One Room Challenge: Small Swanky Sitting Room – Reveal Day!

Nov 5, 20144 min read

Ok One and All, it is finally here! The big reveal of the Small Swanky Sitting room makeover that I have been working on for the last 6 weeks along with a bunch of other Designers and Bloggers for the One Room Challenge (ORC).

Six weeks went by so quickly, but I am glad we are at the point where we get to showcase the results of our hard work. I can say that I will need a couple of glasses of margaritas or something to calm my nerves – and I don’t even drink! 🙂

All kidding aside, it was great decorating this room and I am happy to be a part of the One Room Challenge.

In case you aren’t familiar with the ORC, let me get you up to speed.

The One Room Challenge is a semi-annual (Spring and Fall) design challenge hosted by Linda at Calling It Home blog, where 20 Designer/Blogger participants are asked to make over a room in their own home or a client’s home, and blog about the progress over 6 weeks. The challenge is also open to other Designers and Bloggers (like myself) who choose to participate, and each Thursday we all join a link party to showoff our progress. You can follow my progress here: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5

Well we all know you are here to check out pretty pictures, but before we get to the new room, let’s take a look back at where we started.

The small 10×12 room started life as a dining room with a builder grade chandelier and paint color, a few pieces I already owned and a lot of potential. Since my family doesn’t formally dine, I thought it would be better used as a sitting room/library – a place to relax and enjoy my books.

BEFORE

Ready to see what the room looks like now?

Well minus me that is? 🙂

Welcome To My Small Swanky Sitting Room

Ok here goes!

You can see in the shot below that I chose the cream leopard fabric for the custom drapery. So if you were team cream leopard….Yay you! 🙂 It just worked better with the dark gray wall color (even though the blue was actually my favorite).

You will also see the remaining fabrics made into pillows for the loveseat. These fabrics were chosen as a tribute to the late Charles Faudree, an Interior Designer known for his beautiful french country interiors. I admire his work so much and love his fabric collections for Vervain

Here you will also see the DIY feather project I worked on. It is my version of a juju hat. It’s not perfect, but it adds alot of texture and is a great conversation piece in the room. I will be doing a tutorial here on the blog soon.

If you were following the progress over the past 6 weeks, you may notice that the copper pillows got a minor face-lift. I added trim to give them a more luxe look. Come back to the blog soon for more details.

The bookcase is styled with my design magazines and favorite books, and some objects that I have collected over time. I have so many books that there is also a couple stacks on the floor to the right of the bookcase. I just love books!

You will see my DIY urchins in this photo as well. I will also be sharing a tutorial on the blog soon.

You will notice my London maps in this shot. They came in right at the last minute and it was a beast hanging them because of the way the hangers were placed on the back…..but I got it done……late one night 🙂

I added the fauxidermy to fill the areas on either side of the bookcase without making them the focal point.

You will notice that although the room is mostly warm colors, I mixed in some cooler tones and made white and accent color. It was all about layering in this space.

A closer look at the DIY urchins, and my awesome ceramic garden stools. I think I have a thing for the prism shape….you will see it in a couple other places in the room.

This room is my grown-up space – A bit of a getaway to read my design books and magazines. It is certainly filled with a lot of the things I love including pieces with great sentimental value, like the bombe chest and architectural prints I purchased with my late husband over 12 years ago. I even added some of the trends I love.

You can see that the room is an eclectic mix of different styles, periods and trends all tied together with color. It is a wonderful mix of high end and custom, with DIY projects and pieces done on a budget.

Look out for my upcoming blog post with the resources for finding some of these great pieces and learn how to mesh different styles, and get a high end look on a budget.

I think this room is a hit! You may want to stay tuned for the faux pas and the misses….and there were a few 🙂

You can check out the main participants and see how their rooms turned out. And be sure to check out the link party going on now

So if you are digging this space, imagine what we can do with your space. Whether you are local to Houston and would like to schedule an in-home consultation, or you are out of the local area and interested in an eDesign, we can totally help. Contact us here

Special thanks to my seamstress Mary, not just for her amazing work and getting the draperies and pillows back to me in one day, but most of all for always believing in me and for being one of my biggest supporters. Thanks to her husband Jeff for being my part-time installer and coming to my rescue yet again.

Thanks to Michael Stolte at Michael’s Photography Studio for the amazing photos!

That’s it for today!

Wishing You Beauty and Inspiration!