One Room Challenge: Week 7 |Simple Office Makeover Reveal

Image 12 Comments

Today is the big day friends! Although we weren’t able to keep up with the weekly progress posts for our One Room Challenge, we still managed to finish the room on time (hooray!). If you’re just tuning in here for the very first time and don’t know what The One Room Challenge™ is, it’s a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October, hosted by Lisa of Calling It Home, in which twenty design bloggers take the challenge of transforming a space in just six weeks. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process while sharing their sources and professional advice. On Thursdays, guest bloggers, like us, can play along and support other guest bloggers that are also tackling a room renovation. As you may already know, we were working on an office makeover for my brother and sister-in-law because although we love DIYing, we couldn’t handle the stress of doing our own home renovation while both of us are in school.

ORC GPDon’t worry I’m not going to chit chat too much. The whole point of this post is to see a satisfying transformation and we will get to that in just a minute. Of course we also want this post to be inspirational and informative so following the before and afters we will give an overview of the changes this project entailed, the cost, and our sources. If you don’t even remember how this project began you can refer to weeks one, two, and three for a quick reminder.

BEFORE: A DARK & SAD ROOM

IMG_5608

IMG_5607

AFTER: WORK SPACE GOALS

IMG_7365

IMG_7355

 

IMG_7361

IMG_7377

IMG_7121

So how did we get from A to Z? Never underestimate the power of a fresh coat of paint. In our opinion it is the cheapest, easiest, and most impactful way to transform a space. My sister-in-law wanted a bright and modern space so we went with Behr in Ultra White for a fresh clean look. Another impactful thing we did was to take down the vintage lace curtains and replace them with brand new blinds that I purchased from IKEA for $2 each (yes you read that correctly). Let’s just say it pays to lurk in the last chance section!

IMG_7371

Replacing the fan light with a modern ceiling light from IKEA for $30 also dramatically changed the look of the office. The black fixture really complemented the gray desks and the hardwood floors and brought in much needed light. Of course one of the most expensive purchases was the Algot system which we added for shelf space above the desks. While we did toy around with the idea of building custom shelving, we decided in the end that spending a little more on a system that could be adjustable to changing needs would be the smartest choice. For $85, it was well worth the investment and provided the perfect amount of space for organizing books, supplies, and for styling decor. The best part about this transformation was that nothing was difficult to do; painting, installing shelving, replacing the light fixture, all of these required no super special tools or skill sets (which means you could do it too!). 

IMG_7385

We could not be happier with how this room turned out. Considering our crazy schedules and all the stress in our lives, I think we did a pretty good job of bringing  our simple vision to life. We wanted a fresh, inspiring space with bohemian elements (patterned rug, copper accents, plants) and I think we definitely pulled that off. While we are very happy with the final look of the room, there are still some areas of improvement that we will probably return to. One of them is wire control. We definitely want to find a way to conceal and minimize the tangling of the printer, desk lamp, and laptop cords. We also want to add a little more color and character to the rest of the walls. I think this is something that will naturally come as my brother and sister-in-law live in the space and identify what speaks to their style. In that sense, I don’t mind the empty walls as much because I think of it as their decor journey has only just begun. I also thought it would be nice to have a fun little reading corner complete with fancy shmancy floor pillows but it looks like that will have to wait.

 

Sources

 

 

Ceiling Light $29.99 | Office Chair  $84.99 |Shelving  $85| Rug $69.99| Desk Lamp $12.99 Magazine Rack $14.99 |Vase $2.99 | Plants $2.99| Hanging Storage $4.36| Frames $.99

As you can see, many of the items we purchased are both accessible and reasonably priced for the average home DIYer. We took advantage of many deals to save big including using a 10% off coupon from Wayfair and thrifting to keep our makeover well under $500. The rug was my sister’s belated birthday gift to my brother for the renovation so all we really had to purchase was the shelving, chairs, lighting and accessories. This came out to about $350. For the decorating I was a little savvier as I relied on some thrifty finds like a set of 4 wall baskets for $1.99 and free printable wall art (tropical palm leaf and keep pushing on).

IMG_7199

 

All in all, it’s been another successful One Room Challenge and we can’t wait for the next one 🙂

Any questions? Thoughts? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s final reveal posts and as always, if you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

signature3

One Room Challenge: Week 3 | Choosing Office Furniture

Image 5 Comments

Hello friends and welcome to week 3 of our One Room Challenge Office Makeover. Hosted by Lisa of Calling It Home,  The One Room Challenge™, is a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October in which twenty design bloggers take the challenge of transforming a space in just six weeks. Every Wednesday, the designers document their progress while sharing their sources and professional advice. On Thursdays, guest bloggers, like us, can play along and support other guest bloggers that are also tackling a room renovation.

ORC GP

If you’ve been following along since the beginning, you’ll know that we are running a bit behind schedule. As of now, we are officially done with painting the room and we are getting ready to furnish it! Although we haven’t made any big changes yet, we did make some pretty big decisions recently including settling on a rug, blinds, and shelving system. Today is a big day because we are actually going to IKEA to finally purchase many of those things including the Algot system, which we will be installing on the wall where the desks will be located. I’ll be taking my brother and sister-in-law along  with me so they can test out office chairs to determine what is comfortable and stylish for them. Ideally, it would have been nice to thrift and reupholster some office chairs but for longevity and comfort purposes we opted to buy them new instead.  Here are just some of the things we will be picking up today:

ORCWeek3

We really wanted to build custom wood shelving but there is simply not enough time in our schedules. At the end of the day, we think the Algot system is the best choice because: 1) it’s easy to install, 2) reasonably priced, 3) modern and clean, and 4) customizable to fit any organizing needs. We will share a post in the future detailing exactly how to purchase and install the Algot for your office space. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the painted room and the itinerary for the last three weeks.

IMG_5697

IMG_5689

WEEK 1: Empty office, tape around the walls and windows, and paint

WEEK 2: Finish painting walls

WEEK 3: Finalize and purchase office furniture

WEEK 4: Install shelving, lighting, and window treatments

WEEK 5: Organizing, styling, and decorating

WEEK 6: Cleaning and Final Reveal

Be sure to check back next week for more updates on this fun office project! And as always, if you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

signature3

One Room Challenge: Week 2 | Primed to Paint

Image 5 Comments

Hello Friends and welcome to Week 2 of our One Room Challenge Office Makeover. It’s been a busy and rough week (our son got sick with some kind of stomach bug and we are running in the Detroit Free Press Marathon on Sunday) so we are a bit behind schedule. Because of the relatively small scale of work needed for this room, we are not really worried about finishing on time.

ORC GPHosted by Lisa of Calling It Home,  The One Room Challenge™, is a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October in which twenty design bloggers take the challenge of transforming a space in just six weeks. Every Wednesday, the designers document their progress while sharing their sources and professional advice. On Thursdays, guest bloggers, like us, can play along and support other guest bloggers that are also tackling a room renovation.

IMG_6165

IMG_6169

IMG_6170

IMG_1306

IMG_6076

As far as this week’s progress goes, we did manage to have the room emptied and primed (thanks little bro). Although it’s hard to tell in the pictures above, the primed walls give a small glimpse of how light paint will transform the feel of the room. And speaking of paint colors, after much deliberation at our local Home Depot, my sister in-law and I decided to go with Behr’s Ultra-Pure White. I think it will offer the blank canvas we need to build a space that is inviting and inspiring to work in. To get an idea of what this might look like in a room, you can read here about this once “color of the month.” All rightie, here’s what the rest of the schedule looks like now:

WEEK 1: Empty office, tape around the walls and windows, and paint

WEEK 2: Paint walls, install shelving and organization systems

WEEK 3: Change light fixture

WEEK 4: Install window treatments

WEEK 5: Organizing, styling, and decorating

WEEK 6: Cleaning and Final Reveal

Be sure to check back next week for more updates on this fun office project! And as always, if you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

 

signature3

One Room Challenge: Week 1 | Simple Office Makeover Mood Board

Image 7 Comments

Happy Friday friends! After getting a taste of our first One Room Challenge back in April when we renovated our bathroom, we are back for another round! Hosted by Lisa of Calling It Home,  The One Room Challenge™, is a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October in which twenty design bloggers take the challenge of transforming a space in just six weeks. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process while sharing their sources and professional advice. On Thursdays, guest bloggers, like us, can play along and support other guest bloggers that are also tackling a room renovation.

ORC GPThis year is a little interesting for us because we are now both in graduate school and so are VERY short on time (can’t stress that enough). While we would love to turn a room upside down for a makeover, we simply do not have the luxury of doing so. Instead we will be working with my brother and sister-in-law to help them design and makeover their home office. Both my brother and sister-in-law are in their last year of undergraduate school and they are newlyweds so they want a space that is budget friendly and one that is comfortable and organized as they continue to pursue their dreams. We are hoping to deliver on all fronts!

BEFORE

IMG_5607
IMG_5614
IMG_5608
IMG_5609

IMG_5990In this post, I’ll be sharing a mood board that I created as an inspirational blueprint. Before I put it together, I created a pinterest board and had my sister-in-law pin some of her favorite office spaces. Then as we boarded a plane for Kansas City, we went over her choices and why she liked them. Of course we didn’t leave out my brother in the decision-making, although he was a little less interested in the particulars. Based on their style interests this is the board I came up with:

ORC OFFICE

Obviously many of the elements will change as we proceed with the makeover but there are some things that we will stick with: neutrals and black with subtle pops of color, copper accents, and plants. To cut on costs, I will make use of free printables for the wall decor and I will also hit thrift stores and garage sales for much of the small storage furniture and decorative accessories. What I imagine we will spend the most on are office chairs and a rug. Unless by some miracle we hit the thrifting jackpot. The biggest challenges will face are keeping the cost low and balancing between function and aesthetics. My brother really wants a super comfy, ergonomic executive chair and unfortunately those are not the most visually appealing.

71xQWAfmXqL._SL1500_In terms of timeline here are where things stand. My brother is currently cleaning out the office {if you’re reading this bro, you better get on it ;)} to get it ready for painting. As you can see the walls are really dark so we will be picking out a fresh white to brighten up the space and get it primed to be ONE inspirational work space.

WEEK 1: Empty office, tape around the walls and windows, and paint

WEEK 2: Install shelving and organization systems

WEEK 3: Change light fixture

WEEK 4: Install window treatments

WEEK 5: Organizing, styling, and decorating

WEEK 6: Cleaning and Final Reveal

Anyone else working on a makeover for One Room Challenge? Feel free to share in the comments below, we would love to hear what you have planned! Until next week 🙂

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

One Room Challenge: Week 6|Bathroom Renovation Reveal

Image 36 Comments

Yesterday marked week 6 of Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge™ and that means it’s reveal time! We are so excited to share the results with you and see what other awesome bloggers have done. Seriously, after you’re done with this post go check out some of the other transformations. You will not be disappointed!

ORCI wasn’t able to take pictures sooner because we were out of the house yesterday and we have guests staying with us but I finally got around to it this morning. We thought we would have a little more time to decorate but time is up! There are still a few things we will be finishing up this weekend including installing the glass shower door, putting in the toilet paper bar (which will be back in stock at IKEA on May 14th), and staining the new window sill moulding but the bathroom is fully functional and oh so awesome. We also realized that we had not been properly linking up our posts to the Calling It Home site and we were a little discouraged that we had done all this work for nothing. But this renovation isn’t for everyone else. It’s for us.  All the sweat and blood (literally) that went into this project was for our family’s comfort and so before we get to the reveal, we thought we would recap our six weeks of hard work.

IMG_1136

Week 1 | Bathroom Renovation Preparation

IMG_1590Week 2 | Bathroom Renovation Demolition

IMG_1597Week 3 | Laying the Foundation for Tile

IMG_6453Week 4 | Mudding and Tiling a Bathroom

IMG_6526Week 5 | Tiling and Decorating a Bathroom

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we ran into some issues that cost us precious time. Because of that, we literally spent every day this last week working well into the early morning hours in order to finish on time. In just one week, we grouted and sealed the entire bathroom, primed and painted the walls, assembled and installed the vanity and storage cabinet, installed shelving and lighting, cleaned and caulked everything, and had the plumber come and connect the plumbing. Was it worth it? Totally! Although some features were not our first choice, we are very happy with the results. As you will see soon, our bathroom is unrecognizable. The white subway and Carrara marble tile totally brightened up and opened up the space. It looks so much bigger! Our favorite part, however, is the accent wall in the shower. We cannot wait to bathe the babies and enjoy the beautiful view. Without further ado…

.

.

.

.

IMG_2123

IMG_2064

IMG_2034

IMG_2052

IMG_2037

IMG_2067

IMG_2058

IMG_2099

IMG_2093

What do you think of the transformation? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. You can also follow along on Instagram @thecozyhomechronicles for other fun DIYs and projects. Up next is our summer garden 🙂

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

One Room Challenge: Week 5|Tiling and Decor Inspiration

Image 15 Comments

Today marks week 5 of Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge™ and that means we are less than one week away from the final reveal. We thought we would have a little more finished this week but with a grant application deadline that my wife needed to submit for, things got pushed to the side. As of now, all the tile has been laid on the floor and walls and we are getting ready to grout tomorrow. We have had our fair share of cuts and bruises (not to mention fatigue) but we are finally nearing the finish line and are so excited to share with you.

All right! Here’s what we have left to do:

1. Grout and clean the haze

3. Prime and paint the non-tiled walls

4. Install vanity, toilet, storage cabinet, and other accessories

5. Decorate and style

ORC

Progress:
Einstein was really on to something when he came up with his theory of relativity. It’s seriously hard to believe that we have been working on this project for a month now! To recap: We demoed and gutted the bathroom, installed the new bathtub and had the pipes replaced, installed new cement boards and insulation, mudded and tiled everything. Tiling was not hard but it was tedious because of all the cuts I had to make. The good news is that grouting shouldn’t take more than a few hours (if we can actually settle on a grout color). After that the plan is to do minor touch-ups to the drywall and then prime and paint. If all goes according to schedule, we hope to install the vanity this weekend and get the bathroom ready for the final photoshoot.

IMG_6526

IMG_6537

IMG_6551

IMG_6608

IMG_6689

This past weekend we went and picked out our bathroom furniture from IKEA and it was a bit more difficult than we had anticipated. The vanity series that we really liked only came in two depths: 11″ and 19″. Both of these were on the extreme ends of what we wanted. Ideally, we were looking for something around 15-16″ to maximize storage efficiency and spaciousness. We found exactly that but in a color that we weren’t so sure about. In the end we had to make the sacrifice and go with this one in black-brown. The major upside to this was the vanity sink. Every single thing about the sink that comes with this vanity series is beautiful and perfect. Okay, I know I’m talking about a sink here but it truly is a thing to behold.

lillangen-sink-white__0381414_PE556140_S4The light fixture was something else that we had to settle on this week and we went with an inexpensive bath bar light and these awesome filament globe bulbs. It might look simple but with the specific lightbulbs we chose,  it looks really cool.

Decor Inspiration:
We put together a mood board of inspiring decor items from IKEA, Target, Etsy, Urban Outfitters, and Anthropologie. We are not going to necessarily buy all of these things but creating this helped us decide on the look that we are going for: something earth-inspired, calming, and with a splash of color.

bathroom inspo

At the center of the mood board is a quote art that my wife made herself. It’s something our son always says when he’s splashing around in the bath and we thought it would make for a nice bathroom wall decor. We are also providing it to you as a free download printable. Think of it is a gift of appreciation for putting up with us and our crazy projects all this time 🙂

Printable Wall Art: splishsplash

Anyways, we could have shown you more progress shots but we will save that for next week. There’s nothing worse than a trailer that gives away a movie’s plot. The accent wall turned out more amazing than we could have thought so we will just let you revel in that thought until you can see it for yourself in next week’s final post.

Would you like to see our progress as it unfolds? You can also follow along on Instagram @thecozyhomechronicles for behind-the-scene videos!

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram

Bathroom Renovation: Design Inspiration

Image 5 Comments

Happy Tuesday friends 😊  Today we are sharing two design boards and some inspiration for an exciting renovation we have planned…our main floor bathroom. This is a project we have wanted to do for quite some time but it was pretty low on our priorities because of time and budget. Now that we have finished our basement and renovated our kitchen, we figured it was a good year to do it (our painted tub is also starting to chip away). We also wanted our renovation to coincide with The One Room Challenge although right now we are not so sure because we can’t really start our project unless we have settled on a design. And that has been quite hard to do!

Here are just some of our dilemmas:

  1. Black, steel, or chrome faucet fixtures?
  2. Floating shelves or cabinets?
  3. Colorful or white/gray mosaic tile?

We know what you’re thinking! That may seem like everything but we promise there are some things we do know for certain that we want.

  1. White subway tile.
  2. A narrow vanity.
  3. An accent wall in the shower.

With that in mind, here are two design boards that we came up with based on what we like. They do look very similar but there are some major differences with regards to floor tile, vanity color, fixtures, and mosaic tile choices. The reason there are three tile choices because even with two boards we couldn’t narrow things down. Heck, we even have a Pinterest board dedicated to all the mosaic tiles we like. If there was no such thing as a budget then we would hands down go with Moroccan fish tile. Unfortunately what we were quoted for a small area was almost more than our entire bathroom renovation budget (boo). The real question now for us is whether we should go with a white/gray stone tile or a bright pop of color like emerald or mint green. We are leaning toward a splash of color even though white herringbone and hexagon patterns are beautiful. Home Depot carries gorgeous arabesque tile that are very reasonably priced (decisions, decisions).

Before we get to our boards, here are some bathrooms that we saved in our bathroom inspiration Pinterest board that have really stood out and helped us realize what features and looks we like. Now only if we can settle on something.

A Pop of Color or Pattern in the Shower

Black, White, and Wood All Over

tumblr_mw5rdhP7pS1qkgnf7o1_500

Source: Little Lulu

Small and White, Clean and Bright

20142_coba20a_01_PE379441

Source: IKEA

20172_coba09a_01_PH138884

Source: IKEA

Simple and Rustic

b0754fc708c8e4f9e4e44000dd8b8166.jpg

Source: Housley

All right. Without further ado here are our boards.

Bathroom Renovation D1

Bathroom Renovation D2

Our finished bathroom will probably pull features and inspiration from both boards and some of our favorite bathrooms but until we can be decisive and settle on a final look, there won’t be a finished bathroom. What do you guys think? Which board was your favorite? We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Instagram