ORC Master Bedroom Week 1: The Befores

It’s that time of year again, folks!  It’s time for the One Room Challenge!  Woot woot!  Can you tell I’m excited?!  If you haven’t heard, the ORC is a biannual online event that was started in 2011 by Linda Weinstein.  It has exploded into a massive online celebration of design and decor, drawing millions of clicks.

I have followed the event for years, getting gobs of inspiration and ideas from loads of participants and designers.  That’s the amazing thing about this challenge…it’s for anyone.  Guest Participants like myself will transform a room and document their progress in blog posts each week for six weeks starting today.  We will all link up our posts on the ORC website each Thursday.

You can see this week’s link-ups here. (I’m planning to keep all of the links at the bottom of each of my posts for quick reference.) There are also 20 Featured Designers who will reveal their posts on Wednesdays.

This is my second go-round with the ORC.  I overhauled our little Powder Room in April.  You can find all of the links to those posts at the bottom of this one, but here’s a little glimpse at the finished space:

So, now that you have an overview of the Challenge, let’s get to my project!  This time I’m going much bigger (it’s not difficult to find a room bigger than a powder room, though!).  I am finally finishing our Master Bedroom, 2.5 years after we moved into it.

The Background

When we purchased the 1960s house three years ago, there was a room that was originally meant to be the garage.  The former owners had “finished” it by adding carpet and closing in the garage door and they used it as a den.  A narrow porch ran along the front of the room.  Here’s how it looked from the front yard, and from the interior:

We ended up enclosing that front porch, and refinishing the entire interior space.  The roof line remained the same, but we pushed that front exterior wall forward.  So, the front of the house then looked like this (the exterior has since been painted, halleluja!):

On the inside, we gained a mud room, a hall closet, and a master suite which includes a bathroom and two small walk-in closets.  This renovation adds a TON of function and value to our home.

And, below you can see side by side images taken from the same spot (indicated by the star on the floor plans).  The shot on the right was mid-reno before the carpet was laid in the bedroom.

So, once the room was complete, we moved in.  I had the beginnings of a vision for how to decorate the space, but it just never came to fruition.  We lived with it “undecorated” for a couple of years until now.

I had hung some cute drapes (that were too short), and painted that back wall a deep green, but that’s as far as it got.  Everything else was what we had in our old home, and much of it didn’t work well for our needs in here.   The beauty of the ORC is that it inspires you to finish those incomplete or outdated rooms that have been nagging at you.  So, I’m taking this opportunity to use a little bit of what we had plus some new gems, and to shift gears and finally finish this room.

Next Week

I’ll be back next week with the plans I have for the room.  Here’s a little peek at some of the fabrics I’m using and a pair of chairs that really inspired me.  Hubba hubba!  I can’t wait to share more!  In fact, if you’d like to see more early sneak peeks, I’ll send them straight to your inbox.  Be sure to enter your name and email address in the “Don’t Miss a Thing” box at the very bottom of this page.

Important Links:

One Room Challenge

The media sponsor for this incredibly fun and inspiring event is Better Homes and Gardens.

I will link each week below as the challenge progresses:

My October 2018 ORC Posts:  Week 1: You are Here!  | Week 2: The Plan  |  Week 3: The Bed | Week 4: Lighting and Art | Week 5:  The Bedding | Week 6:  The Reveal

The Guest Participant Link-ups:  Week 1 | Week 2  |  Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6

Featured Designers for October 2018:

At Home with Ashley | Brepurposed | Dabito | The English Room

Erin Kestenbaum | Harlow & Thistle | House of Brinson | J & J Design

Kelly Golightly | Linda Holt  | Megan Bachmann | Michelle Gage

Mimosa Lane | Murphy Deesign | Vestige Home

Old Home Love | SG Style | Shay Geyer

Sita Montgomery | SMP Living

And, if you’d like to check out my April 2018 ORC, those posts are here:

Week 1 Befores | Week 2 Wallpaper | Week 3 Mirror | Week 4 Sink Skirt | Week 5 Storage | Week 6 Reveal