You read right ladies and gents — I am bringing my virtual One Room Challenge to life... for real for real.

From the very beginning, I'd said that my ORC was based on real spaces in a real home. That home is now my home — look at God! — and I am able to bring this design as close to real life as humanly (and financially) possible. That said, consider this my part 2 to the Fall ORC. As all the guests are wrapping up their reveals, I am going to take you on another 6 week journey (because why not) as we tackle our "must be nice" spaces.

You're welcome.

Why am I doing this?

1. Why not. Like legit... why not bring my design that I worked super hard on to life? Especially after seeing it come to virtual fruition thanks to Fabiana at Duke Renders. Again I say... why not!?

1. With or without the ORC feature (thanks Linda) this would be our home & therefore these would be spaces to be done. This is just a cool way to bring you guys along.

1. What else am I doing? 2020 has proven to be the best worst year and these projects are a needed & welcome distraction from all the madness that is the final weeks of 2020.

Now by my calculations, 6 weeks from now, we'll be in 2021, and who knows what big fun she'll have in store for us! No matter what comes I plan to enjoy every bit of my home, so starting with the "must be nice" spaces feels like a justified respite from an effed up reality.

So what are we going to be working on?

Media Room

Yep! The ever popular "Black Panther" room is coming to life and if I am keeping things completely a buck with you guys (keeping it completely honest for those of you who aren't versed in slang vernacular), this will likely be the room that turns out the closest to what I created for the HPMKT edition, even without many of the HPMKT vendors.

We're going to be painting.

We're going to be furnishing.

We're going to be styling.

Legit, this room will look nothing like it did when we bought the house & I cannot wait. While some people would also dub this the family room, for us it's a lot more than that. We have a "family" room — the living room. It's not a formal living room. We have every intention of regularly using that space as well. But the media room is called that for a reason. It's not just a room for video games & movie nights — although mostly — so much as it's a vibe. It's a respite from everything else. And don't be surprised if you see a popcorn machine in here.

Shared Study

The garden study — yes it faces our garden — it actually our shared study. It'll be where I work from home, where hubs does his coursework, and where we homeschool the mini. Yeah... definitely not as fun as the adjacent media room, and that's the point. These room as a very clear purpose, but not to be confused with a stuffy/boring "office". We're adulting, but not "office" adulting.

This'll also be where the mini will have quiet rest, where I'll plan our raised bed garden, and where hubs watches endless new homeowner DIY videos. Unlike when I had an office for my business years ago, the delineation of this space and so that we know when it's time to turn off — no more blogging, no more arts & crafts, no more computer scrolling — we turn off.

The design won't be super transformative to start — a lot of what's going in there we brought from the previous apartment — so the design will continue to involve over the next year (maybe less, maybe more), but it'll definitely reflect the duality of the space — productive fun.

Outdoor Living

Full disclosure: NOTHING is happening out here... at least not now. Currently in the PNW, it's raining and windy nearly everyday. Outside won't be a design priority till maybe March of 2021... something to look forward to.

Laundry Room & Half Bath

First... can I just state that I refuse to call our half bath a powder room? Yeah, technically it is, but it just feels strange to call it that since it's square in between the media room and shared study, and not like on the main floor on the house. So half bath...

If you remember these are two spaces that I mentioned during my ORC as rounding out the entire "must be nice" level, but I never actually designed them for the ORC...mainly because sourcing HPMKT for these spaces was a challenge I was not up for. But while working on the other spaces, I couldn't help but ideate these two. As a result their designs will be heavily influenced by what you saw me create for the virtual ORC. And after many different iterations... I am def excited to take y'all along for these!

Let's get into some mood boards shall we?

Admittedly, I've changed these so many times that I've lost track, but I won't bore you with the 18,962 versions that came before these. Here's the current (mostly) game plan for the indoor spaces:

And as a reminder, here's what Duke Renders created for the media room & shared study:

Pretty ambitious, I'll admit, but this also gives me the confidence to push my creativity more and more as I turn this home into our home.

I’m thinking this is gonna go down just like the regular ORC would — every week, for 6 weeks, I'll give you an update on the design till I reveal em all.

Now, to be clear, all the spaces won't reveal on the same day — that would be nuts & damn near impossible considering delivery times & delays & things. BUT the reveals will start & oooweeee I can't wait to see em... I mean for you to see em, lol.

Now that you now my secret that I've been low key keeping for the past few weeks, you gotta lemme know which space you wanna see first. Maybe we'll even do a vote?