here, I knew I wanted to continue the black doors with brass hardware, and then I wanted the walls to be light because of the weird angles and lack of a defined ceiling. My favorite ‘white’ is Benjamin Moore’s White Blush, a color between creamy white and the palest blush pink. That with white trim gives me black, white, brass, and pink. Blue and white is always really pretty with pink, so that’s where that comes in. The vintage chairs had their existing gray/blue upholstery, and then I wanted to bring in another element besides the blue and pink, and I thought green would be a nice complement. So no overall color palette to start, just making decisions a little at a time, and then pulling things in from there!

      • Van Winkle Home
        October 25, 2017 at 11:00 pm

        Thanks so much for taking the time to comment- you make it sound so easy!

  • Judith
    October 25, 2017 at 6:26 pm

    The sconces are great, and I love how their slight sternness works with the playful pompom-pillows. Not sure about the mirror though, to me, it feels both too big in general and also too massive due to the chunky rim. That spot needs something else. Maybe even that portrait in the picture of your desk, leaning on the wall next to the monitor?

    • Making it Lovely
      October 25, 2017 at 8:36 pm

      It IS big. I think it works, because it balances out the visual heaviness of the dark wood storage and desk on the opposite side, but I’m eager to see how it looks once the light is up because that’s large in scale too.

  • Peggi
    October 26, 2017 at 5:22 am

    Everything is looking so lovely, and then you said “wallpaper”, and I was like “Ohhh, more, yeah!” Claps hands jumping up and down. (Also, I can imagine the curtains being a bit much in person, but the photo looks amazing!) Beautiful!!

  • Eric
    October 26, 2017 at 8:15 am

    I see your vision, and it looks amazing! Tell me – what program do you use for your visualizations?

    • Making it Lovely
      October 26, 2017 at 8:52 am

      Thanks! The 3D rendering to scale was done with SketchUp, and the other was Photoshop.

  • Susan
    October 26, 2017 at 8:49 am

    Totally off topic here but saw these pins and this artist and thought it would be something you’d enjoy…bugs! art! :D
    marycapaldi.com/shop

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  • katwachter80
    November 3, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Omg, do the pink curtains! Or these: https://www.anthropologie.com/shop/lilya-curtain?category=curtains&color=066

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