One Room Challenge - Guest Room / Office / Creative Space

Wow. It feels like it has been a million years since I last logged into my Blogger account. 

But in reality, it has only been eight. 

In 2018, I had just left a job I loved and moved out of Toronto—farther north than I had ever lived before. I was living with my parents, enrolled in Interior Decorating as a mature student, working online as an eDesigner, writing for a lifestyle site, obsessed with Instagram, and so excited to finally be stepping into a career in the design world.

The eight years that followed packed in more life than I ever could have predicted: becoming a homeowner, actually working in the design world, becoming an aunt (twice!), meeting my now-husband, becoming a landlord, living through a global pandemic, getting laid off, changing careers, turning a candle-making hobby into a side hustle, moving 7+ times, building a house, changing careers again, falling out of love with social media...and most recently (just last weekend) getting married.

A lot has changed since I last logged in. But I've been missing the blogging world. 

I miss scrolling the grainy photos and having an attention span that could handle reading an entire post. The DIYs that weren't polished or algorithm-friendly. I miss when being creative wasn't about building a brand or a side hustle. It was about making your space feel like you and inspiring other people to do the same. 

I'm looking forward to jumping back in and challenging myself to actually finish a project (anyone else have a hard time doing this lately?!) 

Luckily this season of the One Room Challenge came at the perfect time for me, when I've been itching for a creative challenge. 

Our guest room has always been a hodgepodge dumping ground for the things I like and need, but don't have anywhere else to put them. ie the Cricut I received a few years ago for Christmas. I love it, but have always packed it back up into its box after using it because I never had a dedicated space for it--until now! 

This spring I am going to try and tie together all of the things I need this room to be: Guest Room, Office, Creative Space. 

My fingers are crossed in hopes that my design ideas don't cause our first argument as husband and wife! 

This room is truly a disaster. 

But that just means the after photos will seem that much better, right? 

Step 1 - Moving the two garbage bags of clothes out of the room and into the back of my car (...will drive around with them for a while, but eventually will drop them off at our local VV) 

Find the full list of my fellow ORC participants and follow our progress here! 

Week 6 / 7 - One Room Challenge - Reveal!

{{ catch up on past weeks }}

WEEK 1  //  WEEK 2  //  WEEK 3  //  WEEK 4 //  WEEK 5

past one room challenge reveals

SPRING 2016  //  FALL 2016

Seven weeks have come and gone, marking the very end of the Fall 2017 One Room Challenge! I'm not going to lie, I was concerned that my dad and I weren't going to finish on time, but this past weekend we finished all of our Dapp'ing (I think we counted 6 tubes) and painting and FINALLY got a chance to decorate! 

As always, a huge thank you goes out to Linda from Calling it Home. She's the mastermind behind the One Room Challenge, a massive blogging event that brings together almost 300 designers and bloggers. Twice a year she challenges everyone to redecorate a room in six short weeks, and share their progress/pain points in weekly posts. You can check out the featured designers' final spaces here and my fellow 200-and-something guest participants here.

This year my dad and I transformed a guest room into a second media/TV room. And with the help of Metrie, we were able to incorporate some beautiful mouldings into our space. Last year we had created a board and batten look in my bedroom, and the goal for this season's ORC space was to carry the theme of a cozy, modern-cottage into the new space. This time, we created a slightly more elaborate board and batten design, using Metrie's 6" MDF Stile Rail, and on either side of the 6" rail we placed Metrie's True Craft 1 5/8" Fingerjoint Poplar Applied Moulding. We spaced each rail 8" apart, and it created a really beautifully layered space with tons of dimension. 

On the ceilings we added Metrie's 11 1/2" MDF Shiplap, I chose shiplap in lieu of a tongue and groove paneling simply because the shiplap offered a wider panel and we really wanted something that was as minimal as possible. The shiplap was heavy to hang, and needed some serious drilling, but the results were worth it. 

To make the space feel as large as possible we painted the ceiling, walls and casings all in one colour, Benjamin Moore's Simply White in a flat finish. This was the same colour as my previous ORC room, and helped to tie the two spaces together.   

Okay, time for some pictures! But first, another goal I had set for myself was to shop my own stuff and use what I had. I stuck to that for the most part, aside from the buffet-turned-tv stand that I picked up at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and refinished with some chalk paint I purchased at Michael's. On Tuesday night I also managed to score a very last-minute side table off of Kijiji for $20, and it fits that little nook next to the sofa perfectly. 

Okay, now it's actually time for some Before and After pictures :) 

(Congrats to everyone for finishing their spaces!)

Week 4 - One Room Challenge - Metrie Pick Up!

(need to play catch-up?)
WEEK 1 // WEEK 2 // WEEK 3

past one room challenge reveals

SPRING 2016 // FALL 2016

Welcome to week 4 of the One Room Challenge! A biannual blogging event hosted by the lovely Linda of Calling it Home. She has challenged 20 designers and 200+ guest participants (bloggers, designers, design-lovers, etc) to redecorate one room (or more if they're feeling ambitious) in six short and sweet weeks. AND it has been announced that the deadline has been extended by one week due to the outrageous number of natural disasters our pals in the States have had to endure.

Week 4 was a big week for us. The wonderful people at Metrie are huge supporters of bloggers and the One Room Challenge, and they have partnered with me (and my dad!) on this challenge. We took a little trek down to their office / warehouse in Milton, Ontario to pick up a few key pieces for our project (also snagged that pretty little buffet I posted about last week!)  

I'm not exactly sure when or how I first learned about Metrie, from a kid my mom and dad were always huge DIY-ers and constantly fixing up our 'builder-grade' homes, and transforming them into spaces that felt custom and very personalized. My dad completely changed our housing standards when he started tinkering with wainscoting and learned how to cut a miter joint. Three houses later, and a whooole lot of sawdust, we've all become a bit obsessed with how we can use zush a space up with a little bit of trim. Here's our last house, where my dad worked some magic (you can also see our Billy Bookcases that we turned into built-ins)

Three years ago, when I returned to school for Interior Decorating at Georgian College, Metrie was part of our school's Decorating and Design Expo, with probably the biggest booth at the expo and a series of presentations. Throughout my three years at Georgian, Metrie representatives had visited our classroom with presentations and tons of product knowledge, assisting with project-based questions and recommendations.

Beginning in 1926 as a small family-owned business, Metrie has grown to become the largest supplier and manufacturer of solid wood and composite mouldings in North America (to be honest, I don't even know any other moulding brands...). And you would not believe the amount of product we saw in their Milton warehouse on Monday. It was PACKED. 

In week two I shared a little picture that outlined where I was planning to put my moulding, and now that we have officially started to hang the product, I feel comfortable sharing our plan, since I don't think it will change too much:

The room has an angled ceiling, which makes it look smaller than it actually is. The plan is to cover the ceiling and those awkward angles in 11-1/2" MDF Shiplap. I think this will help to make the ceiling feel taller, because we will be differentiating it from the walls. Does that make sense? Hope so. 

The walls will have 6" MDF Stile/Rails spaced evenly around the room (we're aiming for 6"), and then the True Craft 1 5/8" Fingerjoint Poplar Applied Mouldings will be placed on either side of the rails. The Rails and Applied Mouldings can be found on Metrie's website, under Wainscot Mouldings. I wanted to create a look that complimented my bedroom from last year's challenge since they are fairly close to each other, but I didn't want to make it a carbon copy. The wider panels and applied mouldings will hopefully give it an slightly more unique board and batten look.

We've started laying out the placement of the panels and it is looking better than I had imagined. I'm happy I went with the very linear pieces, as it will keep the space feeling more casual and slightly rustic, which lends nicely to the modern-farmhouse feel I had aimed for last season. 

SO excited for this weekend to hit, and for this room to take shape!

PS. Ditched that DIY light sconce idea, since it was looking like trash. Instead I made an impulse purchase at homedepot.ca on two of these little babies. Much better... 

And while we're on the topic of makeovers, this little lady came home unrecognizable :)
There's something about this new hair that makes her look 10 years older....

One Room Challenge - Week Two - Before Pics & Plans

Hi Friends! Last week I shared my hopes and dreams for the future of this room with a few gorgeous inspiration pictures (you can see that post here--pretty, right?). And explained how my dad and I are teaming up again to add some character to an otherwise 'blah' room. It was a good post.

This week, with the help of Ashley from Metrie, I managed to nail down some trim and moulding selections. Typically my dad and I will make a couple hundred trips down to our local hardware store to peruse the sales, comapre the mouldings and trim available and design as we go, but now that we are working with Metrie, we had to make some tough decisions early on (and by tough, I mean choosing a rail size and then going back and choosing a different one because the original one didn't work with our applied moulding. And then hoping math was right and we ordered enough. It got intense.)

I'm not going to share what we chose just yet, but here's an idea of where it will be going:

As mentioned before, I'm going to try really hard to avoid purchasing anything new for this space. I'm going to shop what I've got as much as possible, but will likely make some impulse purchases somewhere along the way.

Things I am definitely in the market for: New TV unit - hopefully something second-hand that could be refinished, an area rug, and possibly some wall sconces.

I'm also in the market for a new paint colour. I think I'm going to break from my usual go-to, Benjamin Moore, and try out Canadian Tire's Premier Paint collection. They've got some pretty options, one in particular is called Cakepop. I like it mostly for its name, but also because I'm really into nude nailpolish and it kind of reminds me of it. Just hoping it isn't too pink...

 Regardless, Canadian Tire has lots to choose from...

I'm also going to share some pretty ugly before pictures. Normally I would tidy up and style things a little more when taking pictures, but there's no time for that. They aren't horrible, but not great...

 

One Room Challenge - Week One - Inspiration & Planning

Here goes another One Room Challenge!

This session I will be redecorating our upstairs guestroom, and reconfiguring it into our second media / living room. The room gets tons of natural light, and is a very cozy and welcoming space. Since we're entering into the winter months, we don't get many house guests, and for those who will be coming up north for a winter getaway, will have two other alterative rooms for them use (one being this past ORC post).

My first One Room Challenge was my bedroom, and (when clean) is still my all-time favourite bedroom that I've ever had. I love the mix of colours, textures, traditional and modern elements, and especially the Metrie mouldings. My dad has transformed our family's past three homes with mouldings, mitre saws and elbow grease, and it is definitely one of my favourite ways to personalize and add character to a space. We used Metire mouldings in my bedroom, a simple 3" rail, and created an improvised board and batten look that has continued to influence and inspire the remaining rooms in our current house.

In addition to all of the positive feedback I've had on my bedroom, the icing on the cake was when Metrie included it in their list of Top 25 Rooms from the 2016 Every Room Tells a Story contest. It was definitely a proud moment for my dad and I :)

This season of the One Room Challenge we've been fortunate enough to partner with Metrie to create something that will push my dad's carpentry skills a little further and cross off another room reno on our to-do list.

The goal for this space is to transform the room using Metrie moulding, paint (I've been itching to try Canadian Tire's Premier Paint...), a new rug (loving this one from Rugs USA), a new media stand....and that's pretty much it! The goal is to shop my home as much as possible and use furniture and accessories that I've already got on-hand.

What I'm re-using: My Kivik Ikea couch from my first apartment, my steamer trunk coffee table, my TV, existing linen drapes, Hemnes Night Stand from Ikea, table lamps and art work that have been otherwise collecting dust. I may cave and purchase something fun along the way, but otherwise I'm hoping to stick to my plan as much as possible!

I've got a pretty solid idea as to what I'm hoping to do with the Metrie mouldings, as you can kind of gather from my above concept board, and below inspiration pictures. But we're going once again for a cottage-vibe with some softer lines, which will be better explained in the upcoming weeks.

Best of luck to all of my ORC participants, and a huge thank you to Linda of Calling it Home for once again challenging all 200+ guest participants.

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One Room Challenge: Living Room Makeover

My mind is boggled for two reasons: 

1. It has been six months since the last round of ORC madness has ended

2. My parents and I have been in our new place one full year! 

My mind is boggled for another two reasons: 

1. Time flies. 

2. We've only completely finished two rooms since moving in. And BOTH of those rooms were done via the One Room Challenge. So, why not take on another challenge and earn my keep here at hotel Mom and Dad :) 

For those who are new to the One Room Challenge, you'll need to click here and meet Linda, the host/master-mind of the ORC. Over the last six years she has challenged bloggers and designers to choose a room of their choice and decorate it in six short weeks. To date, over 1,250 rooms have been transformed, and each season 20 designers and 200+ bloggers share their progress, motivate one another and inspire with some pretty brilliant before and after pics. 

If you'd like to check back on the last two rooms my dad and I revamped you can see the final reveal of my bedroom (also featured as one of Metrie's Top 25 rooms in their 2016 Every Room Tells a Story designer challenge). 

And our second room was the guest room, she's pretty, but just doesn't photography very well, due to some shady lighting...so you'll have to trust. 

This round, my dad and I will be taking on the living room. This is the spot where our family spends the most amount of time, watching TV, entertaining family/friends, or just hanging out. This space gets quite a bit of foot-traffic as those two garden doors are our main entrance/exit into the backyard. 

We're aiming for a modern-farmhouse-cottage style, lots of natural textures, a neutral colour palette with splashes of blues. 

   

  

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One Room Challenge - Guest Room - Week 1 to 6

Pardon the fuzzy pics and complete lack of follow-through with that previous post where I explained [what I thought was going to be] my second ORC project. The initial plan was to do something new with my parents' bedroom, but we had some trouble pinning down exactly what we wanted. And rather than rush through the project (since mid-challenge we were still stuck on concept) we decided to give the guest room a quick face lift.

The guest room is on the main floor of my parents' home, next to the main washroom visitors and guests use. The door to this room is usually open and in clear view when going upstairs or standing in the kitchen. So, it was important that it look welcoming, cute and slightly nautical/cottage-y to match the vibe of the (soon-to-be-completed) rest of the house.

Scroll to the bottom to check out the before pics and some of the finishing details. Including the teeny tiny budget we managed to work with!

As always, a huge thank you goes out to Linda for organizing the One Room Challenge. Twice a year she brings together over 200 guest participants (like myself) and 20 featured bloggers to redecorate a room in six short weeks. You can view the guest participants by click here and view the featured bloggers here.

 Before + Progress Pics

Above: In the end, my inspiration pillow turned out to be not quite right. But it did influence me to buy some gorgeous drapes. 

Below: We tested out some Benjamin Moore paint swatches and settled on the lovely Wickham Gray. 

I'm happy to report that we spent around $350 finishing this room. We shopped around the house and in storage to furnish the space, only buying a new set of drapes and hardware at homeSense for around $50. The remaining budget went to trim, paint and supplies! Not bad.