One Room Challenge - Spring 2019 -Week 1 - The Shocking Before

Updated: Apr 10, 2019

How exciting to be among the talented group of designers for this season's edition of the One Room Challenge! I just about hit the floor with excitement when it was announced by media partner, Better Homes and Gardens and Linda Weinstein herself last Fall, that I am one of the featured designers.

Below is my powder room that I completed for last Fall's season as a guest participant. This was my sixth time completing the challenge as a guest participant, and so I am calling this time around my luck number seven.

I will need all the luck I can get with this room that you are about to see. Can you guess?

And as if that wasn't enough, I am also remodeling my guest bathroom! Yikes! Call me crazy, but it kinda made sense to do it all now and get this renovation stuff over with.

Check out this recent blog post where I showed off all the spaces I have done for the one room challenge over the years, and why I love being a part of it so much

Vlush powder room with paneled walls and marble vanity top

Blush Powder Room Designed By Veronica Solomon. Photographed By Colleen Scott

So it just occurred to me that some of you reading this may not be familiar with what the One Room Challenge is.

The One Room Challenge (ORC) was started by design blogger Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home blog several years ago. It was a way for her and a group of fellow bloggers to focus on decorating a room in their homes over a six week period. Each week they blog about the progress and the pitfalls, and on week number 6, they all celebrate their beautiful finished rooms. It grew from there into a nationally (and even internationally) recognized event within the industry every Spring and Fall.

20 designers are chosen each Spring and Fall to makeover a room in their home or a client's home, and blog and post to social media leading up to the big reveal on week 6. Several brands get involved as sponsors of products to be showcased in the spaces of the 20 featured designer, and a media partner (Better Homes and Gardens) covers the event and features the finished spaces. Hundreds of guest participants from all over the world also makeover rooms, and it is quite an amazing media extravaganza within the industry. To date, hundreds of rooms have been made over thanks to the ORC.

Now that you are caught up, can you guess which room I will be doing?

It's one of the last few spaces left to be done in my builder basic home. Around this time last year I bought a brand new home with zero upgrades from the builder, and have been busy renovating it ever since. I have done all of downstairs, including a complete kitchen overhaul that has garnered some national attention, and most of the upstairs.

Kitchen Designed By Veronica Solomon. Photographed by Colleen Scott Photography

Getting warmer yet?

Ok fine! Here is the floor plan. That will be a dead giveaway of what room it is!

This is it! My master bedroom. It is a hot mess of a room now and it is about time. Not only am I completing my bedroom for the ORC, I am also doing the master bathroom as a side project. It likely will not be done within 6 weeks, but the plan is to get all the "dirty" jobs done, so as not to mess up the bedroom as it evolves in its beautiful self.

Here is a sneak peek of the bathroom plan (some revisions made). It's gonna be fabulous! But back to my bedroom

So what does it look like now?

Brace yourselves. This is shocking!

I bet you thought I was kidding! Haha

This is what it looked like a about 6 months after I moved in. Most of the stuff you are looking at have been sitting there since I moved in last April/May. I kid you not!

There's dirty laundry on top of clean laundry.

This is what it looked like a few months later. Noticed that I bought a bed. Yah! That bed is the worst and it is outa there. I am not sure what possessed me when I bought it, but it may be better suited for my daughter when she moves back to Houston.

These photos were taken about 2 hours ago

I guess it's true what they say. It gets worse before it gets better. I sure hope so.

You are seeing the full view of my private bits and bobs because this is what my bathroom looks like now

Yes. That is my life right now, and I may need to be medicated by the time this is all over. haha

So what are my plans for my bedroom?

Glad you ask

Thanks to some amazing ORC sponsors, my master bedroom will be decked out to the nines.

This is a little taste of what I am cooking up!

The usual suspects - color and more color. This time pretty moody colors.

Pattern mix....check. I can't even do a neutral space without some good pattern play.

Eclectic...yep! Nothing matches. Nada! Just the way I like it.

Timeless.....I'd say so. Check out the greek key detail that I am sneaking in. And buillon fringe? Oh my! I am bringing that back! And that exaggerated wing back. Yummy!

Classic architectural details......you're gonna have to come back for that one. Let's just say that you should never ignore the fifth wall.

And finally, some whimsy.....I know, some people hate that word. But it is totally a word in my vocabulary. Bugs, bunnies (not to be confused with bugs bunny, Haha), cheetah, zebra are all making an appearance in just the right doses.

What do you think?

Our Amazing Sponsors

List of items to be done

Declutter and donate

disassemble that existing bed

Trim work should be starting later this week

Electrical work - replacing light fixture and outlets and switches

Paint

Wallpaper

New custom canopy bed

Custom sofa

Custom chair

Custom bedding

Custom window treatments

Custom desk

Custom drapery hardware

New cocktail table for seating area

Custom pillows

Frame custom artwork

Shop for finishing items

In the midst of all this, coordinating trades for both the bedroom and bathroom.

Plus I am headed to High Point Market from April 6th to 10th. Oh boy. At least I will be taking a break on another work trip in May after this is all over.

Be sure to tune in each week to see how this bedroom evolves. It will be fun! Follow me on Insta and Facebook

I know I am dying to see what the other featured designers are up to