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Welcome to Week 5 of the One Room Challenge being hosted by Linda of Calling it Home.  You can see our plans here and follow all of the progress here.

Thanks for the well wishes last week!  I am beginning to feel better and starting to get a spring back in my step.  And just in time because our room still has quite a bit of work ahead of it before the reveal in one week from TODAY!

The room and I have been fighting for a few reasons, but as I continue to layer in elements, things are starting to feel a bit more like home.  Some days I feel like I have lost my way, and other days I walk into the space and just sit and smile.  This past few weeks haven't always made sense, even to me.  It has been a learning process trying to navigate a new layout while also trying to incorporate my goal of a colorful, happy, stylish, yet family friendly space.  And I totally have been tackling everything backwards... but we were waiting on the biggest element for a single "hot" reason!


What is THAT?!

We installed a fireplace!  Woot!

A big wish list item with the entire renovation of our kitchen and living room, has been to add a fireplace.  I am about the biggest freeze baby in the history of Wisconsin, and have been dreaming of a fireplace for years.  We had ordered one and scheduled the installation awhile back, but a lot had to happen with timing the HVAC work for the kitchen (same guys running gas lines for cooktop and fireplace).  Without kitchen progress, we had no living room progress.  Talk about cutting things close!

So, last weekend we started building our built-ins, including the surround for the fireplace insert to prepare for the installation process that took place this week Monday.


It is hard to show the room this week because it literally has become one giant hot mess.  We had to move all of the furniture to make room to build the new unit, which is only about half done.  Accessories are piled at the back of the room (right next to a giant pile of tools), waiting patiently to make this space feel cozy and warm.  I haven't settled on a coffee table yet (nothing has felt "right"), but after popping in our dining room bench, I sort of love the idea of doing a nice cozy ottoman.  We tried our beautiful wooden World Market table but it is just not scaled for the space, although the warmth of the wood was a great touch.  So that element of the room is going to be a last minute mystery, even for me.  And did I mention the built-in is only about 50% done? 

The custom curtain panels have arrived from Tonic Living and they are sensational.  Simple linen panels pleated and lined, adorned with a bold black banding.  The moment they were up, the room felt so much more like a room.  And it is crazy weird to have real grown up panels!  Now to dig out my steamer....


But.... between the built-ins and the curtains, I may have made the wrong choice on the chair...


I looooove white, but I have a feeling it is going to get one more coat of paint before this room is said and done.  I am OK admitting that not every choice I am making each week is going to work in the end result.  I have always been one to move things around and make changes until they settle and feel right.  I just have to do it in triple fast forward time for the room challenge.  But let me just say, the chair is about as cozy as it gets and my reading experience has never been better.  Mama is in love.

We have been taking an abundance of photos and are prepping a few tutorials for many of the projects that will end up in the final reveal next week, including the fireplace surround.


The room has always been longer than it is wide, so we were lucky to have room to spare for the 16" deep cabinets and shelves.  They were built to mimic the height and style of the kitchen cabinets across the way, and once painted they will be one more element that marries the two spaces.  Once painted they will also look much more cohesive as a whole and should melt away into the wall.  I can't wait to get to a point of posting about a single giant space again so you can visually see what is happening between the living room and kitchen.

Now that electrical has been run and the fireplace is installed, we can finish with the building.  Continuing with our around-the-clock schedule we actually just completed the tiling last night and it is pretty gosh darn lovely.  Next up is mantle building, trim work, priming and then painting.  I am on a mission to get everything done for the sake of next week's room reveal, Bryan is on a mission to get his TV mounted and his PlayStation hooked back up! #priorities


The built-ins/fireplace/TV unit has been our primary focus over the past week, so that means I still have a lot to finish up before I photograph the space this weekend (my goal is Sunday, yikes!).  Send me lots of happy vibes and luck!  Although we will probably have a few unchecked room "to do" boxes by the time of the reveal, just to know how far we have already come in a few short weeks makes us high five on a daily basis. 

Before I get back to painting, let's take some time to check out the rest of the One Room Challenge progress.  I wonder if anyone else is freaking out as much as I am that there are only a few days remaining... Sleep is overrated right?  DUN DUN DUUUUN

Welcome to Week 4 of the One Room Challenge being hosted by Linda of Calling it Home.  You can see our plans here and follow all of the progress here.

Is it really Wednesday already?  I must say, it is scary to type, "Week 4" in the blog title.  I have been feeling under the weather for the past two weeks, and that paired with the two weeks until our room reveal timeline is leaving me filled with a bit of anxiety.  Mad props to designers who do rooms for a living, I bow down to you.

Each week we have been making progress, and although I am showing a few more pieces of the puzzle this week, we have about 109 more things happening behind the scenes to power through.  My hubby deserves a big hug.


Last week I mentioned I was giving the paint color one more week and making a decision.  Well, my decision is that I just don't have the strength to take on a full paint job at the moment.  And as I layered in some new elements over the past few days, it keeps coming together.  So for now, it is staying and I am going to keep working with it.  Anything we are doing to our space will match an endless number of wall colors should we decide to change it down the road.  And knowing us, we will.


Because we basically transplanted our previous living space to our downstairs family room, that left this space a complete blank slate.  Everything down there is now super cozy, including our previous living room rug.  In fact, it was a magical addition because it is so much thicker and softer on our lower level floors, literally warming it up.  I brought the rug from downstairs up to see how it would fit, but quickly realized we needed something bigger than a 6x9 option.

Knowing we are bringing our pattern and colors into the space through things like fabrics and accessories, I want to keep our investment pieces a bit more neutral.  We are hoping that we won't have to touch this space for years after we are done with it, so things like cabinets, the sofa, floors and the rug, all have to be timeless and more "grown up".  My husband did remind me that we are now closer to our 40's than our 30's the other day... sigh...

Rug shopping wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  How hard can it be to find a simple 8'x10' solid rug?  Everything I loved at my "go to" Rugs USA was on back order or sold out.  I am also sure I hit every HomeGoods and rug store in the Twin Cities area.  When I spotted the Grey Fringe Rug at Pottery Barn, I managed to grab the last one in inventory.  Such a relief.  And even more of a relief is that it really defined our living area just as I was imagining it would.


As you can see above, we started pulling apart the media cabinet.  We have been going over plans and have our electrician coming to move some outlets for us this week before we can build it back together.  It will be nice to bring our TV back into the space, watching Hulu on the computer while we work on projects isn't quite the same.

Let's chat about the added chairs for a minute.  For years and years I have had my eyes on spindle chairs.  But the prices!  I never had it in me to take the plunge because they were typically only found at high-end furniture stores and cost more than any sofa we have purchased.  And for good reason, they are gorgeous!  So last year when I spotted a spindle chair at HomeGoods for a quarter of the normal price, you can bet I scooped that baby up in a heart beat.  It had been living in our son's room ever since....


For the last six months it has been waiting patiently for this renovation, but it needed a little face lift before moving to our new living room.  I painted it Benjamin Moore's Simply White and had it reupholstered in Tonic Living's Meadow Monarch Trellis fabric.  The upholsterer added extra support and batting and the cushions are all removable and washable.  The combination of the fabric and chair is stunning and finally brought my love for green into the room.


The chair is so comfortable and plush.  I can't wait to add books back to the space and call dibs on this corner as mommy's "time out" chair.  I am slightly concerned that it is a little light colored for a family space, but I found some well reviewed fabric protector which is a healthier alternative to Scotchgard (I will be sure to post a review once I have tested it out, a few of you had questions on my fabric protecting plans).  And the cushions can all be washed like slipcovers so hopefully my dream chair stays.  If not, a chair swap can happen easily enough, but that will also mean that I will have to move with it....

(lamp source)

After the rug came in, we realized that we had room to add a second chair.  In fact, it would balance out the conversation area, which I am really giddy about.  What I also love about using a couple of chairs in this space is that they can easily be moved around depending on how we are using the room. (In the photos the chairs look a little crammed with the bookcase but they have a few inches to move forward, and with the bookcase taken apart the center unit is temporarily pulled out quite a bit further from the wall than where things will ultimately land.)  I hopped right onto Craigslist and my quick hunt turned up this pretty gal.


Of course, when I picked it up it had seen better days, but it also received a few coats of paint and she instantly looked like new.  Now I just have to decide on the fabric for the cushion.  Speaking of fabrics, wanna see what I landed on?


I finally found a combo that will flow with the rest of the home and continue to tie all of our spaces together.  I am not-so-patiently waiting for some pillow covers to show up in my mailbox and I may even try to dust off my sewing machine this week.  Clock is a tickin'.

I thought about tufting the coffee table top, but I couldn't find a darker fabric that was feet friendly yet didn't weigh down the entire space visually.  So I decided that a sturdy wood top would be a feet and cocktail approved alternative.  We cut a piece for the top and still have to cut a second chunk for the bottom to fit, and this week I am also playing with stain combinations to finish things off.


Although I have always had a crush on airy spaces with white and bright colors, I also love adding black accents.  The drapes will have black banding, the table has pretty black legs and we also added a gallery of black frames to the large wall going down the stairs.


One of the things I appreciated when we walked into our home prior to the renovation, was our large wall of family photographs.  Those larger frames also moved downstairs, but I still want our family moments to remain in this space.  The stairway frames are from Michaels and the mats are from Amazon.  The photographs... they still have to be printed...


I still have to land on a decision regarding the entry pendant and we have a few hooks sitting on the ledge to be installed.  I would also love to add wallpaper to the panels going down the stairs but we will see if that makes the cut.

Although trying to take on this big of a space in six weeks is a bit overwhelming (I typically tweak rooms over the course of years so I am learning as I go), it is nice that we are finally to a point of being able to actually use the room again after almost four months.

Now, I am going to curl up in my "time-out" chair, take a breather, and check out the rest of the One Room Challenge spaces before getting back to kitchen floor installing, table staining, pillow sewing and media stand building.





Chair fabric provided by Tonic Living / Lamp provided by Wayfair.  IHeart Organizing is extremely grateful to have the help of special sponsors to finish this room in six short weeks.

I have to start off this post by saying, "Thank you!"  There were so many kind and encouraging comments on the living room reveal post, and even over the course of the six week challenge.  I truly didn't think we would make it to reveal day, but it has been amazing having a space to use daily again.  I really appreciate everyone that took the time to check in on the progress, share ideas and help me through much of my indecision.

Room reveal days are always full of fluff and happiness and are really just a pure celebration of all of the hard work that has lead up to that day.  They show the best sides of the space and highlight favorite moments and accomplishments.  Hopefully, we all know by now that no lived in room always has a throw blanket perfectly folded on the back of the sofa which is also filled with beautiful pillows.  That the room is not always sporting multiple vases of fresh flowers and neatly stacked books near a reading chair.  I believe that there are design choices that can be made that will keep a room/home looking lovely even with kicked up feet and popcorn bowls, but I also believe that room "reveals" can be equated to stepping out on a Saturday night.  You spend a few hours working on your hair and makeup and even put on your favorite cocktail dress, and although you don't wear that dress everyday, you sure enjoy it when you do.  You are putting your best dressed self forward.


Knowing that, I thought I would take a moment and recap my thoughts on the entire living room makeover process, being that this was the very first time we have ever tackled a room of this size in such a short amount of time.  As much as I love focusing on the positives and happy moments (cough, reveal post, cough), I also think it is important to be real about all the rest.  Sharing both the highs and the lows, our successes and mistakes and even lessons learned.  That is why we blog about our home story and DIY adventures right?

Linda, from Calling It Home, has been hosting the One Room Challenge for a few years now, and I have always enjoyed following along as folks work hard to completely transform rooms in short periods of time.  There is definitely a shock factor seeing what can be done over the course of 5-6 weeks.  Taking the challenge is an amazing way to check off goals from your home to-do list, for lighting a much needed fire under your tush to get things done, and for learning about yourself and your design style.

So when Linda initially contacted me to join in this round, I felt like I had just won the Final Showcase on The Price is Right!  And I hadn't even started playing yet!  It was such an honor and before I knew it, I was placed on a list with really amazing blog talent.  #pinchme

When it came to picking a room, it didn't make sense to start an entirely new project when we already had something big happening (the kitchen/living room renovation).  And I am really, really good at being overly optimistic about projects and time frames.  "It will be easy!"  Those are always my famous last words paired with a knowing better eye roll from my husband.  "Our kitchen will be done in time for the Super Bowl", I said!  Enter eye roll here.

But we somehow managed to pull off a living room from start to finish in a total of five full weeks.  Just after I photographed and posted our starting off photos for Week 1, we began installing flooring and trim.  We ordered furniture, window treatments and accessories.  We painted and shopped and built.  We stayed up late with photography lighting kits while we cut tile in the front yard at 11:30 p.m. (I am sure our neighbors were thrilled).  For five weeks, the majority of our spare time was spent on turning a completely blank slate into a livable and functional family space.

At the end of those five weeks, we high-fived and celebrated all we were able to check off the list.  I even cracked open a bottle of wine and let out the biggest sigh of relief.  There were times when it was easy to get caught up with what we didn't get done or make happen, but I had to get over that real fast.  And although we called it a Room Reveal at the end of the challenge, we were not really done.  In fact, our home is never done.  As we live in our spaces, they evolve and are tweaked and modified to fit our needs.  That is my favorite part... those smaller room layering changes.

To be completely honest, six weeks was not enough time to build a living room from scratch.  Maybe to revamp or refresh a living room, or for a designer with resources and experience, but for us?  Nope.

I found that due to the tight deadline, I was left making impulsive and compromised decisions.  Things that I generally would wait on, had to be purchased now.  For me, this is costly and goes against my goal to shop with intention.  I even selected a few pieces I wouldn't have necessarily picked if I would have had more time.  We didn't have time to revamp our credenza or build our coffee table or wallpaper down the stairs or even add in a few various elements we planned on initially.  Generally speaking, when working on our home there are no deadlines... we just make changes as we live here.

When one is designing a space over time and not for a challenge, and the fabric they love is on back-order, they wait for it to come in.  When I found out at the beginning of the challenge my initial fabric choice couldn't be purchased, I was left ordering piles of swatches and ultimately spending more on alternative pillow covers than I would have liked.  I still picked colors and patterns that will be versatile down the road, but it was just one example of how I fought with the six week deadline.



The same story for our coffee table/ottoman situation.  We tried to use what we had and when those weren't working, we were left with limited time to find a new solution.  20+ stores later, and I was unable to track down a wooden coffee table or tufted ottoman that fit our space.  Everything either needed to be ordered in / delivered outside of our time frame or was just completely out of our budget altogether.  2:00 a.m. the night before photos were being taken, Bryan and I were pulling button tufts and stapling ottoman fabric.   And painting and re-painting chairs at all hours of the night.

On the flip side, not being able to track down my dream mirror ended up being a fairy tale happy ending.  The time crunch really forced me to be resourceful and creative and we wouldn't trade our new DIY mirror for any other.  Sometimes, a little push is a good thing!


It was during those moments; forcing paint choices and driving around for hours sourcing objects, that I actually began resenting the room and the process.  Allowing myself to feel stressed and frustrated about furniture and accessories seemed so silly to me when ultimately it was just material objects.  I had a lot of internal struggles with this...

The six week deadline also caused us to make a few backwards decisions.  We knew we would need a sofa and that they don't tend to show up at your doorstep overnight.  We ended up measuring for it so early on in the process, that we only had sub-floors and exterior cabinets installed.  We taped out our center island and started planning based off of a "three foot walk-around rule" that we had in our heads.  We came up with a size and began shopping around locally for options.  On the last day of a big sale, I ordered one that fit our wish list (rolled arms, pretty furniture legs, neutral color, no pillow back).  When the sofa arrived, I loved the shape, style and color and was relieved to have found something that fit all of our criteria.  We also had three adults give it a whirl and we were all able to fit and sit comfortably.  I felt content with our choice.

After we began bringing pieces into our living room and kitchen, I then realized that we had more space than we initially planned for.  We really didn't need three feet on both sides of the sofa.  Honestly, so much space on either side seems to make the sofa look small in comparison to the rest of the space.  Especially once the rug and built-ins were added combined with the vaulted ceilings.  So although this Goldilocks and her three bears can fit on it just right, in the world of sofas, is bigger always better?  

Trying to measure for a sofa when we had absolutely nothing to base off of and no other furniture or built-ins in place, was not the best strategy.  In fact, we probably should have done it last.

Finally, I have learned over my years of blogging, that projects should not be rushed for the sake of content.  In 90% of the cases that I have forced content, I ended up tweaking or changing things all together after I posted.  I guess this challenge goes against that thought process, and I should have realized that right from the start.  As weeks went by, I found myself uncomfortable sharing posts and room shots before I was ready because things were not panning out, making sense or coming together the way I had envisioned.  Those insecurities paired with the brilliant and creative community I was sharing with and receiving feedback from, complicated my thought process even more.  If anything, I learned that I really appreciate taking the time to think things through, work at a slow pace, and post when we are ready to share.  I go through creative slumps and hit walls all of the time, but there was no time for that during the challenge.


Those creative roadblocks paired with some timing issues with the fireplace installation ultimately meant that the room was "thrown" together at the last minute.  The paint on the built-in was final coated on the Saturday before pictures were shot on Monday.  Once they were dry enough, I had a matter of a few hours to style shelves and the entire room before fighting light for photos.  It felt like one of those down to the wire TV design challenges!  We literally came down to the final hours to get this space done in time, and as you can imagine, not everything stayed where it landed that day.  The flowers have withered, pillows and blankets are tossed in a nearby basket and books I read with the boys each night are piled right where they belong.  Basically, I took my Saturday night makeup off and now we are living with a much more toned down version of the room.  My goal is to let those continuous tweaks and changes happen as we use the space day after day.


Although we pushed ourselves and stumbled and lived and learned, I have zero regrets for joining in on the challenge and taking on our living room.  After living without any space for over four months, the fact we can actually use it on a daily basis again is such a gift.  I learned so much about myself and our home during this process, and have endless respect for designers who can flawlessly transform a space from scratch in such a short amount of time.  I am always up for a good challenge, and may even play along again someday, just on a much smaller scale.  We have never lived in an open concept home before, so to take on a project in a space that I am not familiar with utilizing, probably wasn't the best fit.  But it was an eye opening experience and I am happy to share things we learned from it along the way.

This post may feel a bit opposite of the sunshine I spread around here, but we really are so in love with the new space we created and are extremely grateful for how far it has come.  We only have minor adjustments to make, and for rushing a project, I say that is a giant win!  

Oh!  And last thought.  Always steam and iron fabric before your project.  We hung the curtains first and after steaming them, they started to slightly puddle on the floor.  So now they need to be re-hung.  Ditto for the ottoman.  We pulled it so tight day one when upholstering it, and now it has become loose from being sat on and played on... totally should have ironed it first.  Oops!  Nothing lost, just rookie mistakes.

Now, enough living room chat for awhile... Next week we are back to kitchen updates! 

Welcome to Week 3 of the One Room Challenge being hosted by Linda of Calling it Home.  You can see our plans here and last week's progress here.

Well, by now I should have more completed than a painted shoe cabinet.  But that is about as far as I have come over the last week.  I must admit, I am feeling a little nervous and anxious as the weeks roll by and things are moving slower than I anticipated.  The next few weeks are going to be buuuuuusy but we are still up for the challenge.


Before I get to the shoe cabinet, two quick updates to note before I change my mind about the two updates....

• My initial fabric choice that was my driving color combo behind everything I am doing in both the kitchen and living area, is on back-order.  Like for quite awhile back-order.  This is really throwing me for a loop and has really prevented me from mentally moving forward.  Silly thing is that the fabric is being used for a total of two pillows.  That's right, fabric for two little ol' pillows is causing me to stumble.  So I started ordering more swatches and even more swatches... We need color!

• Me wavering on the wall color is probably driving you all about as crazy as it is driving me.  Some days I LOVE it, some days I feel meh about it.  And I am quickly discovering that I am either awful with my camera, or it just doesn't photograph true.  Probably the first one, or the fact that the color has fifty various personalities.  Anyway, I am giving it about one more week of layering and if I still don't really truly love it, I am going to paint it.  Which is scary right?  The real problem is that I don't know what color I would rather have on my walls to pair with the already installed white cabinets and slate gray island and now slate gray shoe cabinet.  Some days it gets to me, but most days I realize that there are much bigger life problems than a silly paint color, soooo, moving on.

One thing I am sure about is that I totally dig our freshly painted shoe cabinet!

With the entire kitchen/living room renovation, we always planned on bringing in a couple new pieces of furniture, but also have to use many of our existing items.   The shoe cabinet and school cubbies (white credenza) both provide us with great storage and needed to come back into the space.  But now that we have white cabinets in the kitchen, I don't want all white furniture in the adjoining living space.

I decided to take a small risk and paint our IKEA shoe cabinet.  I brought our island door sample to Sherwin Williams and had them color match to their ProClassic Enamel paint.  The goal is to start marrying the two spaces, so the gray was my instant gut choice.  So happy with it!


Because I was so happy about the outcome of our painted dining room hutch, I followed the same steps and wasn't afraid of painting such a high traffic piece of furniture.  This paint goes on like butta and cures nice and hard for a durable finish.

To quickly go over those steps again, I started by giving the entire cabinet a coat of primer.  I prefer Zinsser Oil Based - Bond Coat.  No sanding required to get started is a thumbs up from me.


Once the primer was dry, I gave the cabinet two coats of the gray enamel.  I used a brush for a few of the grooves and used a small microfiber roller for the rest.  I find the microfiber rollers coat well and don't leave the small bubbles that come with foam rollers.



Two coats total and it was completely done.  I only painted the outside of the cabinet, I didn't see a need to mess with the inside where all the dirty shoes are thrown.  And I only sanded a few small spots where dust or puppy hair landed, otherwise, I probably could have done without sanding all together. 

As the second coat was still drying, I held the previous hardware up to the new paint color.  There was zero contrast between the two.  (Hardware was originally purchased here.)


So I grabbed my tube of Rub 'n Buff and a pile of cotton swabs and gave the hardware a little gold attention.


The hardware definitely paired beautifully with the gray.



The colors of the walls and cabinet in the images above are pretty spot on.  The moment I step away... not quite the same. #tipswelcome  Let's blame the lack of window treatments and not my photography.


I also realize that my mirror is hung too low.  I was thinking of adding a sconce above, but have since changed my mind.  So ignore the low mirror, it should be fixed next update.


Now, let's chat a bit about the room layout and the sofa.  Last week I had some questions regarding the sectional and our current seating plans.

When we purchased our sectional a few years ago, we purchased something we knew we would love regardless of the space and room it was in.  After we got it home, it became more and more clear that we preferred our new, smaller sectional to the larger leather one in the basement (due to comfort and style).  Our home has always given us layout challenges, divided kitchen wall or not, but no matter how I mapped it out I just couldn't make our favorite piece of furniture work with the new open concept.  It would either have to live tight to the backs of the barstools or tight to the window.  Once that wall came down, we were happy to move the sofa to our lower level and bring the old faux-leather sectional up to the garage to be sold on Craigslist. In fact, because the lower living area was basically a blank slate, we brought down all of our main level furnishings, including the chair, coffee table and rug.  Suddenly the basement felt lighter yet warmer and everything seemed to fit perfectly, like it was always meant to be.  Phew.


The sale from that sectional and storage ottoman was designated to fund the new sofa.  I looked and looked and looked some more.  Almost every sofa we both agreed on, measured to be too long for the space.  Because we already knew what we were looking for from our previous sectional search a few years ago, we decided to keep many of the same criteria, with the exception of possibly adding a tufted back and rolled arms this time around.   I finally narrowed it down to two options; one from Macy's and another from Home Decorators.  We went and sat on the Macy's option and it was comfortable but I wasn't sure that the upholstery would hold up because the display model was looking loose and "loved".  When Home Decorators had a 20% off upholstery sale plus a free shipping code on the back of their catalog, I decided to order it and hold my breath.


Although the couch looks small in photos, it is almost six feet wide and the arms take up very little of that space.  We have seated three adults comfortably, and the boys and I are all able to snuggle on it together without issues.  We will also have a chair near the window just as we did with our previous layout.  The new sofa leaves us with about three feet of open space near the window and almost four feet to the future island stools.  Plenty of room for the boys to run laps.



Being that we have two living areas, we are happy to know that we can use our main space for day-to-day shenanigans and for hosting friends and family with the open layout and amount of seating in the dining room and at the island.  Major family snuggle sessions and movie watching can happen in our lower level on our loved sectional.  Overall, we are pretty smitten with how it all worked out.

And as you can see above, the built-ins haven't been started yet.  Plans are drawn up and finger nails are being bitten but I am trying to remain confident in our DIY abilities. I also brought in our old coffee table which was ultimately going to be a deck table but I wanted to see how it would fit here.  I may end up using one of our round ones instead or changing the glass out with a wood or upholstered top.  Although the furniture still seems a little choppy, an area rug should be the piece to pull everything together.  Decision making is at an all time high the next few weeks.  Time to stock our new wine rack!


P.S. My boys are into playing Wheel of Fortune right now which I totally love.  P.P.S.  My eight year old believes that mis-matched socks are the cool "thing", which I also love because they were when I was a kid also.  Some things never change....


OK, I have jabbered enough today.  Let's take a long coffee break to check out all of the other amazing One Room Challenge participants below.

Last week we revealed we are diving into the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda of Calling it Home.  Six hardcore weeks to take a room from blank slate to livable and fabulous. 

The term "blank slate" tends to be used loosely, however, in our case it is spot on.


We have been waiting to install our flooring due to the custom order island in the adjoining kitchen area.  We selected a floating laminate floor for this renovation (more on that in a moment), and it was recommended that the floor be installed around our cabinets vs. under to prevent any possible floor buckling.  Now that the challenge is in full swing and we have SO much to do in such a short amount of time, it was time to get that flooring in STAT.

We began our flooring search and shopping around for options a few months prior to ripping down our wall.  We stopped at a variety of flooring outlets as well as the obvious options such as Lumber Liquidators, Home Depot and Lowes.  We also started ordering samples from a few online flooring sources.


I really wanted to do a hardwood oak floor, however, each sample received the key test.  Have you tried it?  We have two large dogs, three active little boys and a Jen (the clumsiest of us all).  Of course we don't want to have to worry about constant maintenance or even replacing the floors anytime in the near future, so each floor sample was scraped and tapped with a key to test for durability.


Some options definitely performed better than others.  And the real hardwood?  Major sad face because they failed the test big time.  Not to mention they were by far the most expensive options.

Once real hardwoods were out of the picture, the next thing we looked at were color, grain, thickness and warranty.  I still wanted to achieve the look of a hardwood but with maximum durability.  As we eliminated options one by one for being too light, too dark, too orange or too thin, we landed on Cotton Valley Oak from Home Depot.  It was juuuuust right.  Next step was to click the "purchase now" button and take a deep breath.  So scary ordering such a large quantity of something based on a single sample.


The flooring has been waiting patiently for us since.  This past weekend we room-a-zoom-zoomeed to get it installed throughout the entire living area!


We officially have beautiful floors! #milestones

We have installed flooring on a few occasions, and this was by far the easiest.  It receives a homeowner thumbs up!


We will do a separate post to document more of the flooring installation process, as we still have the entire kitchen side to do also.  Word is that our island is being delivered at the end of the week so cross your fingers and toes for us!


We have only lived with the floors for a few days now, so I can't really speak to their long term durability, but so far, we are very happy campers.  Most importantly, they finally made our space feel warm.  Like ooey gooey melt in your mouth roasted marshmallow warm. 

Once the floors were in, we started trimming out the room.  I selected 5" base trim and 3" window and door casing.  A small upgrade from our previous trim, but a big ol' dramatic difference in my eyes. 


We didn't install trim on the back wall as our next step is to start building in the bookcases.  Floor to ceiling goodness is about to go down.  Er up.


Remember the paint color debate?  I had forced myself to pick something because gazing endlessly at 42 swatches each day was making me twitchy.  And I also thought it would be much easier to paint before installing cabinets, flooring, trim and built-ins.  After the color was on the wall, I needed to let myself adjust to it, and convinced myself to give it time.  Most days I am actually really fond of it.  This week is gloomy and paired with the floors, it almost feels too green/muddy.  So now I don't know!  I am going to keep moving on with our original plan, but I totally have a massive internal debate happening...


Other than that, we LOVE everything else happening.


So that is where we are a week later!  Floors and some trim.  SUCH a difference. 


Up next?  I found a mirror I love for above the shoe cabinet and we are in the middle of the classic DIY or buy debate.  Speaking of shoe cabinet, I am planning to give it a little update to break up all of our white furniture and cabinets.  While I work on those items, Bryan is amping up to tackle the big bookcase build.  Let the games begin!




Don't forget to stop in and check out the other fantastic participants also working to makeover an entire space in the same six weeks.  Each Wednesday I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!  #oneroomchallenge