WEEK ONE: Let’s decide on the vibe!
Hey y’all! Welcome! I’m a guest in the One Room Challenge™ this year and I’m super stoked. If you’re new here, my name is Makena Dawn; comical extrovert, plant + psychology lover, and seasoned thrifter and DIY enthusiast. I work as a brand designer at a Tech company behind a computer all day and then come home and want to get hands-on and crafty in my space.
If you’re not familiar with the spirit of the One Room Challenge™, it’s an online event that happens biannually (Spring and Fall) where 20 Featured Designers, as well as Guest Participants, transform a room over the course of 8 weeks. I hope you’ll follow along each week as I document the process of renovating a room under the gun and stretching the dollar as far as I can! I’ll post updates to this blog every week, and if you’d like to follow the day-to-day progress as well, I’d love to invite you to meet me in my Instagram stories. We have a lot of fun in there. Full disclosure: I did get a knee injury a week before this, so I almost didn’t participate, BUUUUUT that doesnt seem as fun. So, I am going to do my best in hobbling along to get things going around here! I DID decorate my crutches though, so there’s that!
Please visit ONEROOMCHALLENGE.COM to view all participating Featured Designers and Guest Participants.
THE SPACE:
I am super excited to dig into this project because this room has a lot of potential. It’s a cute 12.5x10 room with high ceilings, some decent natural light, and nice little closet. When I first saw it, it looked like Pepto Bismol attacked the walls and it had horribly stained carpet, but these are only minor offenses. I’m just excited to have it become a cozy spot, as I’d love it for when a guest visits or as a potential future rental (you lookin’ for a fun roomie? ha)
BEFORE:
This was what it looked like before I moved in. It probably makes the most sense to be an office because of the nice window, high ceilings, and its on the smaller side, but I REALLY liked another room in my space, so I chose that one to be my office instead.
FIRST TASK: The carpet had to go. SECOND TASK: PAINT (SW Alabaster white) had to happen. I wanted to continue the flooring that’s already in this space, but I had to make a decision. The floor is extremely unlevel, so do I ignore it and try to live my best life, or do I attempt to become a leveling amateur? I leveled! I bought the self-leveler concrete, and the mixer piece, and had to time this lovely dance perfectly, as you don’t have much time to spread. The bucket busted on the last bag of mix and it wasn’t fully mixed! AHHH, it’s fine it’s fine - just spread it as best as I you can (you can see where it’s not as smooth ha)
THIRD TASK: New Floor that matches the floor throughout the living room and kitchen. I actually found the flooring at $48 a box on wayfair which was going to be hella pricy. It was only available there, but I felt like this was untrue. I got crafty and creative and turned into a floor stalker and called their warehouse and found that the “Exclusive” line at home depot was the SAME one as wayfair, even though it has different packaging and a different name. Whew. I saved some $, it was $34 a box (I think). So here we have new paint, new leveled floors and new flooring!
THE VISION:
I drew out a few sketches to see what vibes I was feeling on this room:
I was really leaning towards either A or B. I called A my modern abstract vibe and B was my jungle plant vibe. I was back and forth for a while, but I ultimately landed on the jungle vibe! Here is my mood board for this vibe:
THE PLAN
I know I want to do a mural, so that is going to be a big piece of this room :) The angles of the room are unique, so I’m excited to do something fun. I’ll be meticulously deciding on paint colors for this, as this will take a lot of my time and be the focal point of the room. I want to get a new bed and go shopping in other rooms to see what could work in here.
THE PROJECT LIST:
Repaint the entire room in Alabaster (done)
Level floors (done)
Add flooring (done)
Pick out, Paint and install trim
Pick colors for mural
Paint Mural
Decide on which bed works for the space
Buy a Mattress
Maybe New Curtains?
Decide on side tables
Rug? New One? Existing one?
Should there be art hung on any of the walls?
Bedding?'
Purchase new fan + light
What do you think? Of course this can all change in the blink of an eye if things look grossly different in person vs. online or they simply just don’t work in the space as well as I thought they would. As with any project I partake in, it’s a total crap shoot until I can see it come together with my own eyes. That’s what makes it so fun!