One Room Challenge: Week 1 | The Room, The Befores, The Plan
You guys. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.
The One Room Challenge starts today! 20 featured designers and bloggers (and hundreds more guest bloggers and designers, including me) will have eight weeks to make over a room and document it from beginning to end.
After years of watching from the sidelines, this is my first ever year participating. And we’ll be doing Benji’s room! (Benji is our two year-old.) Now, in my former life working in advertising, I was plagued with tight timelines, but I’m not as used to it when it comes to our home.
For his nursery in our old home, we did it up! But it also took me 4-6 months to plan and install everything.
We’ve lived in our new home for over a year and there’s nothing on his walls and nothing that makes his room here special.
On top of that, he can now get out of his crib, so we need to make some changes anyways. Oh and he hates bedtime, so we’re hoping this makeover is going to help him be excited to be in his room. Though it could completely backfire by making him so excited that he won’t be able to sleep…
But the train has left the station, so let’s just ignore that possibility shall we?
Benji will continue to live and sleep in his room during the challenge, so I’ll have to do my work in sprints to make sure his room stays a calm and comfortable space for him. Fortunately, he’s in preschool full-time so that gives me the days to work on it.
Here’s what the room looks like right now:
Not bad, but uninspiring.
Now let’s take a peek at what those changes are going to be! (I am squealing with excitement on the inside right now.)
I’m calling this style Modern / Organic / Montessori
The modern (or maybe contemporary?) elements of the design are fairly simple and straightforward. that brings us to the modern element of this design.
The modern shape of the side table, the contrasting patterns of the rug (gingham check) and sheets (microstripe; they’re tiny, but there are actually stripes), and the clean lines of the furniture all bring clean lines that contrasts and balances with the organic shapes and textures we’re about to talk about.
It’s so easy for a design to have too many right angles, and I really wanted to avoid that because it ends up feeling harsh or unfinished. Using organic shapes and a variety of textures can offset a bunch of right angles and make a space feel really thoughtful and considered.
Obviously, the incredible Rebel Walls mural brings in a bunch of texture and the trees provide some of those organic shapes.
The sheepskin throw and the mirror, which we’ll hang at his height, bring in even more texture and variety to the shapes in the room.
A lot of the changes we’re making are driven by Benji’s age and his changing needs. That’s where Montessori comes in. (BTW, I was a Montessori kid, and I’m a sucker for it as a parent.)
We’re removing the glider and replacing it with a chair that he can easily climb into himself and that would have some longevity. But since we often still sit together in the glider during story time, I wanted it to be something we could snuggle in. I’m hoping that this chair will fit the bill. Bonus: It looks stylish enough that I think we can easily keep it beyond his toddler years.
We’ll also take down his bookshelves, which he just keeps trying to climb anyways, and replace them with some Montessori floating bookshelves. The idea with these bookshelves is that it’s easy for little ones to see what books they have, especially since they can’t really read the spines at this age. I’ve ordered three of them, and I’m hoping that, along with a basket on the ground for favorites, will be enough to house most of his favorites.
Another Montessori change we’re making is removing his crib and putting his mattress on the floor so it’s easy to climb into. He’s only slept in his toddler bed once since we converted it from the crib, so it clearly isn’t working. After watching him sleep on the floor 2-3 times, I put his mattress on the floor, and he’s been sleeping there. At best, the toddler bed is just taking up space, and at worst it’s tempting him to play on the springs.
But let’s talk about the new bed… It’s a little house! I love a little bit of whimsy and this bed has it, especially when it’s paired with the mural. There’s a ton of these house shaped bed frames out there, and we picked one that keep the mattress on the floor so it’s easy for him to get in and out and so he keeps sleeping in his bed instead of on the actual floor.
I considered changing out his dresser for a little Montessori clothes rack, but honestly, he couldn’t care less about clothes and picking them out, so I figured we’d keep his current dresser for now. Also, I like that the solid boxiness of the dresser contrasts with the narrow wood pieces of his bed frame.
A note on his dresser: If you consider purchasing this dresser, you should know that it scuffs easily. We used the buckle on Benji’s changing pad for a few weeks when he was little until we realized that when the buckle rubbed against the dresser it was scratching the paint off. I’m hoping to fix those paint scratches during this challenge.
There’s more to this room design than what you see here, so check back here on Thursdays for more developments and surprises until the big reveal on November 18.
