one room challenge: introducing the a-frame
Hello there! Is 2020 over yet? Unbelievably, no. But there is some good news: twenty select designers along with a couple hundred bloggers and insta-folks are ready to spend the next six weeks distracting you from reality because the autumn edition of the 2020 One Room Challenge starts now!
For those non-design nerds in the crowd, the One Room Challenge was started forever ago by Linda of Calling It Home to hold herself accountable for finishing her own home decorating project. I’m sure none of you have ever had a room in your house that you started to redecorate (or even remodel) only to find months later that things aren’t quite how you wanted them. Me neither. Anyway, the gist of the challenge is that each participant has six weeks to “finish” their selected room.
I can’t continue at this point without commenting on the current state of the world relative to this seemingly frivolous challenge. For some, even for me depending on the time of day, it feels totally ridiculous to be focusing on home improvement given that we are in month eight of the strangest period many of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. People have lost loved ones, jobs, homes…. These people and things – very obviously – matter so much more than curtains and throw pillows. And, at the same time, we are all spending considerably more time at home these days, which means it makes total sense to be focusing on our homes. Design is, after all, so much more than curtains and throw pillows. Design is about how we live and who lives with us. It can be a distraction or a mood booster and connection builder. And so, on that note, we begin our project.
We are the very fortunate owners of a 1974 A-frame. It is a small house that looks considerably bigger than its two bedrooms and one-ish bath (two toilets with one shared shower – so weird). The kitchen, living, and dining areas are all in one long, open space. One long, open, wood paneled, dark brown trimmed, popcorn ceilinged, green Formica countered, ugly laminate floored space.
We purchased the house from the original owner, who had maintained the house so well that most of its original features were still in place. Like the avocado green range and the Big Bird shag carpet on the stairs. The house definitely fits its vintage. And we actually love that about it. Still, though, it could use a little modernization. This “great room” is the space we will be working to freshen up over the next six weeks.
Yes, we got to keep this stunning sofa.
You would think that I would already know exactly what I want to do to this space, but I have to admit that my ideas are still evolving. It doesn’t help that my husband and I have very different ideas of what “needs” to be done. For example, he hated the fireplace so much, he has already removed it. We now have a corner with no flooring and a hole in the ceiling with a garbage can under it in case of storms. I might have decorated around that little obstacle until we had a plan, but hey, everyone has their priorities. Mine is to replace the current (ugly brown) door with a window and use the secondary (glass pane) door as the entry. Why do we need two random doors on one wall of the house, particularly if that wall is less than 40’ wide?
Missing floor and hole in the ceiling. (And if you look closely, there is that lovely sofa from before!)
Fortunately, these are the only two things that require a contractor’s help to get done. The other items are all things we can do ourselves. I thought it was a short list until I started typing. Six weeks is starting to look like not enough time. Here’s what we need to do…
Lay flooring where the fireplace was taken out.
Make a decision on the walls. Paint the paneling and the trim all one color? Paint the paneling one color and the trim another? Leave the paneling as is but paint the trim? Replace the upper and seam molding with natural, stained molding?
Make a decision on the ceiling. Strip the popcorn and paint it? Cover the popcorn with wood tongue and groove (like this)? We might be limited by budget here so this might be a down the line project that doesn’t make the cut right now.
Finish ordering furniture and furnishings. We still need rugs, lighting, chair(s), a coffee table, entrance storage/zone, and some kind of plan for the space in to the west of the staircase (aka “sitting area” – I must come up with a better name for that!).
Did I mention order rugs to cover the flooring? Replacing the floors is not in our budget right now so rugs will have to do.
Add art. There are faded spots on the wood paneling from where the former owner had art. If we leave the paneling as is, these spots need to be disguised.
There are some other items that are not technically in the defined area we are working on (living/dining/sitting) but visually part of the space, therefore still under consideration for this One Room Challenge:
Paint kitchen cabinets.
Replace cabinet pulls. This is still under consideration. The existing pulls are super ugly but they are period correct. New pulls are an added cost that we may not be willing to pay. Maybe we could paint the existing pulls black to save the money?
Dream world: wallpaper kitchen backsplash.
Further dream world: replace railing on loft with something less chunky and not so Three Bears’ Cabin.
I realize that I’ve given you the before and the to-do list with no visual plan of where we are headed. Don’t worry. I have one. Sorry. You will have to wait until next week to get a look. Until then, check out the other projects people are staying home to work on via the One Room Challenge link-up or on Instagram by following #oneroomchallenge on Instagram.