One Room Challenge Week 1- Going to the dark side

Hey guys!  I’m so incredibly super excited that the One Room Challenge is here! (I can totally picture all of the ORC veterans going, “Oh, that’s so adorable, she has absolutely NO IDEA what she is getting herself into!” Which, of course, is totally true!)

So welcome, if you’ve never been here before!  I’m Beth, an RN by day, and a fledging DIY/design blogger by early morning/night.  Read more about me and my family here.  I live in a 122 year old farmhouse style home- of which I’m usually torn between respecting the farmhouse vibe (tons of shiplap and etc.) and adding in the many other not farmhouse-y design elements that I also love.  Farmhouse usually wins. Which is cool, I love farmhouse.

But not in this case.

For the ORC, I’m designing the main entry in our home, which has sadly become kind of a dumping ground of leftover furniture since we moved in around 2 years ago.  It’s actually one of the largest rooms in our house, but has just served as a walk through until this point.  What I want to do is make this a purposeful, functional room.

I’ve always pictured it as a library.  (Except in my mind and sometimes out loud I say it like “li-berry” because in real life “library” just seems really hard to say sometimes.)

Anyway, here’s the before:

This is the view from the front door.  That navy blue door is our bathroom door.  Yup, the view from the front door is the bathroom. Welcome to our home! 😉

 

I do love the detail of the horizontal and diagonal shiplap in this room!

The inspiration:

I’ve been perusing Pinterest for months for inspiration!  I’ve realized that, although pretty much all of the rest of the rooms in our house are white, in this room, I’m craving a dark, cozy vibe.  This room doesn’t get much natural light, so the white walls aren’t doing it any favors anyway.  Check it out:

 

 

That’s the feeling I’m going for.  So, I think we’re headed for the dark side!

 

Here’s the design plan.

(Affiliate links included- see my disclosure here.)

 

Dark, dark navy shiplap.

We’ll build a wall of built in bookcases.  We desperately need the storage, plus- all of that styling room!

That couch.  I’ve been lusting after it for months.  Got it on sale at World Market for half off!

The hanging chair is a total lure for my boys to use the room.  #notashamed #wedowhatwemust

The cowhide rug could change- I have it already, and I tend to think of cowhide as a neutral in a space…we shall see.

The chandy is already present in the room, but brass.  I’ll paint it black, then change the candle lighting fixtures out to round bulbs.

Definitely some shots of color and white to keep the room from feeling like a cave- which was a specific request of my boys.  They don’t mind the dark paint, but they really don’t want the room to feel too dark.  It’s a fine line between cozy and cavelike, after all.  The thick molding around the door and the baseboards will be painted a bright white.

But, what I might be most excited about…Michael found a super large (I think it’s about 4 or 5 feet across) framed black and white print of the UGA campus IN THE TRASH downtown one day.  He rescued it, and we’ve been waiting until I could get it together with this room to hang it.  It’s super heavy, so it will be a project itself.  It will be the star of this room.

This room will definitely lean a bit more modern than the rest of the house, which has a more coastal/farmhouse vibe.  I’m excited to try to stretch my design wings a bit!

Fair warning- this plan will likely change as we go!

Thanks for following along, and a big THANK YOU to Linda at Calling it Home for hosting this opportunity! Be sure to check out all of the other One Room Challenge guest bloggers here and the 20 featured designers here.  You are going to find tons of inspiration!

Psst- The One Room Challenge is now complete!  To catch up on all the action—-

Week 2—Week 3—Week 4—Week 5—Week 6—The Reveal!