Tag: One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge: Week 7 (The Office Reveal!)

I have wallpapered my heart out, overthought the room layout and furniture choices, and arranged my grocery store flowers just so when the florist I wanted to buy from was unexpectedly closed. Yes my friends, it is One Room Challenge reveal time, and I’m ready!

I work from home on this very blog, and I wanted a beautiful office to call my own. I’m doing more design work these days, for myself and for others, and it seemed silly that we’ve been here as long as we have (four years!) and I had yet to dedicate myself to an office proper when we have plenty of space to do so.

Shall we start with the desk? The exact place I’m sitting at right now as I type this post? Let’s.

The chair! She’s so pretty! I always keep a blanket draped over the arm in case I’m cold. Sometimes I’ll keep the pillow on the chair and sometimes not, depending on what I’m doing and how mindful I’m being of my posture.

The desk is 5′ wide, so I have plenty of space for both my full-sized keyboard (I like having a number pad — probably a holdover from entering ISBNs all day for years) and my Wacom tablet. I started using a tablet years ago for art, but now I use it every day. I have problems with my wrists, and using a tablet instead of a mouse has been tremendously helpful.

The oversized ceramic lamp was a risk with my sloped ceiling. I knew it would fit (thanks, 3D rendering to scale!), but would it look like it fit? Thankfully it looked just as I’d hoped and it balances the large monitor nicely. The vase hits that sweet spot between reverential and whimsical, and then the brass snake is just awesome. I also keep my pink leather pouf under the desk. Sometimes I sit with my feet propped up, sometimes with my legs tucked under me, and sometimes I even sit like a normal person! It’s a little ridiculous to have a Moroccan Pouf hidden away as a footrest, but eh. I already owned it and it’s being put to good use.

I took various photos with doors open and with doors closed, because I wasn’t sure which way everything would photograph best. Are you digging my vintage mannequins in the stairway?

I hung a few prints and paintings on the angled wall to the left of the desk. I love the Beetles print and I chose it specifically for this room, but the the vintage portrait is from the 30s and I wanted her to grace the library. I’m stealing her for here, at least for now, but maybe things will change over time?

The desk has five drawers, which I lined with scraps of wallpaper that match the room’s closet. To my right when I’m seated is a long, low storage unit made of modular craft room furniture that holds my printer, trade catalogs, wallpaper samples, and more.

The shallow drawers in the hutch are handy for corralling both personal and client design work — paint swatches, fabric and wallpaper options, that sort of thing. I suppose it won’t be as neat when I’m juggling more than four projects at a time, but I’ve also got the shelf area above the drawers and the entire surface to spread things out on.

There is additional storage space in the closet, aka The Rainbow Room.

Someone in the comments of a previous ORC update suggested calling it The Aviary. I’m into it, but it was a quick ‘no’ from the kids. The Rainbow Room, it is. I think I’ll pick up a sheepskin or some floor pillows for them. They want to play and hang out in there, and I can’t blame them! I was always a special space, even though it’s really just a closet, and now the wallpaper makes it magical.

I have four walnut shelves, but I photographed the space with only two in so that you could better see the wallpaper pattern. The shelves are lovely and sturdy, and they’re already filling with fabric swatches, paint fan decks, equipment, and a nice stack of press (books, magazines, and newspaper articles I’ve been in over the years).

The light was just a bare bulb in a socket before, so while that little number you see peeking out below is nothing amazing, it’s certainly an improvement over what was there. I bought an inexpensive light with a pull chain, and picked up a white globe to replace the ribbed glass shade that came with the base.

I did a ramshackle decoupage technique (cool/terrible band name alert!) where the two halves of the wallpaper met in the center. The seam would have been pretty noticeable and I had assumed I would be adding a piece of trim, but I ended up trimming around birds and leaves, overlapping the different sides so that the pattern blended together. I shared it on my Instagram Stories last week. I wasn’t sure if it was a brilliant or stupid idea, but I think it worked!

I love the wallpaper peeking out when I have the door open.

I had access to rugs both vintage and new from several sponsors, but I already had several rolled up and awaiting use. I have problems with rugs… namely, that I want them all. So look at me going with what I’ve got! I was going to go with a subtle pink wool ikat, but changed my mind and went with the rug I carried back in my luggage from Morocco. It’s a better fit, size-wise, and there are fond memories attached. The office is a great place for it.

The brass pendant is so lovely in the space. And yes, it is wired in! I point that out, because several pictures appear to show otherwise. It replaced the ceiling fan that I took down, and I wanted the light centered over the table so I added a hook to the ceiling. I’m not one to heavily Photoshop my images, but I have edited out the chandelier chain and cord where I swagged it over from the junction box. Honestly, it was so distracting to my eye, and I plan on relocating the junction so that I no longer have to suspend it from a hook. I’m not trying to fool anyone and maybe you wouldn’t have even noticed had I not said anything (it’s cropped out in most photos), but I felt a little funny resorting to digital trickery because it’s not something I do. So if you happen to notice that the light seems to be suspended from nothing, that’s why.

The center marble dining table is already proving useful (and beautiful). It serves as a desk, a project planning surface, a spot for the kids to hang out, and an alternative to my dining room for tabletop shoots. I knew I didn’t want another wood surface in the office since my desk and the modular storage were already representing that category quite well. I’m not a big fan of glass tops, so that sent me looking at painted or lacquered tops, or stone. The parsons shape of the table I chose is classic, and the combination of marble and brass is perfect. Green chairs in a streamlined mod shape bring a little more fun to the grouping.

Hey there, traditional but cool blue and white planter! And hey there, cool convex mirror that I grabbed from another room! I’m very much disliking that the pendant is just hanging there in the reflection, but whatevs, we’ve discussed this. Moving on!

I bought these vintage slipper chairs for my first go at the One Room Challenge. I only used one, but when you find a pair, you buy (and hoard) the pair. And lo, I finally found the perfect spot for them!

The little side table between them is dainty in form, but sturdy. The window nook is a nice spot to take a quick break and look through a design book or some magazines with a cup of coffee. And how amazing are those sconces?

I wanted sconces that could plug in, which these can be customized to do, and I also had a beautiful brass toggle switch added and chose and pretty French gray fabric cording. They’re a little now, and a little Art Deco, and oh so pretty. They were initially six inches higher, but they looked off so I took them down, patched and painted the holes, and put them back up 5-1/2″ lower. An hour’s worth of work for a small change, but I think it would have bugged me had I not done it.

I took my pale pink linen curtains from another room, and the embroidered sheers arrived in time for photos (even though I know you can barely make out the details!).

I’ve recently created a “Shop Our House” page, and you’ll find sources for everything there, including paint colors and links to the exact items I’ve used. The Home Office section is new and I will continue to populate it today. You can also take a look at the design plan from week 2.

Thank you to all of you for following along! Thank you to Linda of Calling it Home for inviting me back to participate again, and thank you to my ORC sponsors (listed below) for helping me bring this room to life. The other participants are also listed below and they are doing amazing work, so be sure to visit everyone and see how their reveals shaped up! Tomorrow is the big reveal for everyone following along too, and there are some impressive designs out there.

I’m thrilled with my new office, and I hope you enjoyed watching the process as much as I loved bringing the design to life!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• 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 Sponsors

• Arianna Belle • Article • Artfully Walls • Bellacor • Cedar & Moss • Crate & Barrel • Jill Rosenwald • Milton & King • The Mine

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

November 15, 2017
Alternate Picks from The Mine and Other ORC Sponsors

There are two main parts to today’s post. First, I want to peel back the curtain a bit on how sponsorships work for blog projects like the One Room Challenge. And second is to show how even when choosing items from the same sources, the design could have gone in a different direction.

The official 20 One Room Challenge participants are chosen (you can apply! I did.), and we then have access to sponsorship offers. We can take advantage of each, or not, and not all are going to be a good fit for everyone. I didn’t need a faucet, bedding, or wall-to-wall carpet, for example, but those offers have been super helpful for some of the other participants. There’s often a budget limit from each sponsor, and then we’re free to choose anything from within that (going over that varies either by working out additional coverage, paying the difference, or paying for the rest at cost). In return, the products are showcased in our final reveals, throughout the challenge, and across social media. This is in-kind advertising rather than sponsorship, as we are not being paid but rather receiving product.

I am only speaking for myself of course, but I look at these types of sponsorship offers as a way to speed up the design process. Would I buy that beautiful lighting fixture, or those chairs on my own? Absolutely! But it would be over the course of months, if not years. The 6-week timeline (extended to 7 this time) also speeds up the process, forcing decisions that I would otherwise hem and haw over. I have a tendency to overthink things! I know this about myself. A deadline can be a great thing for me, and the process is much more in line with designing for a client than the usual circuitous process I take in working on my own house.

My design is a mix of new items I’ve purchased, existing and vintage pieces, and product from sponsors. As I was choosing which things to incorporate into my One Room Challenge office, there was a lot that I loved, but either I didn’t have the right spot or it wasn’t working with everything else. I went through the secret Pinterest board I used while planning my ORC and pulled out my very favorites, along with a reminder of which pieces I did choose. I’d love to hear if you think I made the right calls, or if you would have chosen some of the alternates I was considering!

The Mine

I found the room’s main light fixture at The Mine, along with a great blue and white planter and green dining chairs. They have so many amazing finds to choose from though — I had a hard time narrowing things down as I pulled my design together! Three words: Bunny Williams lamps. Oh, they get all the heart eyes from me. I also debated between the lighting fixture I chose and the other shown below.

• Ruth Green Dining Chairs • Blue and White Planter • Basil Brass Pendant • Middlebury Brass Ceiling Light • Brush Stroke Lamp • Pheasant Feather Lamp

Crate & Barrel

I have worked with Crate & Barrel in the past, and I reached out to them to partner for this round of the ORC. There is no more pleasing desk chair out there right now than their Liv Upholstered Wingback, in my opinion. I’ve paired it with their desk and also added a beautiful small marble dining table in the center of the room. Below are a couple of other lovely finds.

• Parsons Marble and Brass Dining Table • Morris Desk • Antique Bronze Wall Frames • Liv Upholstered Wingback Desk Chair • Dish Round Wall Mirror • Revolve Adjustable Dining Table

Lamps Plus

I love Lamps Plus and have worked with them in the past, but I didn’t need anything from them this time around. Any of these would have been great options had I not gone with other lighting fixtures and lamps though! I would love to see those plaster sconces given a fun makeover with paint and new shades, and the price is friendly enough to not feel scared about altering them. Plus I still think that Budgie lamp is so charming. (Too on the nose with the birds wallpaper though, right?)

• Annie Plaster Wall Sconce • Yasmin Floor Lamp • Newport Brass Sconce • Serpa Double Arm Wall Light • Budgies Table Lamp

Fabricut

You’ll see in the big reveal next week that I did steal curtains from another room in my house. I tried to find store-bought 84” pink curtains, which should have been easy enough, but I couldn’t find that barely pink blushy hue I was after and I’m picky about my shades of pink. Fabricut is a One Room Challenge sponsor and I fell hard for their Anapest pattern and a handful of others, but they just weren’t the right fit for my office.

• Anapest Fabric • Big Ditty Fabric • Edie Fabric • Priya Fabric

Artfully Walls

I’m starting to amass a good selection of prints, framed or otherwise, and the ones I have from Artfully Walls are always among the best. They’re not an official ORC sponsor, but one that I reached out to because we had worked together in the past and I wanted to incorporate a few specific pieces (the vase with flowers, and the beetle print).

• ‘Emerald Beetles’ by Kate Roebuck • ‘Flowers in Vase’ by Ruti Shaashua • ‘Library with Flowers’by Kate Lewis • ‘Olive’ by Polly Mann

Bellacor

Pay attention to the measurements of lamps, friends. I had overlooked this June ceramic table lamp several times while browsing the site, thinking it was cute but nothing special. Eventually I clicked for more details, and realized it was huge! The oversized scale and deep orangey red make this lamp something special indeed. I did have my eye on a few other finds first though…

• Kendrick Side Table • Jane Table Lamp • Utopia Occasional Table • Brighton Pendant • Black Tang Lamp

Arianna Belle

The best selection of designer fabrics, ready to be turned into pillows in the exact sizes you need. These other three are all on my wish list.

• Bukhara Ikat Pillow • Channels Pillow • Pyne Hollyhock Pillow • Hot House Spark Pillow

Jill Rosenwald

I have a thing for ceramics, especially with a handmade element. Jill Rosenwald combines fresh, modern colors with bold stripes and fun patterns on simple forms. I love the vase I chose for my desk, but these others from their Indigo collection are fun too.

• Freer House Slim Keith • West Palm Slim Keith • Gloucester Swoosh Letter Tray • Fans Bud Vase

Stori Modern

Stori Modern is an official ORC sponsor and while they weren’t a fit for my office, I will have a separate post coming up next week with them! The peacock made the shoot. ;)

• The Memoir Dining Collection

Annie Selke

I didn’t need anything from Annie Selke this time around, but I do love them a whole lot (I have my rug coming out with them next year!) and their products are always top quality. Our rugs in the library and living room are gorgeous, and the quilt and ottoman I have of theirs from a past ORC are lovely. These are some of the pillows and throws I had considered for my office design before going in a different direction.

• Resist Octagon Indigo Throw • Pom Pom Pink Throw • Fossil Embroidered Pillow • Thumbprint Embroidered Pillow • Antigua Linen Pillow • Resist Tile Java Throw

Jenny’s Print Shop

Art on demand! Jenny of Little Green Notebook has been killing it with her print shop, bringing in work from other artists and photographers, as well as her own. As I’m putting the finishing touches on my space, I’d deciding which pieces of art are going where. I’m not sure if I’ll have room for more, but if I do, it’ll likely be one of these.

• Roses • Claire • ‘Tulips’ by Lynne Millar • ‘Hyacinth’ by Lynne Millar • Eleanor

Cedar & Moss

Oh gosh do I love my Audrey sconces. I did look at several other options though, all of which would have been equally great. This is another sponsor whom I adore that I reached out to on my own, not through the ORC. They are able to customize lighting fixtures, which was so helpful as I was looking for beautiful sconces with both a plug and a switch.

• Audrey 8″ Sconce • Terra Sconce • Pearl Sconce • Moss 8″ Sconce

Article

I’m using their walnut bookshelves, and they are heavy, sturdy, and all around well-made. I’m having serious envy over The Makerista’s pink velvet chair from them though, and Megan’s leather sofa! Oof. So pretty. So in my palette.

• Walnut Bookshelf • Cigar Leather Sofa • Embrace Velvet Armchair

Milton & King

I just finished hanging my Ornithology wallpaper yesterday, and it is a showstopper. So good! I also loved (and requested samples) of a couple of other patterns before making my decision though. Still haven’t decided if the pinned butterfly specimens would have been too creepy, or totally amazing, but I am in love with the birds.

• Ornithology wallpaper • Euphemia 5 Wallpaper • Lepidoptera Wallpaper

So what do you think? The design could be successful in a number of ways. Would you have made similar choices, given the other pieces I was considering, or would there be a lot of changes?

November 10, 2017
One Room Challenge: Week 6 (So Close!)

Normally we’d be at the end of the One Room Challenge, but we have all been granted a one-week extension for the first time in ORC history. Unforeseen circumstances derailed many participants but we’re all moving along toward final reveals next week, and I have to say, the extra time has been nice!

I spent yesterday putting up the wallpaper. Had the deadline been here I would have started sooner, pulling a few late nights and not seeing my family until I came up for air. Instead, I could work at a normal pace and stop at 5:00. Novel concept! I don’t want to pull the camera back too much and give it away (next week, next week!), but it’s all looking so good together.

Pink trim won out over green (or plum, charcoal, or black). I didn’t tally exact votes, but I pretty sure green won as far as numbers go. I was indecisive at first, but I feel strongly now that it wasn’t the right call for this space. The trim is not nice or special. The window is, and the new wallpaper is. The trim just needed to complement it, and the color my Nix sensor pulled from the background (Brandy Cream, Benjamin Moore) was perfect.

I had never worked with paste-the-wall type of wallpaper before. I watched Milton & King’s Installation Video before starting, and then just dove in. I started with the hardest wall first, the peaked window wall, because that’s the one you see from the doorway and I wanted the pattern centered on it.

It was easier to work with dry wallpaper in some ways, but not all. Traditional wallpaper needs to be booked, which means you apply paste and then gently fold the paper in on itself so the glue doesn’t dry while the moisture causes the paper to expand slightly. After about 10 minutes, you would hang that strip. A seasoned installer is able to speed up the process by booking one sheet while hanging another, so there’s no waiting time in between. I am not seasoned. When I do it, I do it a strip at a time and I move slowly.

Working with paste-the-wall wallpaper meant that I could skip that 10-minute waiting time for each strip, so it was definitely faster. It was less messy too, as I didn’t have to have a big wallpapering table (which gets covered with glue overage). The process of matching up patterns and trimming is the same, so there’s no winner one way or the other there. The only thing I found more difficult was in working with the dry paper, it wanted to roll up as I was applying it to the wall — especially as I got further into the roll. I also found that I had to be careful not to crease it. Traditional wallpaper softens up as the glue absorbs in the booking process, so it’s more floppy and pliable. Dry wallpaper isn’t, obviously.

I love the pattern, and it looks as wonderful as I’d hoped it would. The rainbow room is halfway done, and I should be able to finish in one more day. I also have to swap out two light fixtures and hang art in the office before I can call this ORC done. The furniture is all in place, save for the bookshelves (because they’re going in front of the wallpaper).

Oh, and I might move the sconces down a bit too. They’re hung at a perfectly normal height, but they look too high to me because of the room’s angles. Six inches lower or so ought to do the trick. It would be easy enough to make that change since they’re plug-ins.

But then all that’s left is tidying and styling. The fun stuff! And photographing, of course. And writing about it. Whew, OK, maybe I need to get more of a move on than I thought. One more week!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• 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

November 8, 2017
One Room Challenge: Week 5 (What Trim Color?)

Let’s talk about the rainbow room. (Yes, I know that’s a silly name! My kids named it and it has stuck.)

The office is painted the palest blush pink (White Blush, Benjamin Moore), with white trim and black doors with brass hardware. White trim is classic and lovely as an intentional choice, but when it’s done by default it can be a missed opportunity. The rainbow room (glorified closet) will be made even more special with its Ornithology wallpaper, and I think white on the woodwork would miss the mark.

If I go with a dusty pink/beige color to play off of the office walls and the wallpaper background, the trim would recede and let both the wallpaper and stained glass window shine.

I was recently sent a Nix Mini Color Sensor (such a fun little tool!) and I used it to find a match for the wallpaper’s background color. I placed my sensor on a sample of the print to scan, and the Nix Paints app gives matches from all the major paint brands. A few of the colors it recommended were Joa’s White by Farrow & Ball, and Brandy Cream or Muslin, both by Benjamin Moore.

I like the idea of muting the trim because there’s already a lot going on in a tiny space. It would look something like this.

There are a bunch of other colors to pull from in the wallpaper. Blue, purple/plum, or mustard yellow would look great, but if I’m going to go with a bolder color here, it’s going to be green.

There’s a lot of green in the print’s foliage, and there are also green chairs directly outside the little nook that would play off of the color when the door was open. Maybe I don’t want to highlight the trim this much though? It’s not as special as the window and wallpaper, and I worry it’s competing rather than complementing.

Here’s how the swatches look near those green chairs. A nice nod to the rest of the design, but not a necessary one.

Green or pink? What say you?

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• 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

November 1, 2017
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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

• 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

October 25, 2017
One Room Challenge: Week 3 (It’s Curtains)
I’m planning a layered look for the windows with pink curtains on the outside, nearly matching the pale blush walls, and sheers behind. We have a window AC in there and it’s not nice to look at. Covering it with sheers when it’s not in use might be the best way to ignore the eyesore.

The double curtain rod is from Ballard Designs. I prefer thicker 1-1/4″ diameter aged brass for the rest of the house, but here where the ceilings aren’t as high and I’m installing a double rod, the thinner diameter is a better proportion. The change in material is due to the proportion issue too. Thin brass curtain rods can look cheap — they remind me of inexpensive café curtain or tension rods. (Admittedly that’s probably my own weird association, not some universally acknowledged design truth, so take it for what you will.) Black will look more polished, tying in with the room’s black doors and the black lighting accents going in that nook.

I hung five curtains on the window to test, four of which I already had on hand.
- The first is a pink linen pinch-pleat curtain from Tonic Living that I grabbed from our den. It looks great! But it looks great in the den too, and those windows will be naked!
- The embroidered sheer is one of two that used to hang in our living room at the old house — the only curtains we exempted from conveying with the house. The other is in my closet and I’m hesitant to relocate it because it’s pretty perfect where it’s at. The details are not conveying well in the photo — see below for a closeup.
- The third option is a linen sheer from the pair I had in the guest room. Totally fine. Kinda boring. Missed opportunity for something more special. A mix of textures/patterns rather than just opacity would be nice too.
- Next is one of the ivory dupioni silk curtains that hung in the bedroom when we moved in. Silk is a little too formal for my taste, but it’s of nice quality, so I keep storing the pair in the linen closet thinking I’ll have a spot someday. Not yet.
- The last panel is the only new one, dusty pink chambray from West Elm. I’d hoped it would be a happy substitute for the pink linen I stole from elsewhere, but when it arrived, the color was darker and “dustier” than I’d expected. Lighter would be better. I’m also not loving the hidden tab tops, but I can hang them from the pole pocket or clips.
I’m going ready-made with these because of the ORC time constraint, but also because I hung the rod at a standard 84″ high and there are tons of options at that length.

Here’s a detail of the embroidered sheer I love so much (with a bonus look at that silk). There are sequins! But it’s not tacky!

The morning light filters through so nicely with these in the closet, which is just such a nice hello to getting dressed and starting your day. Plus hi, that’s where I get dressed. Good sheers equal good privacy. All signs point to leaving the single panel where it’s at, continuing to store its mate, and finding other sheers for the office.

These have potential.
- Nora Medallion Burnout Drape, Pottery Barn
- Tessara Curtain, Anthropologie
- Embroidered Lacina Curtain, Anthropologie
- Embroidered Benet Curtain, Anthropologie
- Floral Medallion Sheer, PB Teen
- Embroidered Arya Curtain, Anthropologie
- Reeta Print Sheer Drape, Pottery Barn
- Amera Curtain, Anthropologie
- Palampore Burnout Sheer Curtains, World Market
And I think the dusty pink chambray curtains are going back.

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• 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
October 18, 2017