The One Room Challenge-Week 1

If you've never heard of the One Room Challenge sponsored by Calling it Home, I'm about to give you a lot of awesome blog reading material.  

20 designers and bloggers participate in making over a space in their home (or a clients) in 6 weeks.  They do dramatic makeovers-construction, molding, bold changes. It's inspiring.  You can check out the 20 featured participants here.  I'm adding myself to the guest participants because I have always wanted to participate, but I'm no designer. 

What we'll be tackling is our family room and main floor bathroom.  Technically, this room is actually supposed to be the master bedroom with a walk in closet and ensuite bathroom.  We always intended it to be a guest suite since we've been hoping for people to come visit (come visit!).  But, when we moved in, this was the only room our gigantic sectional would fit in.  

See, didn't fit in the front room:

What you can't see is that this blocks the access to the stairs, the entrance to the
dining room, and that I'm standing in the only other door of the room (awkward!)

We've done some small makeovers in our home so far.  We made over a powder bath and have made small changes here and there.  Nothing like what we wanted to accomplish in the first year of living here.  But, I'm done just living here. It's time to get to work and take action. We have family coming for Thanksgiving! That sounds like the perfect motivator to put some serious labor into getting this space all fixed up. 

So, let's take a look at how these rooms looked on move in day, almost a year ago!

From the "living room" into the bathroom-the closet on the left.
Somehow this is the only picture I have of this room "before."

Into the bathroom-the left hand side with the shower and built in shelves.  This room is
part of an addition and doesn't have heat except for this little baseboard unit, so it stays. 

The bathroom right hand side.  The toilet is tall and the vanity isn't my favorite,
but they work and they're clean, so they stay. 

Closet-this is still what it looks like, except 100% full of stuff and pillows and mirrors and games.

Even though we've lived here for a year, these are the photos I'm showing you.  Mostly because right now we've already started :)  I've been ripping down wallpaper border for months on and off, we've taken down all the old fixtures in the bathroom, Clint's been removing baseboards and running cable, and I've been testing paint colors and pinning away.  

Come back next week for me to show you the plans.  It involves some work.   But for now, all I know is this:

I hope it's light, bright, whimsical, classic, and a lovely place to spend time (both spaces, because you know...Chron's).

with love, Amy