I’ve been working like crazy for the past six weeks to transform our craft room and the landing area next to it as part of the One Room Challenge. Today I’m so excited to show you all how it turned out! As usual I’m limping across the finish line having barely finished my room plus every other room in my house besides these two is the biggest hot neglected mess you’ve ever seen, but I’m done! And I love it! And most importantly, my girls love it and are excited that they have this new space to be creative in! Ready to check it out?? (post includes some sponsored and affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here})
In case you weren’t following along from the beginning, we’ll start by throwing it back to what this space looked like six weeks ago. It’s a TINY room that was pretty dreary when we first moved into our house:
Soon after moving in I had painted the back wall and added some lamps and a few accessories so this is what it was looking like right before my makeover:
And here it is today!
The biggest change is the wallpaper! I painted over the bright green paint color that was there and hung {this blue and white leafy vine wallpaper} – do you guys love it as much as I do? It just has the best creative feel that I think is perfect for the space!
You see my other favorite Serena & Lily wallpapers {here} if you want more wallpaper inspiration.
The other thing that made a huge difference is that I painted the cabinetry white. I wasn’t sure how that would work out since it’s inexpensive laminate cabinetry but it worked beautifully! I did it using the same step by step as I did with our painted bathroom vanity that you can see {here}. I dressed our new no-longer-puke-yellow cabinets up with some fun new dragonfly knobs:
I also added a few of {these glass storage jars} to hold the ribbons and threads that my daughters use the most:
and I swapped out the bright blue table lamps for a pair of {these petite brass and acrylic lamps} – they’re the cutest!
And do you want to see what our newly made-over landing looks like too? Here’s where that space started out:
Could it be any more boring? Umm….no! There was nothing wrong with the loveseat or the ottoman but this just didn’t exactly scream “fun place for two teenage girls to hang out” which is exactly what the purpose of this space is. And those plain shades and overhead dome light… wrong, very wrong and had to go pronto! After six weeks of working away, this is what our upstairs landing area looks like today:
Bonus Room Sources: “Feather” Herringbone wallpaper (color: denim) | Daybed | Blue Vera Bradley Traveler’s Floral quilt & shams – no longer available | White quilted Euro shams w/navy stitch | Navy stripe tassel pillow – no longer available | Blue & white block print pillow covers | White cozy pom pom throw} | Brass floor lamp | Brass sputnik flush mount light fixture | Roman shades with ribbon trim in Light Navy trim | White Moroccan leather poufs
Now THIS is a space that my girls will love hanging out in! The whole transformation started with {this beautiful daybed} and {this foam mattress} that so many of you recommended to me and slowly went from there. If you’ve been following along from the beginning you might remember that the wallpaper was one of the first things that I picked out but it unexpectedly went out of stock and I had to go to plan B and use {this herringbone wallpaper} instead. Well sometimes things happen for a reason because I think it’s a perfect fit for the space:
And speaking of perfect fits, can we talk about our new lighting?? Before we had only a dim, ugly overhead dome light that I replaced with {this gorgeous flush mount brass sputnik}. Honestly, I surprised even myself when I chose this brass beauty since it’s more modern that what I traditionally go with but I fell for it the second I saw it and now want to sputnik-ify every room of my house – I LOVE it! And for someone like me who loves well lit rooms, this baby can light up a room like no other (I used a combination of {these 15 watt bulbs} and a few 25 watt bulbs I already had on hand to get the perfect amount of light for the room).
I also added {this brass floor lamp} next to the daybed for reading – such a great buy and I love that it ties in the brass at the other end of the room!
I shared the deets about {my new Roman shades with light navy ribbon trim} last week but had to mention once more how gorgeous and well made they are. Melissa does beautiful (and very reasonably priced!) work and I highly recommend her. I’m super glad that I decided to go with inside mount shades instead of outside mount which is what was there previously – the inside mounts are so clean, tailored, and fresh looking!
Other new pieces in the space include a tiered marble side table (no longer available) that I placed three potted plants on:
Take a good look at these green, leafy beauties today because you know me and plants… these poor guys are unlikely to survive for very long under my black thumb! Other new additions are these two white leather Moroccan poufs:
I love that they’re so versatile and can be used for foot rests but also for extra seating when my kids have a bunch of friends over. I’ve seen similar ones for big bucks but spent a lot of time looking for reasonably priced options and reading reviews and ended up buying {these poufs} which actually come in white along with a bunch of other different colors. I’m really happy with how they look and excited that they were such a great deal.
Did you notice in my pouf pic that someone furry came along and joined us mid tour? Hope decided that this whole daybed thing is pretty boss and divides her time between cuddling into the super soft pom pom throw and {these cozy Euro shams} that are mixed in with {these two block print pillows} and a pair of striped tassel pillows. And how about that kids’ art gallery wall over the daybed, let’s talk about that too – do you like how it turned out?
I used an eclectic mix of frames to frame artwork from both of my girls throughout the years, starting with drawings from when they were super little all of the way through to some current art pieces like the pencil sketch in the middle. I love being able to show off their creativity and get some of their older artwork that I truly cherish out of storage boxes and up on the wall where we can all enjoy it. I would guess that there will be a lot of art swapping going on in this little gallery wall over the next several years as new pieces get created!
If you struggle to arrange art in a gallery wall, see my post on gallery wall layouts that makes it easy!
Let’s take one more “before” and “after” peek before we go, ok? Here’s the entire bonus room space before:
and here it is now:
And just in case you’re wondering, that large bare space between the poufs and the built-in that the TV is in has a purpose – it’s where my girls play with the Wii so we wanted to leave it open and have plenty of space for Just Dance face offs! 🙂
Thanks to all of you who followed along with this fun project!
