One Room Challenge: Getting Ready

Vintage Dress Form via Chairish

Wait! I’m not dressed yet!!! As is my tradition, I’m not quite ready to share the final reveal of my Calling it Home One Room Challenge design project. But I plan to post images from my new master closet here as soon as the dust settles (literally and figuratively!) Want to see it when it’s done? Subscribe to this blog and you’ll get the update delivered to your inbox. Thanks to all who have been following along!

Please be sure to check out the Week 6 reveals from the sponsored designers here and the participating guest bloggers here. Congratulations to everyone who made their deadlines! It takes a LOT of planning, dedication, resources and hard work to make these projects happen. I admire each of you and love seeing your final results!

Media Sponsor

One Room Challenge: Reflections

I have to laugh at this photo, which is the first “selfie” I ever took! I didn’t know at the time that it was possible to turn the camera view around on my iPhone. Instead I took it facing the mirror! I was heading out – in apparently my favorite black blazer (see my post from week 3) – to celebrate a night on the town in New York with my Brizo Blogger 19 friends. This classic black blazer (by Tahari) along with my favorite faux zebra fur purse will be hanging in my new master closet very soon. If not for the motivation that comes with a 6 week deadline courtesy the One Room Challenges set forth by Linda of Calling it Home, I’m not sure I would ever get our renovation projects done!

One of the most important elements for this third floor under the eaves master closet will be the addition of light. I am thinking that LED lighting will be our best bet, either in the hanging rods themselves or intentionally placed throughout. A large floor mirror with side lights or an LED light-up over-the-door mirror will also help to make this space feel larger than it is. And if space allows, I will also add a small mirrored bureau for accessory storage. Below are the options that I’m considering to address these lighting and reflection needs.

Door Solutions™ LED Light-Up Over-The-Door Marquee Mirror from Bed Bath + Beyond

Marquee Light Mirror Pottery Barn Teen

Floating Wood Floor Mirror from West Elm

Closet Rated LED Lighting System by Qtran

liniLED Vesti Closet Rod

Discoveries Mirrored Chest with Overlay from Bassett

You have no idea how excited I will be to have this walk in master closet completed! Come back next week to see my final reveal! I hope it will look as good as I imagine : )

Catch up with the other designers who are busy getting their own projects done, one week at a time ...

Sponsored Designers, week 5

Guest Participants, week 5

One Room Challenge media partner

One Room Challenge: Organizational Joy

New England Finery Magazine, issue 1, photo credit: Yvonne Blacker

I imagine that getting up each morning to be greeted by a well organized closet must be pure bliss! Having one go-to location to find everything needed to start the day is what I am most looking forward to once my Calling it Home One Room Challenge Master Closet project is complete. We are getting close, so this week I am presenting my chosen selections for my closet design plan. All wish list items below are from The Container Store. 

Luxury Closet Starter Kit

I love love love these acrylic hangers! And the linen storage boxes are just the right neutral colored solution for my space.

12 Pair Shoe Organizer

I’m not 100% sure on the overall size of this shoe storage option (do I really need to store my shoes in two different directions to fit them in the designated area?) I plan to visit my local Container Store and check it out in person to see if it works (yes, will probably take my shoes off and try it out in the aisles!)

Petite Basic Acrylic Hangers

Joy Mangano Platinum Huggable Hangers

Did you see the movie “Joy” starring Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano? It was a great story about the woman who invented these extra thin, non-slip velvet covered hangers (along with her first and less glamorous invention, The Miracle Mop). I love entrepreneur stories and I know that I will love seeing the word JOY every time I select my outfit of the day. Scenes from this movie were actually filmed in my hometown, North Reading, Massachusetts. The photo collage above includes a selfie of my friend and I, taken “on location” after the filming was complete.

I like that Joy’s hangers can be doubled up with an add-on hook. As we say in Boston, that’s wicked smart : )

11-Peg Acrylic Necklace Wall Rack

More acrylic storage? Yes, please!

Round Water Hyacinth Hamper

And this naturally woven, water hyacinth laundry basket is simply beautiful. I love the size, shape and texture. Perfection!

Now to finish up in order to install my design choices! To see how everyone else is doing with their ORC spaces, click the links below. We are nearing the finish line, so good luck to all!

Sponsored Designers, Week 4

Guest Participants, Week 4

Media partner:

One Room Challenge: Hot Mess Stage

One week into the Calling it Home One Room Challenge and this is where my master closet project is at: the hot mess stage. Not much pretty to show, but this behind-the-walls-view means that progress is being made.

The new closet is roughly 5 feet wide at one end and then narrows to 4 feet wide at the other end with jogs created by the adjacent master bath. The overall length of the closet will be just over 14 feet long – which is great – but the slanted hip roof causes the height of the wall on the shortest side to be less than 4 feet tall (so this wall is only good for tops, skirts, and pants folded on hangers) while the opposite wall is about 8 feet high. The far end of the closet will be for long dresses (fortunately I don’t have a lot of these in my wardrobe!)

70s fashion via fashion-era.com

I vaguely remember my mom having a very similar shaped closet in our home growing up. It was large enough to get lost in as a kid. I used to love going in there and checking out all of her outfits (many that she made with her Singer sewing machine). It was the 70s and she did have a lot of long dresses and pant suits in her closet, so I guess it might have been a bit taller on the back wall than mine will be. My favorite part of visiting her closet was peeking inside a huge black steamer trunk that she had in there (seriously, how big was this closet??) Inside the trunk was where she stored the patterns and fabrics that she used to sew outfits for herself, for me and my two sisters, and then later to make doll clothes and quilts.

Dress made by mom for my vintage doll
displayed at a local design show.

I do happen to have a couple of large black steamer trunks handy that I found on the side of the road a couple of years ago. If there is room, I will be adding one to my closet, too : )

Come back next week and hopefully we will have walls up!

How are the other One Room Challenge participants doing on their week two? Check out the guest participants here and the sponsored designers here.

media partner: House Beautiful

One Room Challenge: Week 6 Salon Suite!

I am so excited to share this sneak peek of my Salon Suite Makeover! Since I technically started this One Room Challenge over (so sorry, new laundry room plans!) during Week 5, I am a bit behind everyone else. I did, however, make progress over the past week including having the existing hair dressers sink/cabinet unit removed, then painting the peachy/biege walls a crisp and perfect White Gallery from Sherwin Williams HGTV Home collection available at Lowe’s.

My husband, who ripped out the sink unit, also installed a wall mount porcelain sink along with a gorgeous polished chrome lav faucet from the Brizo RSVP collection. Above the sink we hung a sleek coordinating mirror that features a sexy curved silhouette. My favorite part of the RSVP collection is the Swarovski crystal finial on the faucet. It’s just the right touch of glam for this new salon suite space where I will be working my Rodan + Fields skincare consultation business.

Casual elegance: Inspiration board for the RSVP collection by Brizo

photo courtesy Brizo.com

While the room is not 100% complete yet, I did host my first one-on-one consultant training over the weekend. It was so nice to have a professional space designated for this purpose! We were able to go over a lot of my guest consultant’s questions on how to place orders, and how to run her business independently. For me, investing in my financial future will always take precedence over completing the laundry, so I am really happy to have switched gears this time around! This week I will be adding the finishing touches to this space, so please return to see the final reveal. 

How did everyone else make out with their Calling It Home One Room Challenge spaces? Be sure to check out the Week 6 final reveal links below. It really is motivating to work alongside so many others who have committed to achieving their design goals over the course of the challenge. And even if goals were not met exactly as planned, the point is to face a project head on and to take action (progress not perfection, right?) Six weeks goes by so very quickly, and a burst of decorating energy can go a long way. What room would you dare to tackle in six weeks?

Sponsored Designers

Guest Participants


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Salon Space Final Reveal!

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:

ORC: Design Selections / Week 3

Inspirational Prints Wall Art

When you are in the laundry room as much as we are in our household of six, there needs to be something to do while folding all of that laundry! As part of my Design with Lowe’s focused laundry room makeover for the Calling it Home One Room Challenge, I discovered the inspirational quotes artwork above in their home furnishings section. My boys do a lot of their own laundry, so I love the idea of having these words of wisdom front and center for them to read each day while tending to the ritual of clothing care. 

Boston Loft Furnishings Burnt Oak Kitchen Island

A beautiful table upon which to fold clothes is also in order. This rustic open shelved version on casters is perfect! I found it located in the kitchen island section of the Lowe’s website, but I imagine it will make a great surface for laundry sorting. We will probably even store clean towels on the bottom two shelves, and items that need to hang dry could go on the towel bars located on each end. I really love this piece and know it will be gorgeous in our modern farmhouse style home.

allen + roth Faux Wood Plantation Shutter

We have three standard size windows in our laundry room. Two of them look out onto the backyard, so they may not even need to be covered. The one that requires more privacy will likely get a set of shutters. I like that I can still get plenty of sunlight and sufficient ventilation when the shutter vanes are open. This is very important in a busy laundry room!

Surya Hand Knotted Oriental Rug 

There’s already a wool carpet in our current laundry room (somewhat similar in color to the one above), but if I decide to replace it, this one would be stunning! It’s a high quality hand-knotted Oriental made with New Zealand wool. So pretty!

Have your design questions answered via Design with Lowe’s

I am getting so excited to transform this space for the #OneRoomChallenge! I know I still have a lot to do, but I feel confident in moving forward now that I have made the majority of my design decisions. That’s half the battle, right?

Did you know that the Design with Lowe’s program offers FREE advice via their Ask a Designer feature? They also have an option to schedule a Q+A with a designer via their Video Session option where you can show a designer your space during a 30 minute online consult (for a small fee). What a great way to have access to professional design advice right in your home with a designer who could even be across the country! I’m looking forward to participating in both of these design service options along with the complete Room Design process. I am working on design plans for a Lowe’s customer now, and hopefully will have another design project reveal to show you after this personal challenge is over.

How is everyone else doing with their One Room Challenges now that we are at the half way point? Check out their progress here (sponsored designers) and here (guest participants). How fun is it to follow along and find inspiration in how others face their own design challenges at home?

MEDIA SPONSOR: