One Room Challenge Week 1: Introduction
Coming up on the one year anniversary since we purchased this house, this past summer we took our first project break — 8 weeks of just living in the house we worked so hard to buy. In case you missed em, here are all the before and afters we've done in the past year...
living room | laundry room | bonus bedroom | media room | kitchen
When I got the call to be part of this year's One Room Challenge — one year after being a featured designer for the first ever virtual ORC — I knew it was exactly the kick in the pants I would need to (1) start blogging again, because it has definitely also been 8 weeks since the last time I posted, and (2) to finally finish work on one room in the house that we've been tip toeing around since the day we moved in — the flex lounge.
What Is The One Room Challenge
In case you're new to me or just to the ORC, simply put, it's a biannual design blogger event where across 6-8 weeks we tackle a design project and document the entire process till reveal day. Guest participants link up via their blogs and/or instagrams to share the project as it progress, while 20 featured designers are connected with official sponsors of the event to pull off amazing projects.
I first participated in the ORC as a guest Spring 2018 when I decided to show a little love to our apartment balcony. Since then I have participated 3 more times (would've been 4 but one didn't pan out as planned).
Previous One Room Challenge Projects
About The Flex Lounge
This space was originally intended to be the media room, with the "study" being next door. After we opened up the laundry room wall, my husband realized it would be smarter to flip the two spaces. P.S. At this point, we'd already removed the popcorn ceiling & painted the ceiling black.
After repainting the room continued to evolved...
What was originally intended to be our study — a place for me to work from home, for my husband to study, and for the mini to home school - became more of a flex space where I could also workout and triage projects. It's positioned between our garage, laundry room, half bath, media room, and the stairs that lead upstairs. Because it has 5 points of egress, it's essentially just a super huge hallway, and treating it like single function room was futile. And with that, calling it a "flex space" seemed like I was trivializing it... so from study to flex space to flex lounge: a multi purpose destination within our home.
It's positioning is exactly why I wanted to tackled this space right after the media room — fun fact: the two spaces were the the real life inspiration for my virtual one room challenge. It's positioning is, however, why we would start but never finish — it would literally be in the middle of everything else we're doing & becoming a catchall space for everything coming and going. Once the projects slowed down, I could tackle the spaces directly impacted by em... so here we are now.
Work In Progress
Like I said, the room hasn't been completely neglected. After doing the flip with the media room, my husband repainted and we moved the ceiling fan back down here - we tried it out in the kitchen but that was very short lived. From there, I set it up to at least be functional - desk, chair, shelves, etc. with the different zones clearly defined, It was not have looked pretty, but it's been very very clear on how it's supposed to function.
Taking an intentional break from large projects has giving us the clarity to see exactly how we want to use this space.
For months we've actually used it — well when it's not a hot mess express — and this direction feels right for this space.
What To Expect
Next week we'll get into the meat & potatoes of my design plan but one thing I knew from the start is that this would not be the same kind of razzle dazzle transformation as all the other spaces I've done so far. I could've totes gone in the direction of the virtual design I did l last year but as we sat down to plan out the space, we realized that this aint that kind of space. Way too much happens in this space... which isn't to say a multi functional space can't also have super dope design elements, so much as that's just not the type of time we're on. I want it to look good and feel good when we're in this space, but more than anything, I want it to just look like it makes sense... kind of like when we worked on the garage (still in progress by the way) but with a touch more razzle & a pinch of dazzle.
Over the next 8 weeks, I'll be talking y'all along for the transformation — the design plans, the mood boards, the shopping, the pivots, and everything in between. Every week there will be a new blog post, plus you'll be able to catch up on the previous weeks in case you missed anything... here and over on my Instagram.
And lemme not forget the other 19 featured designers!
Yes, every Wednesday for 8 weeks all 20 of us will be taking you on a a wild design ride…
Albie Knows | At Home with Savvy | Beth Diana Smith | Eclectic Twist | Erika Ward Interiors | From House to Home| G. Lebron Interiors | Goldalamode | Home Made by Carmona| Impeccable Nest | Jeweled Interiors| Joyful Designs Studio | Joy Street Design | Our Fifth House| Peony & Honey | Pinch Plate Party | Rebecca Propes | Reem’s Design | Saudah Saleem Interiors | Whitney J Decor