One Room Challenge: Week 7 | The Home Office Reveal

Whew! Keeping this room a secret from Auston for 7 weeks has been hard. If you're new here, this desk was covered in white paint (see Week 4 & 5) and the curtains are dyed drop cloths (see Week 6). This is my second One Room Challenge, last season I did our laundry room which was a finish from the studs project. I love doing the ORC because it gives me a schedule and I always meet new people. This office is really my first time fully decorating a space. In the laundry room I used some cute accessories but it really wasn't designing around an existing space - so tell me how I did!

Week 1: The Befores
Week 2: The Mood Board(s)
Week 3: Salvaging A Fox Hunt Print
Week 4: Restoring an Antique Typewriter Desk Part 1
Week 5: Restoring an Antique Typewriter Desk Part 2
Week 6: Drop Cloth Curtains

This room has come along way already, there used to be green shag carpet and a painted city skyline on the walls. Since we moved in it has been functioning as a storage room. Once I got it cleaned out, I was working with a pretty blank slate.

And here we are seven weeks later! There are still changes I'd like to make and pieces that I would like to bring in, but we work on a tight budget.
 

The room is so large that is is kind of awkward to not put the desk in the middle, but then it left a big hole on the wall between the two doors. Since there needs to be room for the hallway door and the porch door to open, this wall was a challenge. Eventually I would love to get him a big cozy leather chair and ottoman that would give him somewhere other than the living room to sit.

So far we have stuffed all our alcohol in a tiny upper cabinet that was hard to get to. Also, we're not huge drinkers, what you see is an accumulation of years haha. The bar cart works great as a moveable piece we can take around if ever we need. I also am a glass hoarder, a super weird thing to hoard I know, but the cart gave me a great place to put the wine/champagne/beer/whiskey glasses we don't use every day.

The one thing Auston has really started appreciating is good whiskey. I asked everyone on my Stories what they thought I should do with this awkwardly small/tall closet. I got a lot of great suggestions but ended up making it a secondary bar type space where he can keep all his nice whiskey and the mini fridge (yay for finding a use for the mini fridge after college life!). It also serves as a place where we can store our brewery cups. Since we've been together and after I turned 21, we started going to micro-breweries when we got the chance (our favorite so far is Red Hare in Marietta) and obviously my glass hoarding kicks in and we have to keep all the glasses. They're all pretty but still remind us of fun memories, especially the ones we went with his brother to - they all make me smile.

Another weird thing I do is collect the ticket stubs from movies we've seen together since before we started dating (p.s. a lot of them are cartoons). This glass is actually only a half of the stubs, the other half are sitting in the guest room where I can see them everyday.

Lastly, just like the laundry room, I used this amazing painting my Oma did and it completes the space. This project has really made me realize how much I love sentimental things. Who am I kidding, I only just threw out a heart shaped piece of bark I kept from my childhood, I've always known that. I think I've just matured on what I keep and that's probably for the better.

I know the ORC doesn't have spending limits, but we do. I don't get paid to do this and we have a set low budget for these projects - which works for us. If it's not listed, then we already had it. So even though most (if any) blogs won't do this, here's our cost breakdown for this space:

Rug - $73 (on sale)
Paint stripper - $19
Wood for closet bar - $32
Dropcloth curtains - $21
Fiddle leaf fig tree - $130 (on sale)
Bar cart - $109 (on sale)

TOTAL: $311

Once again the ORC has pushed me to complete things that normally would have taken me way longer to finish. I met a few new people and made one more space in our house just a little more homey. The featured blogger have some incredible rooms and I can't wait to read all of the other guest bloggers today, the sneak peeks are already incredible.

 

Check out the other Guest Participants on Calling It Home and the featured bloggers below. 

Boxwood Avenue | Coco & Jack | Design Manifest | IBB for DWD | The House That Lars Built | Little Green Notebook | The Makerista | Making it Lovely  | Old Brand New | Old Home Love | The Painted House | Megan Pflug Designs | Pink Pagoda | Erica Reitman | Sacramento Street | Simply Grove | Jill Sorensen | Sugar & Cloth | Vintage Rug Shop | Waiting on Martha * Media Partner House Beautiful | TM by ORC

Fall 2017 One Room Challenge:
Week 1: The Befores
Week 2: The Mood Board(s)
Week 3: Salvaging A Fox Hunt Print
Week 4: Restoring an Antique Typewriter Desk Part 1
Week 5: Restoring an Antique Typewriter Desk Part 2
Week 6: Drop Cloth Curtains

Spring 2017 One Room Challenge:
Week 1: Laundry Room Before and Plans
Week 2: Plumbing, Prepping Walls, Cabinets, and Mood Board
Week 3: Faux Shiplap & Water Heater Closet
Week 4: Finished Water Heater Closet and Trimmed out the Cabinets
Week 5: Open Shelf, Base Cabinet, & Final Wall Color