One Room Challenge Week 1: The Main Bedroom Plan

It’s the first week of the Fall 2018 One Room Challenge! If you’re not familiar, every spring and fall, 20 featured designers selected by the ORC team participate in a 6-week challenge to decorate one room. The event is hosted by Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home and Better Homes and Gardens. In addition to the featured designers, hundreds of other folks with blogs (and Instagram this season!) join in on the challenge as Guest Participants <— that’s me.

If you’ve hopped over to this post from the ORC website – welcome! I’m Emily, this is my blog, and I’m working on undecorating the 1929 tudor-ish home I share with my husband, Andy, and our corgi, Penelope. This is my second One Room Challenge (last season I made over our guest room). I am glad you’re here!

We loved our guest room makeover so much that we decided it was time for our main bedroom to get the ORC treatment. What I love most about the One Room Challenge is the community and accountability. I have the support of my fellow participants and the pressure to actually finish a project – which is not always my strong suit.

Our bedroom is large (about 19′ x 13′) for the age and size of our house, with two closets and an ensuite bathroom. I’ve really only photographed small corners and vignettes in this room because overall, it feels a bit empty and unfinished. Let’s take a look at what it looked like when we first saw it in the listing photos and where we are now.

[photo from real estate listing]

The walls were painted a purple-mauve-gray and there was a chair rail around the room. The canopy bed and very low hung curtains make the ceiling look so low. I hope you’re counting because there are FIVE rugs in here. And not one is anchored by a dang thing.

[photo from real estate listing]

And while you’re counting, see 2 more rugs in the bathroom. The floors in this room were in bad shape, probably the worst in the whole house which is probably the reason for all the rugs.

Ok, so what does it look like now? After having the floors refinished, we went functionally sparse and a little minimal in the space, using furniture from our much smaller apartment bedroom. As soon as we moved in I removed the chair rail and after a few months, painted the walls my favorite white – Simply White by Benjamin Moore. We swapped out the chandelier for a much simpler fixture by Cedar and Moss and put up our favorite IKEA SKOGSKLOVER shades (more about our roller shares here). And that’s about it.

We placed our bed in front of the windows to make the space feel open with lots of room on both sides. So much room, we could totally (and will totally!) fit a king size bed here PLUS bigger night stands.

My 3 drawer dresser (part of an amazing Kent Coffey Tableau set I scored for less than $200 at a thrift store many moons ago) is placed in front of what used to be a fireplace. The brick chimney has been plastered over and sits directly above the fireplace in our living room. I have always wanted a fireplace in my bedroom – there’s just something so classic and cozy about such a thing – so I decided why not just add one? So I will! And I’ve got plans! More on how we’re going to add a fireplace surround with an electric insert to this room in the coming weeks!

This side of the room (opposite the windows) has Andy’s closet and the door to the ensuite bathroom. I replaced the pulls on the closet doors but did not give them the fresh coat of paint they deserve.

To the left of Andy’s closet is the door to my walk-in closet. And I know, I know, that small floating rug! It used to be our living room rug in our apartment and then was in the record area in our living room until we replaced it. It landed up here because we had nowhere else to put it and Penelope (our corgi) really appreciates rugs.

This is Andy’s dresser which is part of the Kent Coffey Tableau set I mentioned earlier. It’s in great shape but Andy’s wishlist for our room includes a 6 drawer dresser with smooth, soft-close drawers.

What a nice big blank wall. And what’s that blob at the top? That’s where a vent for the old AC system used to. We started ripping out the old unit, vents, and ductwork over a month ago and haven’t finished skim coating and painting all the patched holes. My plan for this wall is to create a tidy gallery grid of Andy’s photographs.

Main Bedroom Design Ideas

[ flush mount fixture | black frames | print | curtains | lamp | nightstands | bed | quilt | basket | rug | pillow ]

My design starting point was that beautiful white oak spindle bed from Rejuvenation. I’ve had my eye on it since I first saw the walnut version in Emily Henderson’s Bedroom. It’s just gorgeous. It’s definitely a splurge item but when I looked around for other options I just couldn’t find anything I loved as much.

I really want to find an 8×10 rug that has a modern traditional look with some blush, blue, and gray tones – the one in the mood board sold out before I could get it! The shag rugs under our bed (what we have now is actually 2 IKEA rugs side-by-side pretending to be 1 single rug, so secret’s out: we have 3 rugs in our bedroom) are super cozy to walk on but very difficult to clean. Even our Dyson has trouble with these shag rugs and now that we have a Roomba, we want a lower pile rug that is Roomba-friendly.

Main Bedroom Layout

To-do List

• Pick and order furniture
• Select the perfect king-size mattress in a box
• Buy king-size bedding and pillows
• Curate gallery grid from Andy’s travel photography
• Art!
• Design and build fireplace surround
• Get curtains (and maybe figure out the elusive euro pleat)
• Find the perfect large and slightly less large rug combo
• Finish patching old vent hole and touch up paint
• Shop for a new dresser for Andy
• Transfer my clothes from the 3 drawer dresser into the built-in dresser in my closet

Does that sound like enough? Wooow. Well, here goes.

Remember to follow along and see what the Featured Designers and Guest Participants are up to!

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