One Room Challenge Week 1

 

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I can’t believe it is finally here! I am so excited to be participating in the Fall 2018 One Room Challenge. I’ve been following the incredible ORC room transformations for years now and have always dreamed of participating myself. This year the timing was right and Hubby gave me the green light to jump on board (he will be a big part of this process and he is just as excited might I add!), so here we are!

One Room Challenge

If you’re not familiar with ORC, it is a highly anticipated biannual event where twenty design influencers and hundreds of guest participants completely transform a space in six weeks. It originally started in 2011 when Linda from Calling it Home gathered a group of friends to hold each other accountable as they finished one room in their homes. The ORC is now in its 14th season and more than 2,200 rooms have been transformed to date.

This year Better Homes & Gardens is the official media partner of the ORC and will be selecting two guest participants to be Featured Designers in 2019! How cool is that?!

Follow Along

Get ready for your Instagram feed to be filled with tons of gorgeous design inspo for the next six weeks. Every Thursday I will be documenting our progress here on the blog as well as linking up with all of the other guest participants, so be sure to check them out!

You can follow along with our progress here as well as on Instagram. Follow #oneroomchallenge and #BHGORC so you don’t miss a thing! And of course be sure to check back on November 8th to be wowed by the final room reveals.

ORC Fall 2018: The Laundry Room

We are going to be tackling our laundry room for the Fall 2018 ORC. Any mom knows that the laundry room is arguably one of the most important rooms in a house. Although our laundry room is small (*tiny*), it is the hardest working room in our house. With an “all-boy,” dirt-loving toddler and a baby that spits up all the time, we have a load of laundry going at any given time of the day. The current state of the laundry room is cringe-worthy. It is in desperate need of some functionality and beautification! After all, it might as well be pretty if we’re going to be spending so much time in there. And with two growing boys I don’t see my laundry workload decreasing any time soon.

Laundry Room Design Plan

Before I show you how awful our current laundry room is (I think I’m trying to put that off as long as possible), let me start by showing you how I plan to make it pretty and functional.

 

1. Pendant Light | 2. Boxwood Wreath | 3. Wood Hangers | 4. Vintage Coat Hook | 5.  Cabinet Pulls | 6. Shaker Style Cabinet | 7. Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray | 8. Subway Tile | 9. Butcher Block Countertop | 10. Glass Jar | 11. Glass Spray Bottles | 12. Canvas Laundry Tote | 13. Boxwood Topiary | 14. Seagrass Laundry Basket

I envision the finished laundry room in keeping with my signature love of simple, timeless and classic design. But since it is a laundry room I figured I could have a little more fun with it by adding a touch of modern farmhouse vibe.

My main goal for the room is to make it functional by adding useable storage and counter space. I plan to stay true to my love of light and bright by adding white shaker style cabinets paired with classic white subway tile. Pops of black will add contrast and natural wood tones will provide warmth.

Laundry Room: The Before

I can’t believe I’m sharing these for all the world to see, but here is the current, unedited state of our laundry room. *Insert cringe here.* Y’all don’t judge, I told you it was bad. As you can see it is a total mess and there is a long list of problems with this room.

For starters, the room is tiny. Obviously we cannot change the size of the room but with a few small improvements I believe we can make it much more functional and organized.

Other than on top of the washer and dryer, there is nowhere to sort or fold laundry. I am constantly losing laundry that falls behind the washer and dryer where I cannot reach it.

In addition to being a total eyesore, the wire shelving is practically useless to me because I cannot reach the top (hence the large bottle of Dreft sitting on the floor).

There is absolutely no storage (other than the wire shelf that I cannot reach) and nowhere to put laundry baskets other than the floor. And since the room is so small, the laundry baskets sitting on the floor get in the way when you open the washing machine door.

And lastly, this room is just plain ugly. For a room we spend so much time in we might as well make it pretty!

One Room Challenge Punch List

In order to stay on track I’ve created a punch list that I will refer back to each week to keep a check on our progress.

• Clear out room to start from scratch
• Remove wire shelving
• Purchase wall cabinets
• Hang wall cabinets to provide useable storage
• Finalize countertop choice
• Install countertop to provide useable folding and sorting space
• Install subway tile on the back wall
• DIY floating shelf between the two wall cabinets for extra storage
• Install rod between wall cabinets for hanging clothes
• Purchase and install cabinet hardware
• Purchase and install new light fixture
• Incorporate hanging laundry totes to utilize wall space and clear the floor of clutter
• Purchase rug
• Accessorize!

Here We Go!

I couldn’t be more excited to participate in our first ever ORC and I can’t wait to get started. I am looking forward to following along with the other ORC participants and I am especially looking forward to folding laundry in a beautiful new space!