One Room Challenge: Week 3
Friends, it is week 3 of the One Room Challenge and let me tell you, this week was filled with a lot of the behind the scenes work... sourcing, purchasing, tracking deliveries, and budgeting (yuck). The biggest thing I have noticed as a designer, is that there's a whole lot of showing the pretty spaces, but not enough of the nitty gritty behind the scenes work. If you recall last week's post, I talked about how I had ordered a different rug that originally planned, so that changed the trajectory of my design to some extent. I needed to do a bit more brainstorming after I found a cheaper, but MUCH higher quality rug. So this week, I wanted to breakdown a few of the ways I've been brainstorming for this guest//office refresh.
Basic Inspiration
I think most people today will say that they start with Pinterest as their inspiration. Another great option is using the Instagram save feature as well! But for this project in particular, I stuck will searching for inspiration from Pinterest, just because I find it easier to search for specific colors, patterns, and subject matter. In my searches in particular, I was looking for styled secretary desks, bedroom//office combos, vintage pieces mixed with new, as well as combining my new branding color palette thanks to Stephanie Cintron Photography and ESM Creative (hey, girls!).
Rough Drafts
Then I start turning materials into a room mockup... a very, VERY rough mock up. I'm talking copy and past into PowerPoint. Haha. When it comes to starting to funnel your ideas together, you really don't need anything fancy. Just simply putting materials, paints, and furnishings together helps to really start to see the full picture, even if it isn't perfect.
Honing in On the Goods (Budget Check)
Now is when the rubber meets the road. I always believe that each room needs some items that deserve to be of higher quality, typically meaning a higher price point... key word is typically, not always. So what were the items of high quality that I wanted in the room?
Bedding-- the focal point of the room
Drapery-- I feel like when you go cheap on drapery, it's noticeable. This is something I really was willing to spurge on.
These were probably my biggest places where I had to budget crunch. Fortunately, I was able to find an authentic Turkish rug that was cheaper from Etsy than one I was looking at from a big box store and the desk from Facebook Marketplace. I'm also planning to keep the bed frame. Do I like it? No. But do I think I can make it work with the fantastic bedding I was going to get regardless of the bed? Yes. I have an idea and a small DIY that I think just might work.
Refining
Now that I've reassessed my budget, it was time to be realistic. Where could I cut, and what was worth it? This week I ordered drapery from West Elm that wasn't cheap, but is gorgeous. But I sacrificed on the drapery hardware via Amazon since everything is backordered until July. I looked for one large artwork piece instead of smaller pieces that would need to be framed, saving money there. I ended up splurging on a lamp for the end table, because I felt like it was such a one of a kind piece, but I was able to justify that after saving with the rug, desk, drapery hardware, bedframe, and art.
Week Four
Packages are starting to arrive, so that means that I can finally get to work on putting materials together, and assessing everything in the room, rather than relying on a computer screen. Which means I feel like I can really show you what's going on on my Instagram stories. So make sure you're following along, and feel free to ask questions along the way!
Make sure to follow along with all the other designers over at One Room Challenge!
Other Tennyson Studio ORC posts: