One Room Challenge - Week 1

I am so excited to be participating in the One Room Challenge (ORC). The ORC is a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas. There are 20 featured designers and many other guest participants like myself. This year it is 8 weeks and the challenge is always a positive, encouraging atmosphere to help motivate finishing one room or space.

Soooooo after 2 years of living in our house, our first house in Canada after 14 years as expats, I am finally going to execute the vision I've had for the boys room since days after getting our keys. Took me a few days as I was busy demoing cabinets out of the kitchen and painting our main bedroom the most delightful dark teal the first 3 days! The boys room works hard, really hard! It sleeps and plays 3 boys, 9 years old and 5 year old twins. The three of them have enough energy and creativity to power a small country!! There are 3 beds in here that need to remain where they are, there simply isn't another layout than will allow them a concentrated play area. Other than the beds the carpet is the only thing staying.

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Needs;

Designated 'space' for each kiddo - One of the twins is the most delightful magpie and he is the only one with a bedside table which is too small so that definitely has to be rectified.

Light! This room needs more light! I would love to change the overhead fixture but that might not be do-able - electrical work in this house is a pandora's box! I will definitely be giving each of the boys a reading light over their headboards.

Colour & pattern - oooh the plans I have for this! I will be using a favourite Ikea fabric that I've had for years and years. There will be upholstered headboards and bases and lots of pillows for fort building. That means they'll stop stealing the living room pillows and the Euro pillows from our beds right? Right!? A girl can dream!!!

NOT WHITE WALLS - I have a plan, it is either going to be fantastic and well it's just going to be fabulous because it has to be!! Haha, I'd love to use wallpaper but that just isn't in the budget for a room with 3 wildly energetic boys but I've got an idea up my sleeve that I've been excited to try for 22 months now!

A window covering that is more proportional and interesting but still light blocking. This past summer I was gifted the most wonderful handprinted fabric from India from a dear friend of my mother's. Along with a few other pieces gifted from this same amazing woman that will be incorporated in the room I am very excited to be crafting a window treatment from this fabric.

A place to hang their own creations, inspirations & for some reason lots and lots of frog tape! I have a sneaky & fun plan to incorporate bulletin boards for each boy, I'm praying it will work because if it does it is going to be so good! Maybe then I'll get my painting tape back??

A new home for the books - I have moved some of the books to the playroom already as I found that they weren't being read as much in their room and it was just so, so messy! That stack on top is the 'book hospital'. So many books need me and some packing tape, a glass of something good and a few hours.......I already have a new home for the bookcase so that will be coming out this week!

Something else and I don't know what. Taking out the bookcase will leave room for something, a chair, a beanbag, another stack of pillows??? I don't know what yet but I know that it will make sense as things come together. Their clothes are all stored in the closet, once they are in kindergarten and up all the boys have dress codes and we don't keep a ton of clothes anyway. We are a family of 7 so less clothes in my mind means less laundry. Not sure that math makes sense but it does mean that there are less clothes to carpet the floor!

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The Plan

I'm super excited to get this started! I've been collecting and planning but now is the time to put it all into action. This crew deserved a space that's cozy and creative and I can't wait to deliver it.

I'll be posting here every week and in the between you can catch me over on my IG account :-)!