One Room Challenge || Week One

Welcome, welcome!! Today is the first day of the first One Room Challenge of 2014. The One Room Challenge was started by Linda from Calling it Home some years ago where she lines up twenty very talented professional bloggers and designers to redo a room in their home in just six weeks. During these six weeks we will update you on our progress once a week on Wednesdays. This will be my first time participating and I'm just thrilled and honored to be among such talented ladies. So let me tell you about the room I chose to design-

Our Family Room. Let me give you some background. We moved recently and I have been hard at work on every other room in the house and have been using the family room as storage central. I kid you not. I have some photos to prove it. I knew this challenge was coming so I let it be so I could tackle it head on during this challenge. This is it.

I basically have three walls to work with as it is open to the kitchen behind the sofa. We use this room to watch TV, read, do homework, and visit with friends and family. I want it to be simple and elegant and even a bit edgy/modern. Here are some photos of what is inspiring me-

Oh and did I mention it all needs to be really comfortable since its where we lounge and relax. Here are a few more photos so you can see the different walls. These orange chairs need to be reupholstered. They are so cool. I adore them. I got them from Craig's List extraordinaire Charmaine from My Best Friend Craig. If there is something good on Craig's List anywhere in the country she will spot it for you and here is her Hunter's Alley store, and her OKL store. There are such fab finds in both.

This is the wall where the TV will go. We needed a larger TV than in a our previous house. This wall is a central point so I'm going to need to disguise the TV and make it pretty. We do have amazing light....I'm in love with these windows.

And this is the east wall. I'm pretty sure that West Elm Parson's desk will stay there (I'm convinced this is the best piece of furniture West Elm has). I'm thinking the bamboo lamps need to go as they don't go well with my plan and I could use them in my guest bedroom. Win/Win.

Let me share with you the steps I had in mind

1 || Sofa. I bought the sofa you see in the photos right out of college and it still strong and so comfortable (and it has been reupholstered once already!) but it's too small for the space and we don't fit very well. My husband loves to lie down while we watch TV or read...which leaves no room for me. I think we need a sectional sofa.

2 || TV and Credenza. Get TV and mount it and find the appropriate credenza to hide all the TV stuff and much needed for storage.

3 || Chairs and Art. Reupholster chairs, see about artwork ( I have some amazing pieces that I have in mind for this room, but do I need more?)

4 || Rug. The rug from the master of our first apartment (when we lived in NYC) would be great here. I need to see if the size works.

5 || Accessories. Can I get away with the same pillows I had before? Do I need new lamps? accessories?

I think this about covers it all. The challenge in this room will be integrating what we already own and adding new pieces to modernize the look.

Sorry! Was that information overload? Ok. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Let me know any suggestions or ideas you may have! And I need some horns like Jessica's up there....any good ideas? Now go visit my buddies to see what they are up to!

Chez V