ONE ROOM CHALLENGE : FOURTH BEDROOM
I am my own worst client.
A lot of my commitment issues, insecurities and need for validation tend to come to surface when I’m designing my own home. Its not cute, but it’s part of my creative process, and truly I’m sure these traits are universal across all creative fields. I tell my clients to enjoy and trust the process, but isn’t that the irony of life, taking your own advice? But through all my home renovations, I’ve never once sat down, put pen to paper and explained the interworking’s of my process which I for one find to be the best part – dreaming up ideas and logistically figuring out if what I’m trying to execute is in fact manageable.
If you’ve followed along with my stories, you’ve seen my hands-on approach to everything in our home. Board and Batten walls, a front door facelift, to the current project of our ‘Fourth Bedroom’; and that’s where our story begins.
THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE
I’ve followed a few designers who have partaken in this bi-yearly event and I’ve always admired just how quickly they’ve been able to transform their spaces, and just like most followers, I get invested in seeing everything from start to finish in just SIX short weeks!
What I love most about the One Room Challenge (ORC) is that it’s a great hub Oozing with inspiration and it’s how I’ve come across new designers both professional and DIYers to follow. The ORC is not a competition, it’s just a fun way to bring together, celebrate, and encourage designers at all levels in their pursuit of beautiful spaces.
While I was never looking to actually participate in it, serendipitously my current remodel and EXACT finish date aligned with theirs and I figured, might as well! So with that in mind, The Mid-Coast’s Studio’s ‘Fourth Bedroom’ remodel will be a Guest Participant in the ORC Fall 2020.
You can read more about the challenge here or just peruse other designers’ week 1 projects.
I started a few weeks ahead, BUT I’m going to Tarantino the whole process, and backtrack to the VERY beginnings of how the Fourth bedroom came to be. Then, every Thursday in the next six weeks leading up the reveal, I’ll be doing a dedicated ORC Instagram and/or blog post.
‘THE FOURTH BEDROOM’
We’ve lived in our home for about five years now and this Fourth bedroom became the ‘I don’t know where to put this, but I want access to it, so I’m not putting it in the basement’ hub. Cardboard boxes from our move filled with odds and ends from college, paperwork, and random tidbits of our life just compiled into this brown shagged rug room. To be honest, for a while there we forgot we even had a 4th bedroom. And while our sporadic purging once a year helped maintain the chaos, it ultimately defaulted back to a secondary storage space.
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When we went into quarantine in March, our living room became the main vein of our day to day. My husband set up on one side of the dining table, me on the other. And what was meant to be a temporary solution became a semi-permanent reality, because I am currently sitting and writing this blog at my end of the ‘dining desk’ and it’s now October.
What spurred this ‘Fourth Bedroom’ renovation was the need for a proper office space where I could be on a phone call without the dog barking at deer through the window, and I so desperately wanted my dining table back especially with the holidays around the corner. The cherry on top is come November 12th, my sister, brother-in-law, and best friend from back home in LA will be coming to visit and we only have one guest room up and running. So now was a better time as any to execute the dreaded fourth bedroom.
So why the air quotes? Well you see, this isn’t technically supposed to be a spare room. My husband and I have always fondly called it the nursery, and that’s exactly how I’ve approached designing the room. No, I am currently not pregnant so this is not by any means a pregnancy announcement, me saying this is so you can get into my head and understand my train of thought going into the design process. Flipping the space without a clear ‘end user’ in mind just didn’t make sense, so while in the interim it will be used as a spare bedroom, this will eventually be a nursery.
I think there’s something to be said about planning ahead and anticipating the future, which posed a lot of design challenges and things I never once even considered. Where will the changing table go? Do we want to designate space for the glider in here or our master bedroom? Is there enough space for a crib and a daybed? It’s safe to say, this space has been a challenge with a lot of considerations, but it’s been fun dreaming up a multi-use, gender neutral, more thematic space.
THE APPROACH
I don’t do a lot of color, and when I do, it’s in doses; but I knew I wanted to infuse some color into the room while still maintaining a level of minimalism. Like every good design project, I did a mood board to get a better grasp of the look and feel, and steer myself into a clearer overarching design aesthetic for the space. It’s these same exercises that I do with my own clients to help make sense of their Pinterest boards and this also helps me refine the style of the space so I know what lane I generally want to stay in during the project.
I’ve been gravitating to moodier tones as of late, call it a side effect of 2020, but I feel like sometimes an effective choice of color can in and of itself hold its own to where embellishments can be kept at a minimum. In establishing the right mood for this space I knew I wanted to keep it gender neutral, and because we already have a green wall in the guest room and blue accent wall in the dining, I knew I wanted to pull colors from a different color family and refrain from doing an accent wall.
Enigma from Sherwin Williams
SCHEMATICS
The existing space has always been a bit of an eyesore. Brown Shag rug, beige walls, ornately carved wooden shelving haphazardly placed on the walls, tulip themed hand painted trim, and the most beautiful brown hollow core bi-fold doors – to match the brown carpet of course! But to every eyesore of a space there are redeeming qualities. The large window flanked by symmetrical closet doors, a good amount of length to the space to help make up for it’s more narrow width, and existing outlets on every wall around the perimeter of the space which gives me flexibility when space planning.
The existing fourth bedroom
I went to work on what I assumed would be the large pieces I needed to take into consideration when space planning:
Crib
Changing Table Considerations
Glider
Daybed
Working within these parameters I was able to figure out a few key things:
I could put the glider in our Master Bedroom to free up some space because I’ll also technically have the basinet in there the first few months
A Daybed of some sort is a must just in case dragging myself across the hall posed to be too taxing during late night, early morning feedings. This will also serve as the second bed for guest overflow in the meantime
A dresser/storage unit was necessary and would double as a changing table
Depending on what crib we purchased down the road, we also had the option to transition our child from the crib to the daybed with the exception of adding some type of rail guard. But we’ll cross the bridge when we get to it
THE DESIGN
Theme in tow it was time to layout the space to scale and understand what projects were doable in the weeks leading up to November 12th. My husband and I have done all our home projects ourselves which saves a lot of money and I love learning about the inner workings of the construction process. In my career, it’s one thing to design, specify and project manage, but learning things hands on gives me a better perspective on what I do, and I believe it makes me a better designer, so I embrace the process!
So knowing I had six short weeks to design and execute this Guest/Nursery Room I conjured up the design in literally one night.
JUNGLE ASIAN
I’m a huge Ali Wong fan, and her joke about her and her husband both being half fancy and half jungle-Asian made me and my husband laugh out loud, and it’s a joke we often reference when we talk about having a kid one day. So, it only made sense to place our future Japanino (Japanese-Filipino) baby in a fancy-ish jungle themed bedroom – see what I did there?
I think there’s this inevitable likeness towards lighter tones, pastels, and bright whites when it comes to designing a nursery. Pinks, peach and florals for girls, and sports themes and deeper shades for boys. While I understand that train of thought, for me, I personally wanted to create something that had that level of child-like whimsey, yet still felt refined and mature in its own right.
And in all actuality the room is more for you than the child until they learn to talk and actually have a preference. Until then it’s just a fun excuse to design something more playful and thematic.
Part of my brainstorming process. Helps me get a better grasp of how all the ideas in my head play together in reality. Also tells me straight away what pieces work and which ones don’t!
Plan View: This is how I figure out architectural elements within the space, + space plan key furniture pieces. Accessories + textiles will add more character to the space later on!
LAYOUT + DESIGN DETAILS
I wanted to explore the layout two ways: without the crib and with the crib. At the end of the six weeks this design will not include the crib for obvious reasons, but I’ve attached the potential layout with a crib. It was imperative I did both plans because in order to understand function and flow of the space and purchase some key items now, I needed to make sure that with it being a narrower space everything served a function and made sense.
This is how the room will shift down the line to accommodate a crib, how a changing basket fits onto the console, and where the daybed will end up living.
In specifying a storage unit I needed it to be narrow enough as to not intrude into the space but deep enough to hold a changing basket. From a functionality standpoint, I liked the idea of mixed storage, drawers for clothing, but open shelving for storage baskets or books.
The slat doors slide making way to open shelving + the center drawers add another level of functionality. The height is also PERFECT for me if I had to change a baby on it, I’m short + this works pefectly!
Specifying a daybed is proving to be one of the harder buys; finding something that’s narrow and to my liking and is the happy medium of budget friendly and stylish. I tend to gravitate to pricier items, not on purpose but mainly because big box and mass produced sometimes feels too on the nose with trends or passe, so I tend to source from retailers that feel a bit more bespoke and have a bit more quality control. It’s just knowing where you want to allocate your budget and which areas you can save money on, it’s all about balance. For instance, I have pottery barn curtains on Walmart curtain rods which I equate to wearing a Gucci belt on target jeans – balance.
Textiles are going to play a big role in this space. Intermixing animal print in a thoughtful way, bringing in some accent colors, and adding textural interest to the space. I find that this process is my favorite but takes the longest with so many sources and so little time!
Textiles are hard to gauge on a screen, but loving something heavier that can black out a room, as well as velvet. Adds a touch of sophistication to the space.
With the artwork, I’ve been eyeing this monochromatic jungle wallpaper from Rebel Walls and while I knew I didn’t want to use it in the traditional sense (like I mentioned, trying to stray away from accent walls) I thought there could be some way to incorporate it and add some architecture to the space.
Love this print so much! I think it’ll really tie in the theme and add a bit of drama to the room
I knew I HAD to do something about the closet doors aside from just painting them. And I’ve always loved the idea of decorative molding, so this was just the place to implement that design detail.
Clean, simple + add some thoughtful details in the space since we’re not doing any molding around the perimeter
Love the various sizes of the molding in this room contrasted with black furniture pieces
There is currently no hardwired lighting in this space so we will be installing at least one overhead chandelier which will make a huge difference, as well as one plug-in lamp.
NEXT STEPS
Now that you know all the parts and pieces we’re trying to execute before November 12th, you can follow the progress on my Instagram stories and see the transformation from start to finish. I have had a head start on this project so I’ll be recapping all that fun stuff along with some new updates today on Instagram. So stay tuned + wish us luck!
