Category: One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge: Week 6 (My Daughter’s Room Reveal!)
Welcome! Come on in and take a look around! My daughter Eleanor, 10-years-old and an absolute delight, wanted a room makeover. She and I worked together to update her room from little kid to tween, and it will carry her right through the teen years with way more style than I ever had when I was growing up.

Thank you to Linda at Calling it Home for organizing the One Room Challenge and inviting me to participate again! Six weeks goes by so quickly (especially when you have a somewhat indecisive kid and a major color scheme change midway through), but it’s always the most fun and a really good kick to get a room totally redone.

Pinky/purple/lilac/lavender/orchid/thistle. What do you call this color? I call it a color I never would have chosen myself, but one that my daughter wanted and that I have come to love. If you know me, you know I love pink, but I prefer it less saturated and on the peachy side. It may seem funny, but this particular color is a little outside of my comfort zone!

The room had white walls and wood trim when we moved in. We painted it dark blue when Eleanor was four (she chose the color then, too), but six years later is a long time in kid years, and she was ready for a change.

From Sherwin-Williams Loyal Blue to Benjamin Moore Magic Potion with Barberry painted trim.

How pretty is that Rifle Paper Co. for Loloi Rosa rug? It was the first piece we decided on for the room and it set the tone for everything to come. It works beautifully with the mix of bedding you’ll see throughout the photos. The jersey-knit sheets are Eleanor’s favorite because not only does she like the lilac pattern, they feel like a soft t-shirt. All of the bedding is from Garnet Hill, and it can mix and match together in different ways to give E some options.

I had planned on making an upholstered headboard but instead found a secondhand Serena & Lily Pondicherry headboard to reupholster. Or more accurately, slipcover. It turns out we really liked the fabric it came with, so a slipcover will allow us to switch it up and keep the original patterned fabric safe and sound for future use. Slight problem: I’m not an experienced seamstress. It’s going to take me some time to learn how to do the slipcover, so I draped the fabric over top as best I could to give you an idea of what it will look like with the different bedding combinations. Which version do you like best?

Obviously the bed in a bedroom, especially when it takes up as much space in the room as it does here, has a huge impact on the entire look. The tone on tone look quiets the design and is in line with my original intent for the room. E prefers the slipcover option too — every big decision in the room was made together.

The slipcover will be made from Fabricut Devon wool fabric in Orchid with Lotus piping. Curves and piping on a huge upholstered piece for someone with the cheapest base model sewing machine from a decade ago. Ambitious! I’ll figure it out.

I recovered a small ottoman with Inner Circle fabric to give E a place to perch besides her bed. I also figured out how to make functional Roman shades!

I’ve wanted to use this Edie Stroheim fabric for years. It looks amazing in E’s windows, and I love that red/orange Spice color against the walls and trim. And friends, I see that some of you have doubted this particular fabric choice perhaps more than anything else in the room. I get where you’re coming from! It works because the wood tones in the dresser and floor are very orange, and the red in the rug has a lot of warmth to it (rather than being a primary bright). Also, take into account the sun streaming through the linen, and it all just works. I adore it.

I stole my favorite decorative pillow from the guest room because it looked so dang good with the bedding, but most of the time E will probably have the other one in here (with the horse print). She says this one is too bumpy for her. It’s almost like kids don’t realize that sometimes the pretty pillows you put on the bed are just for show and they aren’t always the most functional thing but we buy them and put them there only to take them off each night and put them back in the morning, but I digress.

The nightstand is from Target, and I used one of the original Art Deco handles from her dresser on it to tie the two together. A nightstand with both a drawer and a shelf is always optimal, and E’s radio is tucked underneath so she can listen with (or often without) headphones in bed. The BB8 is her alarm clock.

Opposite the bed is the entrance to the room, and Eleanor’s closet. Most of her toys are on shelves in the closet, but I rehung the circular shelf that was in the room before for E to display some of her favorite things.

Books, books, books on a low Parsons bookcase. She’s a voracious reader! (Takes after her mom and dad. *dusts shoulders off*) We had to pare the books down quite a bit to get them to fit, but she had a lot that she had outgrown so those got passed down to her little brothers and it worked out.

The details in Eleanor’s room will no doubt change over time. That’s what will let this room grow and change with her as she moves on from her tween years. Will she always love decorating with horses and cute animals? Maybe, but that’s for her to keep or change as she decides.

We kept the art that was in the room before, just shuffled it around some. The hanging bird was from Land of Nod years ago, the cats are a vintage tea towel hung with dowels, and the “just be cool” banner was a favor from when I took a video editing workshop that DesignLoveFest taught.

The silhouette art is actually a quilt! It used to hang in our living room ages ago, before Eleanor was even born. It was a made by an Etsy seller, long out of business (Dream of Stars), and I stretched it over canvas stretcher bars.

The antique Art Deco dresser was a Facebook Marketplace find. That and the Pondicherry headboard are probably two of my best FB Marketplace finds ever! E is a lucky girl.

The bed itself is from Tuft & Needle. E went from a twin size to a full (that was important to her — I think it makes her feel more grown up), so she needed a new mattress. It’s sitting on a box foundation and metal base that has supports to attach the headboard. The bed is so comfortable, it’s been a tempting distraction to me while working on her room all these weeks! Like, maybe a quick nap might be in order? Zzzzzzz.

Her room glows beautifully at night. The Crystorama Truax Pendant in the center of the room is oversized (16″ diameter, which is larger than the globes I have in our much larger double parlor), but it provides a dramatic sense of scale. There are three candelabra bulbs inside, so it’s bright without being harsh.

Flanking the headboard are a pair of POP Wall Sconces from Blueprint Lighting. They look like eyeballs and I love them! A happy bit of happenstance is that the headboard I found had curves that perfectly mirror the circles of the sconces. I hung colorful tassels from World Market to zhush them up a bit but if they look too little kid for E as she gets older, she can take them off and they’ll look cleaner and more modern.

I wasn’t sure about also including a task light on the nightstand. E says she can read by the sconces, but the task light is far brighter and I thought she may like it. It’s the same light she had before (from Target a few years ago).

The bookshelf got a pair of small resin lamps lamps from Target which were very cute and super affordable at $20 each. They came in pink and black versions too, but the green looked prettiest. The pink gourd lamp that used to be on the dresser before got moved over to the dresser. It was yet another lamp from Target (I think they’re always a great source for cute, inexpensive lighting for the kids’ rooms).

Thank you for following along as this room came together. It has been one of the most fun makeovers I’ve done because it was a true collaboration between me and my daughter. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing it come together as much as we have!

I’ll work to get all of the sources listed on the Shop Our House page and will also add them below!
Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• Blueprint Lighting • Crystorama • Fabricut • Garnet Hill • Loloi • Tuft & Needle

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Adding Interest • Week 4: A Disagreement • Week 5: A Lucky Find • Week 6: My Daughter’s Room Reveal

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office
November 6, 2019
One Room Challenge: Week 5 (A Lucky Find)

I was going to DIY an upholstered headboard until I came across someone selling a Serena & Lily Pondicherry headboard on Facebook Marketplace. The luckiest find! The scale is perfect — tall and dramatic — and the curved top is great. I even like the fabric, but worry that it doesn’t go with the rug.

The combination is growing on me, but I do think a slipcover in my original fabric choice (tone on tone with the walls) is the way to go. Eleanor voted for a slipcover too, and then if we ever want to change it up in the future, the original pattern will be right there underneath. None of my fabric is here yet though, and I’m getting worried about having based a lot of my design on it. If it arrives, I’m going to have a lot of sewing to learn and do in a very short amount of time!

I installed the new light! It’s the 16″ 3-light Truax by Brian Patrick Flynn for Crystorama. I had originally thought I would add a ceiling medallion but the canopy is square. I could switch it out for a round one that would be compatible with a medallion, but having a square element in a room filled with circles and curves is nice! It may stay as-is.

I also have two POP Wall Sconces from Blueprint Lighting to flank the bed. I chose the color (Rubbed Sage) to work with the rug and our initial paint color of light blue. The sconces look great with the rug (tricky, since I only had online photos to go off of when placing the order). I would have chosen differently, probably darker, had I known we were going to paint the walls purple, but that’s in part because I have a specific personal aversion to purple and green together. The combination reminds me of a favorite childhood outfit: purple and green striped sweatpants with a green alligator across the chest of the matching sweatshirt. Chic! Luckily, no one else brings this particular baggage to the color scheme.

Here they are looking very much like eyeballs. I’m into it. (And that was the old twin mattress, plopped on the full-sized bed frame temporarily. From the side, this arrangement looked like a hungry alligator.)

Eleanor has started sleeping in her new bed, even as I continue to work around her and there are tools all over one half of the room. Aside from the headboard, everything else about her bed is from Tuft & Needle. The mattress is on a box foundation, and that rests on a metal base that has brackets to attach to the headboard. She pleaded her case for a larger bed and is thrilled to have it. We have jersey-knit sheets on and she noted how soft they are. Like a favorite t-shirt! Her bed feels great.

I stood the mattress box between the doorway and closet as a placeholder to show where a bookshelf will go. On the other side, I brought in a new-to-us Art Deco dresser and it’s beautiful. I can’t wait to show you the finished makeover next week!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• Blueprint Lighting • Crystorama • Fabricut • Garnet Hill • Loloi • Tuft & Needle

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Adding Interest • Week 4: A Disagreement

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office

October 30, 2019
One Room Challenge: Week 4 (A Disagreement)

The good news is that everything should come together now pretty quickly, but ack! We’re at week four already! Planning the room started before the One Room Challenge officially began, but then of course my girl switched up the design in week 2. No problem, we can pivot. Then a cold, some tech problems that needed immediate attention, and cracks in the plaster walls that were worse and more numerous than initially suspected threw me off, and this past week kind of happened without much progress. But, I should have everything fully painted and a new light fixture up by tomorrow, then I can unroll the rug, drag the dresser and bed into place, and the room will feel like it’s gone from 5% finished to 65%.

Eleanor and I had our first disagreement on the room’s design. Everything I’m doing, I run it by her first. We chose colors, bedding, and the rug together. I showed her antique dressers as I searched Facebook Marketplace and have made sure she liked the new lighting that will be going in. It’s been a completely collaborative process, and so much fun to work on together. But we disagreed when it came time to choose a color for the trim.

I sanded, cleaned, and primed all of the woodwork, then cut in and painted one wall in our new color (Benjamin Moore Magic Potion 1250). It’s the perfect color between pink and purple, giving us that lilac/orchid/lavender/thistle we were looking for. We were both happy, but when I asked if she thought the trim should be the same color or one shade darker, and she furrowed her brow and said white. And I’m sorry, but white was not an option for a reason. Her room is all slants and angles, and wonky trim highlights the problems. This has been the only design decision that I’ve overruled her on and she wasn’t pleased when I told her it would probably not be white.

I finished painting the walls and ceiling, and put a coat of black paint on the door before choosing the color. I feel the same was toward white trim as I do white walls. A beautiful choice when done right, but not always great when done as a default, and it really wasn’t the right choice here. I went one shade darker and one swatch over in the fan deck (Benjamin Moore Barberry 1244) and I’m only one coat in but it looks amazing! It also makes it look very Victorian in our Victorian home, but more modern elements are coming.

And guess what, Eleanor came home from school, saw the progress, and she likes it. I don’t think she could picture what it would look like beyond the white primer. May that be the last of our disagreements! When it comes to this room makeover, at least.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• Blueprint Lighting • Crystorama • Fabricut • Garnet Hill • Loloi • Tuft & Needle

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room • Week 2: The Design Plan • Week 3: Adding Interest • Week 4: A Disagreement

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office

October 23, 2019
One Room Challenge: Week 3 (Adding Interest)

I knew I wanted to do something special in Eleanor’s room. Wallpaper? She wasn’t interested. How about molding? E was neutral and I was fully enamored with the idea, so yes. Absolutely! I love bedrooms with raised paneling, and it would fit well here architecturally. The first floor of any home is usually the most grand, where you might find taller baseboards, finer finishes, and details like paneling or crown molding. Our Victorian has raised paneling in the entryway, beams and crown in the dining room, picture rail in most bedrooms, and beadboard details throughout. Paneling or molding details in the bedroom of an otherwise unadorned house could be incongruous, but here it would fit.

Eleanor’s room has a noticeable slope to it though. That’s that old house charm for you. The floor slants, the ceiling slants, and I doubt you’ll find a true right angle anywhere. I wanted to do this so badly I tried to convince myself that I could cheat it by splitting the difference between level and what appears to the eye to be level, fudging some of the lines to turn rectangles into parallelograms and trapezoids. To a clear-headed person, this sounds like a terrible idea, right? I was dazzled by my brilliant design vision and it took me a while to admit that this probably isn’t the best space for rigid geometry.

So no wallpaper. No molding. A canopy bed, or a bed tucked into some sort of fort-like nook with beautiful fabric draping the sides was already ruled out when we instead decided to go from a twin-sized bed to a double. A larger canopy bed would still fit technically, but the scale would have been completely wrong. We’ll be adding color and pattern, of course, but I still wanted to do something beyond paint, add a bed, and hang curtains. Plus it’s the One Room Challenge; I wanted an actual challenge!

Well, I could make the bed. And do something interesting with the windows.

This is a phenomenal idea, yes? Never mind that I am far more comfortable with a saw than a sewing machine. I can do this. Except that my cursory knowledge of how to make a headboard was probably gleaned from formative years watching Trading Spaces. Plywood + foam + batting + fabric = headboard. Easy peasy. Except that I want to made a wingback headboard and it turns out it’s way more complicated than that? So OK, plan B is a simple rectangle with channel tufting. Still difficult, but easier. I’m not sure which option will win, but wish me luck.

Wait, we didn’t even get to the windows yet. Get lost, curtains! I’m doing lambrequins. On windows that you can tell just by looking at them have settled with the house and gone out of square. Do I need to change course here as well and go with a valance instead? Eh. Either way, I’ll be doing shades underneath that I plan on making myself. Do I know how? You bet I don’t! Will I figure it out? Oh, for sure! I’m making great decisions with a looming deadline. (If I could renovate old houses and learn how to do all kinds of hard things in the process, surely I can do this. Fingers crossed.)

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• Blueprint Lighting • Crystorama • Fabricut • Garnet Hill • Loloi • Tuft & Needle

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room • Week 2: The Design Plan

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office

October 16, 2019
One Room Challenge: Week 2 (The Design Plan)
Light blue, right? That was one of Eleanor’s only requests. Well, much like the canopy bed, she wanted it fervently… until she didn’t.

Early on in our discussions about her room makeover, I had her flip through a paint fan deck and show me colors she liked (in general, not necessarily for the walls). She picked two shades of blue, jade green, and lavender. From there, we started choosing specific pieces to work into her room design. Much of what I’m bringing in that’s not sourced secondhand is from a One Room Challenge sponsor. (They’re making it possible for me to give my girl a room that would otherwise not be happening on this level right now and I’m so grateful.) I’ll list them together at the end of the post, and specific products will also be linked throughout so it’s easier to source things if you’re looking for something similar.

First, we focused on choosing a rug. She liked a lot of the Rifle Paper Co. x Loloi collection, so we were able to narrow down our choices pretty quickly. Once we decided on the Rosa black rug, that gave us a more concrete direction for paint and fabric colors. Great!

Now here’s where a six week timeline can really work against you. How accurately can I choose colors to work with the rug going solely off of the product photos? The exact paint color can wait a little longer, but I need to choose my fabric now to allow time enough for the order to arrive and for me to make something of it. So I was off to the Fabricut showroom to make some selections.

I’m going to make the headboard for Eleanor’s bed, pairing it with a box foundation and metal base from Tuft & Needle. Eleanor’s getting a new mattress too, moving on up from a twin size to a full. She’s thrilled! I showed her an upholstered bed that came in a bunch of colors to get an idea of what she would like. (The bed is sold through Target and Overstock in different fabrics and I would probably just buy it or the headboard if I wasn’t making one, but that wouldn’t be much of a challenge now would it?) I expected her to like some of the blues, and she did, but lavender was her favorite. Hmmm. She was drawn to the color early on, too.

I chose plenty of fabric options to fit our initial plans, mostly blues with some greens, but I made sure to grab a couple of purple options too. I had three pretty solid schemes to show E, along with the wild card lavender.

Surprise: light blue is out. Lavender, it is! Plus a beautiful red/orange, just because it looks so dang good with it.

Fabrics: Modern Moire • Conservatory • Devon • Edie • Inner Circle • 04227 • Flamme de France • Treviso

We were planning to bring a little lavender in through the bedding with a print, but we’re doing a whole lot more purple now. Is it going to work with the rug? It’s not actually IN the rug, but I think it’s looking good all together. Again, were it not for the timeframe, I would wait and make choices after seeing it all in person. But we move forward! (Really, it’s a wonderful thing. I take too long if not pushed sometimes.)
I’m also changing out Eleanor’s playfully modern light for the more classic Truax globe fixture from Crystorama, but then I’m bringing some of that irreverence back in with two Pop Wall Sconces from Blueprint Lighting in rubbed sage. I’ve also picked up an Art Deco dresser that I found through Facebook Marketplace, and E now has perhaps the most beautiful dresser out of all of us. I may be a little jealous. It also has handles that look like little mustaches, a fact that she likes very much! I’m calling this image “round pretty things for Eleanor’s room.” Accurate, yes?

Do I need a little lamp on the dresser? Maybe. And we have a bookshelf to prep for painting. And lambrequin construction and shapes to research, because oh yes. I’m finally getting around to making some lambrequins! It’s going to be lovely.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Sponsors

Thank you to the following sponsors for generously providing product.
• Blueprint Lighting • Crystorama • Fabricut • Garnet Hill • Loloi • Tuft & Needle

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room • Week 2: The Design Plan

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office
October 9, 2019
One Room Challenge: Week 1 (My Daughter’s Room)

The One Room Challenge begins again today! I’m back for my fourth round, redoing a room from start to finish in just six weeks. And I’m not alone! There are 20 featured projects by fellow designers and design bloggers to follow along with every Wednesday, and even more to follow on Thursdays as guest participants document their own makeovers. It’s fast and fun and I’m excited to be back.

I had been talking lately with Eleanor, my ten-year-old, about a bedroom makeover. It was already in our plans, so when the chance came to jump into the One Room Challenge again, the choice of rooms was easy. Lucky duck, she’s going to get an amazing room, and the deadline will push me to get it done quickly for her!

The room was formerly a sleeping porch that was enclosed ages ago and incorporated into the rest of the house. The walls were white and the wood unpainted when we moved in.

Eleanor was four when she picked her wall color. Dark blue! Walls and ceiling! And she has loved it for a long time. We’ve made small changes over the years like adding a desk, changing out bedding, and putting up more art and display space for some of her favorite toys and objects. It’s filled with her personality! She’s ten now though, and ready for a bigger change.

Oof, it’s a lot of stuff. But it’s important stuff to her. We never really designed this room, just painted and then used what we had from our first house. The dresser, bed, and rug from when she was a toddler. The bookcase that used to be in my bedroom. The makeover is going to come together with more style and purpose, and a lot of what’s out that we’re keeping is going to get moved into the closet (which is currently underutilized).

The books are overflowing. Some can come out (she’s read them all, multiple times, and has outgrown many), but there’s also a stack that’s not even in her room right now.

Some of the art on the walls is personal to E, but some was chosen by me and she doesn’t mind if it stays or goes. She was young and without strong opinions on decorating when a lot of it went up.

Eleanor wanted a canopy bed so badly, until she didn’t. (That was a quick phase!) Her wishlist is pretty short: a bigger bed, more space for books, less pink, and light blue paint instead of dark. She’s getting everything she wants for her room and I’m having fun working with her to make it a space she’ll love for years to come. I’ll share the design plan next week!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• At Charlotte’s House • Design Addict Mom • Erika Ward Interiors • Erin Kestenbaum • Girl & Grey • Gray Malin • Hommeboys • I Spy DIY • Jewel Marlowe • The Learner Observer • Making it Lovely • Nicole White Designs • Old Brand New • Oscar Bravo Home • Place of My Taste • The Rath Project • Room for Tuesday • SG Style • Undecorated Home • Veronica Solomon • Media BH&G • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: My Daughter’s Room

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways • Fall ’17: My Home Office

October 2, 2019