ORC Linking Participant

As I’m getting into this six week One Room Challenge, the lyrics for Fergie’s song, Big Girls Don’t Cry, keep going through my head–specifically the lines:

“The path that I’m walking I must go alone.  I must take baby steps ’til I’m full grown.”

Well, it has been baby steps this week (and I’m definitely going it alone.)  But that’s OK.  I’m gaining momentum, and I’m excited about the next few (very few) weeks.

This week I tackled the walk-in closet.   The closet is one of the big advantages to using this bedroom space for my office over the builder designed “Office” in my home, but sometimes I think these builders make a closet a wee bit deeper than your non-walk-in closet and way less wide just so they can say it’s a walk-in.  That’s the case with this 4’x4′ closet, but I’m not complaining.  Here’s how it looked before:

Closet Before

The closet had been designed for clothing storage with two hanging rods and a single shelf above each one.  I was storing all of my bolts of fabric in a large round planter on one side and I had put a dresser on the other side, but the dresser was empty and serving no purpose.  The bolts of fabric were taking up too much room and were hard to access.  Now, you’re probably thinking the logical solution would be to purge and get rid of some of those bolts of fabric.  I know my husband is of that mindset too.  But that’s crazy.  All I had to do was install a small piece of MDF across that side of the closet, and voila:

Fabric bolt storage

The center bolt of gold and pink plaid silk is going to be the window panels for this room.  On the other side of the closet,  I removed the hanging rod too and added shelves.

Closet After

I still need to caulk and paint a little, and I want to add labels to the fabric sample bins, but it’s already so much more functional.

I’ve also added  some furniture to the space.

Seating Area & Bookshelf

My mother calls it “robbing Peter to pay Paul,”  but I went around my house and collected a club chair, faux-bamboo floor lamp, and faux-bamboo bookself to fill this corner of the Office.  I plan to add an ottoman or footstool and change the shade on the lamp (and maybe paint the lamp???)  These pieces were really just cluttering their original rooms, so it’s a win-win.  In this picture, you can see the bathroom vanity area.  This room is connected to another bedroom by a Jack & Jill style bathroom, but in this case, the sinks are open to the bedroom areas and the toilet and tub/shower is in a small enclosed space between the two rooms.  I’m not sure what to do about this space.  I’ll probably take down the large mirror because it has a pair and they would like to be reunited, maybe in my Living Room.  I’d like to change the walls a bit to differentiate this space from the rest of the Office.  Maybe wallpaper or stencil or a decorative finish?  Also, I want to add cabinet hardware and change the wall sconce, which you can see partially here.

Wall Sconce

We’ll see what I come up with for this space.  Any suggestions are welcome!

This coming week, I’m going to focus on getting the window treatment made and installed.  Any other progress is icing on the cake!

Please check out the progress for the One Room Challenge participants here and the linking participants here.    Thanks so much to Linda at CallingitHome for organizing the One Room Challenge.  My house and I are very thankful for this opportunity.  And please check back next week to see if my  “baby steps”  get me anywhere near to being “full grown.”

Have an awesome week!

Rachel