Design

Cozy and Collected Girl’s Room; ORC Week 1: Befores

It’s that time of year again, friends! The birds are chirping, the trees are budding, the days are growing longer, and designers and decor enthusiasts around the globe are gearing up and digging in for the One Room Challenge! The ORC is a biannual online event that encourages and supports folks in decorating a single room over a 6 week period of time. There are two groups that will be transforming a space: a select group of 20 featured designers, and an big group of guest participants (that’s me!).

Each week we post our updates and progress and on the 6th week, we all share our reveals. It’s inspiring and fun to follow along and see the creativity bloom. And, if you’re feeling industrious, you might want to join in! Whether or not you document your progress, this can be a great motivator to finally tackle a room you’ve wanted to finish.

What I love about this challenge is that it encourages me to focus on a room in our own home. As a designer, I am constantly helping clients create beautiful rooms, when many of the rooms in our home have not gotten much (if any) attention.

This is my third time participating. In the past I’ve revamped our powder room (photo by Cat Nguyen) and our master bedroom (photo by Spoonflower) during the ORC.

This time around I’m decorating our oldest daughter’s bedroom (she just turned 8). When we first bought the home, it was covered in original 1950s wallpaper. I have quite an affection for these sweet yellow roses, and if the paper had been in good shape, we may have kept it.

cate_holcombe_interiors_yellow_rose_wallpaper

After we moved in, I gave this room a half-hearted attempt at decorating. I put together some homemade roman shades (that didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped), and we painted the walls a sweet pale pink.

The Befores

I clearly snapped the before photos without even bothering to tidy things up. Here’s a look at what the room has looked like lately. Janky roman shades, too-small rug, no organization, poor layout, tired old furniture… you get the drift.

It’s a generously sized room, and is big enough to easily fit a pair of twin beds, which come in handy for sleepovers and hosting guests. We like the white Jenny Lind style bed frames, so those will stay. The glossy cherry wood dresser was my grandparents’ and though the finish and style don’t speak to me, I don’t want to say goodbye. So, I’ve been working on refreshing that (Instagram Stories friends have gotten a glimpse of the changes!)

The Inspiration

Elsie loves lavender, so that’s the main color we will be working with in the new plan. She also really wanted some sort of tent situation. I searched online for some inspiration images, and found these three beauties.

Sources: House Beautiful | Veranda | Unknown

I’m finalizing the details that I’ll be introducing, and I’ll share the mood board next week. For now, here’s a look at what we need to do:

organize/purge
rearrange
refinish dresser
prep and paint walls

And here’s what we need to bring in:

tent + comfy seating
bedding
rug
window treatments
wall art
mirror
bedside table
storage
lamps
fresh wall color

So, stay tuned, friends! I’m so thrilled to be finishing this sweet girl’s room, and have promised our younger daughter we will get to hers soon. Can’t wait to see all of the “befores” and plans other participants are sharing this week. Cheers to new beginnings, y’all!