One Room Challenge // Week 1

I have been keeping something from ya’ll all year and I’m finally ready to share.

I have been dating the same guy for about a year now! If you’ve been reading the blog for a long time then you know that I have been single for many years. When I met “T” he had just moved into the new home that he purchased and it was already beautifully decorated on the first floor (to my surprise!). I actually apologize to him because I assumed that he would have the “typical bachelor set up” of a large leather sectional with no pillows and a huge flatscreen TV with nothing else. What I saw when I first visited his home was far from it, and honestly, that was the start of many pleasant surprises that aided in my falling for him!

He is actually pretty handy and loves doing hands-on projects on the weekend, so I thought it would be perfect to blog about the updates to the first floor powder room for the One Room Challenge™️. Our goal is to have this powder room completed by the time his family comes to visit for Thanksgiving, so the timeline worked out perfect!

He’s a bit of a minimalist, and everything on the first floor of his home is black, white and gray. He’s not really an active social media user and hates being in front of the camera so you will not see him much during this series but I wanted to let you know that that’s where this project is going on. 😉

Before

Right now, the powder room is as builder basic as it can get. The only thing that will stay the same is the flooring and the toilet! We’re adding trim molding, paint, wallpaper, a new light fixture and even a custom window treatment. I haven’t done the One Room Challenge in a couple of years because I’ve been so focused on building my business and completing client work, so I’m excited to jump into a DIY project again! You may remember the last time I completed this makeover in my studio. If you missed it, you can go back and catch up here!

The Plan

This my sketch of what we would like the powder room to look like when we’re done. This is just a rough idea of the goal, as I did this sketch before we made final selections for the new vanity, mirror, sconce and roman shade. We hadn’t even selected paint colors when I sketched this, but I knew it would be a stretch to convince him to do a color other than white black & grey! That’s ok with me though, because it’s a fun challenge to make a monochromatic room look fun.

I’m so grateful that T is handy and that we recruited help to start the trim work. He is finishing the trim work and painting himself, so that frees me up to concentrate on my design clients.

Here are a few of the goals we have for this space:

Add architectural interest by applying molding and paint on the walls
Increase closed storage by replacing the pedestal sink with a cabinet vanity.
Surprise and delight guests with some fun pattern and a cool mirror/light fixture!

Which fabric do you think we selected for the roman shade? Next week I’ll let you know!