One Room Challenge: My Bonus Room Makeover Begins!

Honestly I’m not sure why I jump into these crazy challenges that involve way too much work in way too short of a time but for the seventh time (yes, seventh!) I’m participating in the One Room Challenge (ORC). If you’re new here and not familiar with the ORC, it’s a twice-yearly online event that challenges bloggers to transform a room from start to finish over the course of six weeks, sharing weekly progress along the way. It’s stressful, super time consuming, and about half way through I’m invariably cursing myself for doing it but then reveal day happens and I’m SO thankful and happy that I finished decorating a room top to bottom and I fall back in love with the ORC and do the whole thing all over again six months later 🙂

This time around I’m going with a much smaller, easier (famous last words…) space than my last ORC when I made over our family room and I’m looking forward to having some fun with it! I actually don’t think I’ve ever shared any pics of the space I’m making over on my blog so I’m excited to give you a peek but before we go there, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane and count down my top three favorite past ORC makeovers (affiliate links included in post)…

#3 – Powder Room Makeover (Fall 2014)

Our hall bathroom (which is also the bathroom my husband showers in since our master bathroom is teeny tiny) had a whole lot of scariness going on when we moved in. Dated wallpaper, a custom area rug (so gross in a bathroom) that covered up heinous floor tile, 60’s light fixtures and more. It was definitely a sight!

The only survivor of the “before” was the pedestal sink and faucet – I kept those but tore down the wallpaper and removed the window treatment and rug. We installed a medicine cabinet mirror (key for getting my husband’s toiletries off the top of the sink!) and new lighting, art, and shower curtain and I hand stenciled the walls in a damask pattern to look like wallpaper. I didn’t have time to mess with the ugly floor tile before the challenge ended but I recently painted it and so my powder room is officially done – here’s what it looks like today:

Scroll and click/tap to shop our powder room:

You can check out my original ORC powder room reveal post {here}, learn more about how I stenciled the walls {here}, and get the deets on my DIY painted tile floors {here}.

#2 – Master Bedroom Makeover (Spring 2016)

Our master bedroom was full of the worst castoff furniture and accessories and don’t even get me started on those blue faux finish walls that the previous homeowner left behind! 

As part of the One Room Challenge we added shiplap walls which instantly lightened and brightened our previously dreary space and we switched out almost everything – light fixtures, headboard (a painted Craigslist find), bedding… the whole works!

Scroll and click/tap to shop our bedroom:

On the other side of the room, was our old dresser which I was originally planning to replace because it was dark and tired looking:

When I couldn’t find what I wanted in the size I needed for the space, I decided to paint it instead of replacing it and I’m so glad I did! It’s become one of my favorite furniture pieces:

Scroll and click/tap to shop our bedroom dresser art, mirror, & knobs:

You can check out all of the before and after pics of my master bedroom makeover {here} and see all the details of what we did to makeover our horrible bifold door closet {here}. 

#1 – Family Room Makeover (Fall 2016)

Picking my #2 and #3 favorites were tough calls because there are other ORC makeovers I’ve done that I also really like but choosing my #1 was a hands-down no-brainer! I’m not sure how the heck we sat in this room watching TV almost every night for three years without doing anything about the ugliness of this space but with a house full of endless projects, some rooms just have to wait! 

One of the biggest changes was also one of the simplest – painting the room white! There are lots of weird angles in this room and the white paint totally transformed the look and feel of it. And of course the new sectional, lighting, and accessories helped too 🙂

Scroll and click/tap to shop our family room:

Our TV wall transformation was my favorite part of all. We used to stare at this big blank red wall when we were watching TV:

and now we have a view that’s so much prettier!

Scroll and click/tap to shop our family room TV wall:

You can check out more pics of my One Room Challenge family room makeover and get a complete source list for my space in {this post}.

So with that, it’s time to move on to the current One Room Challenge! I’m tackling our upstairs landing/bonus room which is a little hangout spot for my girls outside of their rooms. We haven’t touched it since moving in – it still has the builder’s beige walls, dated Roman shades, an old loveseat that’s seen better days, and an even older ottoman:

The goal is to make it a space that my girls can hang out in with their friends so that means more seating and lounging space than what we currently have. And since we live away from our family and many of our friends, we have a lot of out of town guests and would like for this space to double as place for a guest to crash. Here’s a little taste of some of the plans that I’ve got in mind:

On the other side of the room we’ve got a built-in that doesn’t really need much beyond a change of knobs until…. you look behind those closed doors where it’s a disorganized mess! Adding some smart organization to the inside of our built-ins is key!

And there’s another little piece to this project that I’m hoping to tackle – it’s right through this pint-sized door. More on that to come!

I’m figuring out some of the details of this space as I go but I’m pretty excited about where this space is heading:

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you’re new to Driven by Decor and want to sign up to get email notifications of my blog posts so that you don’t miss any during this six week challenge, you can do that {here}! Also, I’ll be sharing my progress over on Instagram throughout the week (I’m hoping to do an IG story today to show you the “before” of the space!), so be sure to follow me on Instagram {here} for all of the behind-the-scenes and sneak peeks! 

Now it’s time to visit the other bloggers taking part in the One Room Challenge and check out their makeover plans – I can’t wait to see what they’re all up to! Hop on over {here} for the linking participants and {here} for the featured designers to see who else is in this 6 weeks of craziness along with me!

XOXO,