One Room Challenge Week 5: Change in Plans!

Why did I volunteer myself to participate in the One Room Challenge when I have a full-time job plus a number of on-going interior design projects (in addition to my DWL participation), my family of six to manage, along with working towards growing my independent Rodan + Fields skincare consultant side business? I guess I am just a perennial optimist who needs to have multiple creative projects going on at once to motivate me to complete at least ONE of them!

Well as is my typical ORC style (fall 2015, spring 2016), I am changing up my plans on week 5! Even though I love my design plan for my laundry room revamp, I have had another project on my mind for quite some time. So my laundry room will have to stay unorganized for a bit longer. We will survive! I even bought everyone extra socks just to make sure (least favorite task is looking for clean socks each morning!!!)

Curious what my designer-switcheroo plans involve? About a year ago, I was contemplating renting a salon suite to host product training events for my Rodan + Fields skincare business. While I would love to host these types of events in my own home, we just are not set up for entertaining anymore. I joke that I live in a frat house, but honestly it’s not very girly over here anymore with a bunch of teenage boys in the house (and their friends!) Not their fault, of course, but a room of my own in a controlled environment just sounds so perfect to me! And I could brand it and decorate it as I wish. It would be similar to investing in a show house space, which has always been one of my favorite projects! So that is what I am about to do – create my own show-and-tell studio space. And the beauty is that the location for this room of my own is just 5 minutes from home and 5 minutes down the street from my day job.

It is at Salons by JC in Stoneham, MA. They rent single or double sized rooms to independent beauty care professionals who then manage their own clients by appointment only. The lobby and utilities are handled by the property managers. And they also host monthly gatherings for the tenants, which of course I am looking forward to as well! It is a great business model and I feel it is very much aligned with the business model of representing the Rodan + Fields brand. Working independently, but never alone. 

It may be small, but it will be my very own!

Above is what my studio space looks like now (I just picked up the keys this weekend – eek!) By next Thursday it should have all of the items below in place and then I will be ready for business (if you are local, please schedule a visit!) I have to say, the time feels right to commit to a room of my own in a collaborative environment that enables small business owners to succeed without the typical overhead of owning and managing a full time business location. While having a stand-alone location to meet with my skincare clients is not required to do well with Rodan + Fields, I just feel that for me it is a worthwhile investment in my business, and that it will help me to help others who want to learn more about the brand without having to meet in a public location or at someone’s home (my boys are already saying thank you!)

It’s funny how as my family has grown (and our expenses), I have had to come up with creative ways to make all the financial pieces of the puzzle fit while still being available to take care of everyone’s needs. When the boys were small, it was all about being at home. Decorating our interior spaces was so important back then! But now that half of them are driving and have jobs, and the other half manage most of their free time on their own, I feel I have more freedom to expand my own creative pursuits to the outside world. Guess we are all growing up over here, and you know what? It feels kinda good! Although I did have a FULL day of crying when my oldest left home to move into his first apartment recently, but that is a story for another day!

Please come back next week for my Salon Suite Makeover reveal! I do love a design challenge, and as long as I can get my husband to provide some install assistance, I think I will just make the deadline!

Have you been following or participating in the One Room Challenge this fall? Would love to hear how it is going for you. Visit me on Instagram and leave a comment so that I can check out your progress!

Thanks again to Linda of Calling it Home for the motivation to start something new. Just being encouraged to set goals is sometimes all that’s needed to move forward! And even if the design path veers in a different direction along the way, as it often does, the effort to change our environments and our lives is what matters, right?

See what changes everyone else has been working on at the following links:

Week 5 Sponsored Designers

Week 5 Guest Participants

MEDIA SPONSOR:

Making room for creativity

Last photo taken of what used to be the boys room: beds weren’t made and a few toys were left on the floor, but at least the room was clean.

Over the holiday break, I spent a lot of time cleaning, getting organized, and clearing clutter. During the gift-giving season there is often more coming in than going out. Where does one put it all? This is always one of our biggest challenges as a large family. Especially considering I have a saving (hoarding?) problem, combined with a house that is always under construction, which constantly forces us to shift items from room-to-room to make way for work to get done.

We had gotten to the point that behind every closed door there was a box of stuff that I was supposed to “get to later.” Well it was time for “later” to be “now” so I put on comfortable clothes, rolled up my sleeves, and sent the boys outside to play in the snow for a few days (thank you, Mother Nature : )

Meanwhile, I methodically sorted through closets, boxes, drawers, under beds – looking for items that were no longer played with or needed, could be donated to charity, or recycled. Special items worth saving were put away for safe keeping. My goal for January is to redistribute the items we don’t need. I have a small problem with throwing things away ; )

All that sorting was hard work, but well worth the effort. The end result? First, a sense of relief mixed with a tiny bit of pride. Clearing clutter is a great way to achieve home-makeover satisfaction without actually spending any money! Second, and more important, by reducing the amount of objects in each space it was that much easier to shift some rooms around again (it is just what we do around here!)

Now that we finally moved the master bedroom up to the third floor, two of the boys are moving into our former room. I was going to turn their small vacant bedroom into a boys game room, but, you know what? Virginia Wolf must have been whispering in my ear, because I started to think about just how much work I do from home (whether I am sourcing items for decorating clients, creating graphic design, writing about design, doing paperwork, etc.) and I figured it was time for me to step up and claim some real estate for myself! Bottom line ...

I now have a *room of my own!*

While it is not completely emptied of its previous owners possessions, I have moved in and made this sunny, backyard facing room my new office! Meanwhile, all four of the boys are in one bedroom (we were able to fit the bunk bed between a set of two twin beds) while we have some floor sanding done in what will be the new bedroom for two of them. Fortunately, they are all getting along pretty well, as they have come to look at this time together as an extended sleepover.



Unfortunately, I brought a lot of filled boxes with me into what was a cleaned out space, so I will have to start the sorting and de-cluttering once again. Even so, I am very excited to finally have a room that I can decorate as girly as I want in this home I affectionately call “Boys R Us.”

The view outside my window.

Click here to read why Honeysuckle is
the chosen color of the year for 2011.

What will the new room look like? Will it include the Pantone color of the year, Honeysuckle? Hot pink has always been a decorating favorite of mine (take a look at my last three design show spaces: The Summer Nursery, A Decorators Before & After, Tea for Fairy & Me). Pink on the walls would certainly communicate “no boys allowed,” although, I have to admit, I truly enjoy the daily visits from the guys, who come in to share stories of their day and check in to see what creative project Mom is working on.

Sometimes they still leave some toys hanging around, but I am okay with that : )