ORC Week 6: We Made It! (Literally & Figuratively)
Well, we made it to the end of our first One Room Challenge, and I am SO glad we did it. It was exhausting: 2 am has become our new normal bedtime. And it was a tad stressful at times. But, we worked hard as a team, and I am so proud of my husband and the skills he honed along the way. I'm also proud of us for setting a goal and sticking to it. We tend to meander our way through projects around here (I'm looking at you, uncaulked & unpainted crown molding installed 6 months ago in our daughter's room). It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you don't binge watch a show on Netflix.
For those dropping in for the first time, we committed to making over our laundry room, mudcloset, & garage entry, and we turned a pantry into an office nook in the kitchen hallway. You can see our intro here, design plan here, and play catch up here, here, and here. Linda of Calling It Home created this wonderful blog program, a 6 week exercise in design (& a little insanity). It was so fun, and we've already come up with ideas for at least 3 other rooms. I'm not sure we will participate in 3 more ORCs consecutively as budget does play a huge factor in timeliness. But, I am sure we will do this again, and hopefully soon. Ok, enough talking. On with the pictures.
As a reminder, here is a before shot of the laundry room.
It wasn't bad; in fact, most people who visit our home comment on how much they loved the laundry room walls. But, it just wasn't for me. I spend a lot of my day in the kitchen, which has a direct view of the laundry room, and I needed it to be a place that felt "me". So now it looks like this:
We painted the walls, stenciled, and installed beadboard. We also installed new hooks, cabinet pulls, an accordion-style drying rack, and a wall-mount utility tub. This last one was important because the legs of the old sink pushed the dog's bowls out into the doorway - now we can actually close the door. Hooray! We scrapped the idea of shelving over the drying rack & washer/dryer. I may go back and add that in later, but I wanted to get a feel for the use of the space before adding more clutter into this small room.
This space is so tight that we had to forgo the beadboard on the back wall. That tiny difference in depth was enough to cause the new sink to stick out into the doorway. So, we painted the drywall to match the beadboard, and kept the top trim piece to provide continuity. I'm pretty excited that this new drying rack won't smack me in the head each time I use the sink, unlike the previous rack that was way too big for the space.
Up next is our "mudcloset". This space is only 36" wide by 10" deep. So not even a full foot of storage space depth. Argh. But, it is better than the option of walking across the house every time you need shoes or a jacket. I had planned on stenciling the walls of the mudcloset to match those in the laundry room. But hours of hard work ending in imperfections and frustration convinced me that easy-to-install beadboard might be a better choice, and it is definitely more durable against wet jackets and muddy shoes. We also removed the inefficient top shelf, added more shelving/shoe storage at the bottom, and raised all the hooks so that our jackets weren't completely covering those of our girls.
Now on to the office nook. This was a random idea I threw in at the last minute, after we had already decided to tackle the other areas. Luckily, hubby was game to try his hand at building a floating desk, and I am SO proud and impressed by his talent. Time and space constraints prevented us from building the cubby system I had originally designed, but I think this one is a suitable replacement. I love the character the World Market sconce adds to the space, but the best part is my babies watching over me from the chalkboard wall. I adore looking at those precious faces while I'm working.
And finally, a before and after of the whole space.
After painting the slivers of wall next to the garage door white, we decided it was a little boring. A last minute decision (as in this past weekend) was made to continue the beadboard and trim out here, and I'm so glad we did. I think it really is the key to providing continuity between all the spaces.
Thanks for joining us on this journey. It was definitely worth it, and we will absolutely do it again (although I am so thankful that the next one is not any time soon. This mama needs some sleep!). Having time/budget/space limits required us to get a little creative in certain areas, and it also forced me to accept imperfections and constraints that would have frustrated me otherwise. Most importantly, my husband and I enjoyed working as a team, and this project cemented our love for DIY (although I'm a bigger fan of the idea part of DIY. I'm lucky the other half of my team likes the actual DIY). ;)
A big thanks to Linda for creating and hosting the One Room Challenge. My next post (hopefully early next week) will include sources for all the spaces. Until then, go check out the other 175+ guest participants! :)
For those dropping in for the first time, we committed to making over our laundry room, mudcloset, & garage entry, and we turned a pantry into an office nook in the kitchen hallway. You can see our intro here, design plan here, and play catch up here, here, and here. Linda of Calling It Home created this wonderful blog program, a 6 week exercise in design (& a little insanity). It was so fun, and we've already come up with ideas for at least 3 other rooms. I'm not sure we will participate in 3 more ORCs consecutively as budget does play a huge factor in timeliness. But, I am sure we will do this again, and hopefully soon. Ok, enough talking. On with the pictures.
As a reminder, here is a before shot of the laundry room.
It wasn't bad; in fact, most people who visit our home comment on how much they loved the laundry room walls. But, it just wasn't for me. I spend a lot of my day in the kitchen, which has a direct view of the laundry room, and I needed it to be a place that felt "me". So now it looks like this:
We painted the walls, stenciled, and installed beadboard. We also installed new hooks, cabinet pulls, an accordion-style drying rack, and a wall-mount utility tub. This last one was important because the legs of the old sink pushed the dog's bowls out into the doorway - now we can actually close the door. Hooray! We scrapped the idea of shelving over the drying rack & washer/dryer. I may go back and add that in later, but I wanted to get a feel for the use of the space before adding more clutter into this small room.
This space is so tight that we had to forgo the beadboard on the back wall. That tiny difference in depth was enough to cause the new sink to stick out into the doorway. So, we painted the drywall to match the beadboard, and kept the top trim piece to provide continuity. I'm pretty excited that this new drying rack won't smack me in the head each time I use the sink, unlike the previous rack that was way too big for the space.
Up next is our "mudcloset". This space is only 36" wide by 10" deep. So not even a full foot of storage space depth. Argh. But, it is better than the option of walking across the house every time you need shoes or a jacket. I had planned on stenciling the walls of the mudcloset to match those in the laundry room. But hours of hard work ending in imperfections and frustration convinced me that easy-to-install beadboard might be a better choice, and it is definitely more durable against wet jackets and muddy shoes. We also removed the inefficient top shelf, added more shelving/shoe storage at the bottom, and raised all the hooks so that our jackets weren't completely covering those of our girls.
 |
| The almost imperceptible marks on the sliver of wall to the right are my babies' growth charts. We will never be able to paint this section ;) |
Now on to the office nook. This was a random idea I threw in at the last minute, after we had already decided to tackle the other areas. Luckily, hubby was game to try his hand at building a floating desk, and I am SO proud and impressed by his talent. Time and space constraints prevented us from building the cubby system I had originally designed, but I think this one is a suitable replacement. I love the character the World Market sconce adds to the space, but the best part is my babies watching over me from the chalkboard wall. I adore looking at those precious faces while I'm working.
And finally, a before and after of the whole space.
Thanks for joining us on this journey. It was definitely worth it, and we will absolutely do it again (although I am so thankful that the next one is not any time soon. This mama needs some sleep!). Having time/budget/space limits required us to get a little creative in certain areas, and it also forced me to accept imperfections and constraints that would have frustrated me otherwise. Most importantly, my husband and I enjoyed working as a team, and this project cemented our love for DIY (although I'm a bigger fan of the idea part of DIY. I'm lucky the other half of my team likes the actual DIY). ;)
A big thanks to Linda for creating and hosting the One Room Challenge. My next post (hopefully early next week) will include sources for all the spaces. Until then, go check out the other 175+ guest participants! :)