DIY Room Makeover, What to expect

Today I’m sharing my realistic expectations and plan to makeover my Kitchen Morning room for the One Room Challenge. 

I’m nervous and excited today to tell you what I have up my sleeve.

I decided to (once again) join that ranks of the ambitious (and soon to be sleep deprived) creative bloggers in the One Room Challenge.  Yes, it’s time for another room makeover!  This time I’ll be working over my casual dining space off our kitchen (Morning Room) .

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the One Room Challenge (aka ORC) is a home interior challenge in which design bloggers attempt to complete a room in their home in 5 week’s time.

Each week we share our progress and sometimes disasters (if you are me)  in a weekly blog post.  On week six we show our finished spaces!

5 weeks to complete a room doesn’t sound bad, right? Oh, but it is.

I’m kidding, it’s fun but the time deadlines and (in my case) uber tight budget can make pulling off a completed room stressful.

Today is week one and we’re sharing our real life crappy room photos along with our ambitious design plans.

I snapped a photo of my space and all of it’s craptastic glory for you.

Ok, I admit, it’s more of a yawn then crapolicious.

The room has been relatively empty since I sold the kitchen table last summer but I’ll create a plan for that.

Morning Room Makeover Plan

Do you want to know the plan?

You and me both!

I’m kidding, I do have a few ideas.  My room needs to serve a few purposes because the whole family uses this space.  We eat here and the kids sometimes do homework here.  A dining table is a must.

This room is also where our back door is and where our two dogs sit and ask to go out 200 times a day.

(Thanks to these two, I can add fulltime door man to my resume. You never know, it could come in handy if this blog thing doesn’t work out.)

And because the dogs refuse to wipe their own feet and the big one drools like an old basset hound; the room needs to be easy to clean.

This room is also where I take most of my photos so the room needs to be light and neutral. The photography throws a wrench in things but it must be included.

Makeover Color scheme

I love colorful and artsy styles but because of the photography need, the walls will be white.

Another consideration is, our morning room is a high traffic area and in the center of our chaotic life.   To avoid ending up on an episode of “Snapped”, I need the room design to feel peaceful.  My plan is to use light woods and a soft color palette.

I don’t have everything worked out for the room but I’ve done the ORC challenge a few times and I have a pretty good idea how this will go.

Here is my realistic list of my projects and what I can expect…

1) I will bust my tail end to DIY Everything because I love to!  And because my current funds for the project require me to steal from the grocery budget and send the kids to grandmas for dinner.   (Dear Grandma, Please take these kids and feed them. -Sincerely Ivy Broke)

2) I’ll be spending hours in the garage painting and refinishing my craigslist furniture finds.

Like this 1930’s garage sale dinning set…

It’s in pieces now but don’t worry, I’ll put it back together.   It’ll be spectacular!  I also have a craigslist MCM Credenza to makeover and I’ll need to find a way to marry the two competing styles.

I have a few ideas and ohhhhhhh, It’s going to be good y’all!

3) My mom will stop by a few times to check on me and we’ll will have a few good laughs as I work through furniture refinishing hell.

4) I’ll paint my own Art work for the room because I can and it’s free so why not?

5) I’ll also sew my own drapes but not because I love sewing. It’ll be because I’m cheap and can’t bring myself to buy pre-made curtains.

6) So much work will be done in one space that the rest of the house will become a complete mess.

By the way, if you stop by my house and I only open my door large enough to talk to you through the crack, it isn’t because I don’t like you. My house has been hit by a creative hurricane.

7) Part of that hurricane will be replacing all the trim in the room because learning how to case in windows in the middle of a tight deadline sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan and because I haven’t been able to talk anyone else into doing it for me.

8) Some things will go exceptionally well but others won’t and I’ll have to do them over multiple times to get it right.  That will stink!!   Fortunately for me I’m ADHD and I’ll quickly forget.

9) There will be tears…A LOT of tears

10)However, most days I’ll be very happy and excited because I love this stuff, and because I’ve had a lot of coffee!

11) At some point I’ll look out at the mess, snakes will sprout from my head and I’ll turn to my family to say (in my most loving passive aggressive voice)  “REALLY!!???? Can no one load a dish around here?!?!?!?!”. Or “The Laundry doesn’t do itself people!    WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS???”

My two teenage boys will have the look of a deer caught in crosshairs and my husband will give them the unspoken signal. You know the look that says, “Don’t  say a word kids.  Just follow my lead and we may make it out of here alive.”

This usually happens in week 4.

12) At least 100 times I’ll ask my family for feedback.   My oldest will carefully craft his answer according to what he thinks I want to hear so he doesn’t hurt my feelings.

My youngest will tell me exactly what he thinks and it will hurt my feelings.

Then I will seek out my husband, only this time I’ll be very clear with what I’m asking….

I’ll explain myself thoroughly with multiple points and my points will have perfectly crafted sub points.   He’ll listen patiently which I’ll mistake as a sign that he’s following me.    Then when I prompt him for feedback, he’ll look me straight in the face and say, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.”

And that my friends is how stuff goes around here!
I hope you will follow along over the next few weeks.  I’ll show you how to refinish furniture, work with wall paper, build trim and baseboards and much more.    I’ll do my best to give you a very real and honest account of how these things really go!

Till then…
Happy Creating,

Don’t forget to check the other One Room Challenge Participants over at Calling It Home

And if you missed a week…
Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4 / REVEAL!!!

You may also like my previous One Room Challenge Makeovers….

DIY Shark Teen Bedroom & DIY Pop Art Bedroom

 

 

I would love it if you pinned this post 🙂