One Room Challenge Fall 2015
Twice a year, I look forward to reading about those participating in Linda’s (Calling it Home) One Room Challenge (ORC), a blogger challenge to complete one room in your home in 6 short weeks. This year, I have convinced my husband that
we need to participate! It’s not really
the best time for us to dive into a fast-paced, money-draining project, but is
there ever really such a thing as a perfect time?
Our home is a cozy (aka smallish) '70s ranch. We are lucky to be on a full basement, but the main level specifically must be truly functional since it is where we spend most of our time, and there's just no space to waste. Besides, I truly believe in actually living in all of a home's rooms - no "look, but don't touch" spaces for this girl. This does mean we have to get creative sometimes, and our makeover space fits the bill on needing lots of work & out-of-the-box thinking.
For our first ORC, we will be revamping the hallway/laundry/mudroom/pantry space just inside of our garage door. It’s an awkward layout. Entering from the
garage, you are in a narrow hallway that is part of the kitchen. There are 5 doorways in this tiny space. The laundry room, pantries, “mudcloset”, and
garage door are visible from all parts of the kitchen. The dining room, front
door, & foyer are all visible from the garage door. And the garage door & one of the pantries
are visible from the front door. This
requires a cohesive look that will work with all adjacent spaces, so that your
line of sight is not jarred by incongruent design. It also requires
organization & tidiness, habits on which our entire family are still
perfecting. ;)
Our kitchen is long, narrow, & had 3 pantries when we
moved in, none of which were that close to each other. I realize this may sound wonderful to those
who have no pantry space (it did to me too, before we actually started living
in the space). But it quickly became apparent that we needed a place to hang
our coats & kick off our shoes, not 3 different places to store our
cereal. So, my sweet hubby did a quick
weekend revamp last year, & turned the pantry directly across from the garage door (pantry #2) into a “mudcloset’. Since it is not even
12” deep, I think calling it a mudroom would be a tad overzealous. This area will get a small update.
Our laundry room is at the end of our long kitchen, opposite
the breakfast nook. I am, of course,
constantly in there doing laundry, and the dog’s bowls are in there as well, so
the door is always open. I personally do
not love looking at my piles of dirty laundry while I’m eating, so making this
space more functional, and definitely more appealing to look at, is at the top
of my list. An added bonus is that if I can close the door, the baby will no longer play in the dog's food bowls.
It is a very narrow room, with barely enough space to squeeze in a laundry basket. It's also a catchall for anything that doesn't have a home, so the space gets even narrower with all the junk piled up. Please pretend you aren't appalled by our mess. This is it on a good day. :)
Finally, the space
that I’m most excited about redoing is the 3rd pantry (for those of
you keeping count, pantry #1, a tall set of cabinets close to the kitchen sink, is
staying a pantry). #3 is the biggest
of the pantries, and while we use it everyday for storage, it will be turned
into something we will use even more – an office nook. There is no spot on the main level of our
home for an office. My desk has moved
from the basement (sharing a space in the playroom or my husband’s office
wasn’t practical or feasible) to the family room to the dining room. We had high hopes for a dining
room/library/office combo, but the office part just never felt right. I didn’t love that all of my work stuff,
bills, etc. would be piled high on my desk while we were trying to entertain,
or that my computer screen was the first thing you saw when coming in the front
door as the dining room is directly off the foyer. I will have to keep this small space organized
as it is still partially visible from the front door/dining room, but it’s not
as in your face as when it was in the dining room. And, I have to find a new home for all of the junk we currently have crammed into the pantry. Time to edit!
Overall, I am ecstatic to join in on this fun process –
let’s hope we still think it’s fun in 6 weeks!
Check back every Thursday for updates; next week I'll share my design plan and the start of the deconstruction process. And if you want to be a linking participant like me, check out Linda's blog for details!