One Room Challenge (Spring 2020): Week 2, The Plan

Welcome back and thank you for joining me for Week 2 of the One Room Challenge! Last week (Week 1) was the introduction of the challenge where I walked you through what my home used to look like including a tour on NBC’s Open House NYC, my design concept, and my list of functional needs and preliminary planning (basically the beginning of the design process). This week I’m walking you through (1) the vibe of the space, one of my fav parts of the process (2) my must-haves and my wants, (3) what I want to enhance, and (4) my color palette and some of my preliminary finishes.

VIBE: My design concept (pictured) lists my goals for the space and my design direction with 4 images showing it visually. It represents the vibe that I’m going for which is full of color, full of pattern, full of texture, and full of art. What’s shown?

• The area rug is from Nourison which was love at first sight shockingly since I usually stray away from pink, but the aura of a vintage Persian rug with these saturated colors won me over.

• Then its the Fashion Faces Pout Wall Art from the Phillips Collection which is hands-down one of my fav wall decor pieces of all time, I’ve used it previously for Design On A Dime in a much smaller version as a 9-piece installation… and HAD to use the bigger version (or versions *wink wink*) for myself.

• If you follow me on Instagram you know that I’m a big fan of the ceramic vessels and art from Malene B, and I was dying to add one of her art pieces to a huge gallery wall that will be on my first floor. I chose Makeda because it feels so powerful to me.

• Last but not least, for my Powder Room I wanted the tile to scream my aesthetic, very bold and very funky. So I’m using The Tile Shop‘s Cell Ceramic Tile that I knew was the perfect fit as soon as I saw it.

Design Concept Board: Images ( L to R) – Nourison Area Rug, Phillips Collection Fashion Face, Malene B’s Makeda, The Tile Shop’s Cell Ceramic Tile

MUST-HAVES: Here’s the Must-Haves (Plan of Attack) from last week with my wants added in italics.

• Kitchen: Easy access storage for wine glasses, plates, and bowls. Counter stools that are standard seat height or a bit taller for comfort when I work from my kitchen counter. I don’t want anything on the countertop except for select decor items, this means that I have to provide more than enough storage on open shelves and in the cabinets and pantry.

  • Must-Have Kitchen Item: Bungalow 5’s brand new Baltar Counter Stools. They are covered in insanely soft hair-on-hide, have a footrest, and the seat is sooo comfortable. All in all, AMAZING.

• Dining Room: Seating for at least 4 people for work and play. A bar area for entertaining, preferably a bar cart so it can easily be moved into the living area for easy access. (Who wants to be comfy in front of the TV and have to move across the room just to pour another drink?)

  • Must-Have Dining Room Item: Apt 2B’s Leland Bar Cart. This goodie has the wheels I need to move it back and forth to the living room when I see fit. And the customer service was great from the time I placed the order to the time of the white glove delivery.

• Living Room: A sofa long enough and deep enough for friends to comfortably sleep over. Additional seating next to the window for the days when multiple people are over and we all don’t want to share the sofa. And ample table space for my laptop, food, and beverages all at the same time. And a mini-library area for my books plus storage for blankets and pillows.
  

  • Must-Have Living Room Item #1: Interior Define’s Sloan Petite Chair. This chair I thought was perfect because it is customizable in so many colors and it had a high enough back for someone (mainly me) to lounge all day.

  • Must-Have Living Room Item #2: Currey & Company’s Hookah Accent Table. This table is light enough to move wherever you want it easily, I love the hammered nickel finish and the shape of the base.

• Entry Areas: Hooks for coats, bags, and umbrella’s. Carpet tiles for easy clean up. I’m big on storage so I like to have a place for everything hence the need for hooks. Also, I never allow shoes in my house so for comfort the carpet tiles would be nice underfoot instead of the existing tile AND I want to hide the tile because it is ug-ly. Because the entry area includes a stairwell I want a big impact without it feeling cluttered or creating another gallery wall so I’ll be using wallpaper up the stairwell and wrapping it onto a wall in my dining room.

• Powder Room: No must-haves but I want it to be an Experience. #staytuned
  

• Easy Access: When a pandemic is not going on, I’m constantly running in and out of the house where my office is also based… usually with way to much stuff in hand. In an effort to stop trying to be a weird acrobat, I’m opting for door levers instead of knobs throughout and a digital front door lock that auto-unlocks, is key-free, automatically re-locks, etc.
  

  • Must-Have Easy Access: I opted for EMTEK’s EMPowered™ Motorized Touchscreen SMART Keypad Entry Set which I’ll be installing this weekend in preparation for painting. And because I’m obsessed with details, I’m upgraded the hinges as well. 

ENHANCE:

Usually people try to separate areas in open concept homes such as separating the living room and dining room. However I’ve decided to make the living and dining rooms feel like they are a part of one big space, inviting guests to explore both spaces. I’ve started playing around with a very-rough furniture plan for the entire 1st floor (pictured below). I usually start with shapes first to outline rugs, seating, tables, lighting, etc which allows me to gather preliminary dimensions and get a view of the areas that I want to draw attention to. My keys areas, I think, will be the living room window wall, the bar cart area, and the kitchen sink wall.

PRELIM COLORS AND FINISHES

Here’s what I know, the entire first floor will be Benjamin Moore’s Classic Gray but mixed with wallpaper. After looking at almost two dozen wallpaper samples I’ve narrowed it down to two options, option 1 is below and Option 2 will be shared in the coming weeks.

The Powder Room will be a mix of Benjamin Moore’s Elderberry Wine and The Tile Shop’s Cell Ceramic Tile, paired with the Reese Sconce from Mitzi. And I know <thankfully> what the sink and faucet will be, they’re from Build.com (Signature Hardware). What I’ve learned about Build.com during this process is that you can get you what you need, when you need it. And they have dedicated account managers available to help streamline ordering, delivery, quoting and client coordination for projects large and small. Needless to say, I’ve already started using them outside of the One Room Challenge.

What I need to figure out (like yesterday) are the colors/finishes for the foyer. So as I go back to tackling my ORC to-do list and working through my elevations and moodboards, don’t forget to check out the amazing 19 other humans that are Featured ORC Designers below!

Glass of Bovino | Beginning in the Middle | Beth Diana Smith | Clark + Aldine | Coco & Jack

Deeply Southern Home| Design Maze | Dwell by Cheryl | Erika Ward | Home Made by Carmona

House of Hipsters | Hunted Interior | Kandrac & Kole | Kate Pearce | Katrina Blair | Liz Kamarul

Veneer Designs | Rambling Renovators | Renovation Husbands | Studio Plumb | Media BH&G

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