Last year, I watched in envy while all of these DIYers participated in the One Room Challenge. I had no idea about it before it was happening. I knew that after seeing the community created with this challenge, that I wanted to be a part of the next one! A few weeks (months?) ago, one of the people I follow posted about signing up for it so I jumped on the opportunity, too!

What is the One Room Challenge you ask?

“The One Room challenge™ will provide participants with a supportive, enthusiastic forum in which to share the process of transforming a room. The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas.”

This was originally scheduled to begin in the beginning of April but for a couple reasons, you know, a global pandemic, it was postponed. It is not scheduled to begin on May 6th. I’m not sure if that’s still the date to begin but we’re not waiting any longer because I can’t wait to get my room finished!

If you are a follower on instagram, you may already know about the room I selected to enter into this challenge, our half bathroom that every guest in our home uses. It is the most builder-basic room you’ve seen! Soon after moving into this house, I actually painted this room a dark maroon color because I had a vision of a somewhat vintage glam look. I wanted to have black and gold metals throughout the space and a feature wall with mercury mirrors. It was WAY more glam than anything in my home but I thought it was going to look amazing. Long story short, a mirror wall like I wanted was going to be way too expensive so I just never did anything else to the room.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, we were grabbing something at Lowe’s during their bath sale and found a vanity that we really liked for more than HALF-OFF! If you don’t know this about me, I’m a sucker for a good sale. **PRICE TIP: Check more than one place to compare pricing and make sure you get the very best price.** So I went onto Lowes.com and actually found that the online price was better than in-store. We ended up purchasing that vanity and decided that this powder room would be our One Room Challenge room!

Goals for the One Room Challenge:

-Change wall color

-Replace the Vanity

-Add light

-Feature wall

-Fill the large open space

PAINT

A big issue for me with this room is how large it is. That sounds funny but really, it’s the size of a full bath with just a pedestal sink and toilet. It just feels weird. This is why I chose a dark color for the room. I want to stay with a darker color but I’m kind of over the maroon and want to choose something that goes a little more with my style.

VANITY

More than anything a pedestal sink screams builder-basic to me. I hate pedestal sinks. They have no space to even put a soap dispenser, no storage and I just find them to be hideous. A pedestal sink screams CHEAP to me. So we’ll be ripping out our pedestal sink and installing the new vanity that we found at Lowe’s. It has a little storage and has a nice farmhouse style sliding barn door. It’ll really upgrade this area and we’ll have some counter space as well!

LIGHT

Part of the issue with the room being so big, there is one small light above the pedestal sink, in the corner of the room that has to illuminate the entire room, so it’s a dark room! It’s also an interior room so there is no window or extra light, that’s all we have. With such a big open space on the far end of the room, I’ve been imagining a beautiful pendant light on the far end of the room that will bring a new life to the space.

FEATURE WALL

Like I mentioned, I wanted to do a mercury mirror wall but it was going to cost at least $500 and it just wasn’t worth it to me. I have a growing affinity for plants and natural wood elements so I’m thinking of doing a slat wall. I’ve seen a couple designers put them in their bedrooms and media rooms so I think this small wall will be perfect with this added wood feature.

UPGRADE FIXTURES

Am I the only one that has major issues with the toilet paper holder? The one we have now constantly falls off of the wall and I hate it! They’re either too close together, not secured properly or wiggling and falling off the wall. I’ll be upgrading all of the fixtures like the toilet paper and towel holder and faucet. I’ll also be turning our builder grade mirror into a custom modern mirror.

FILL THE SPACE

A few months ago I found a dresser on craigslist that was the perfect measurements to fill the extra space in the bathroom without crowding it. I bought it for only $50. When I was looking for this dresser I was looking for a good structure. I wasn’t worried about stain color or anything, but if it had good bones. I can see past the ugly to see the potential of a piece and this one I found has potential! It’s getting a major facelift so stay tuned for that! Possibly something having to do with concrete too!

Overall, I want this room to be beautiful and functional for my family and guests. It gives you the greatest feeling to have an entire space completed from top to bottom. The One Room Challenge starts on May 6th. So, I can’t wait to see what this transformation looks like and I am so excited to share it with you. Stay tuned for weekly episodes and blog posts of the progress we make!

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