One Room Challenge Week 1: Being My Own Client
Hello, Hello!
Today is a special day for me. After a rich creative year of finishing up some very major design projects, I'm ready to do a little cozying in for my own home. My husband and I have lived in our 1930's apartment for right at four years, and while there have been some incremental improvements over the years, for the most part, the major elements of our home and specifically living room have stayed about the same. I'm ready to make some changes, and thought this would be a great opportunity to do two things here:
I would love to highlight how my design process works for future clients to know what working with me is like. For that reason, I will be documenting this process as much as possible.
I am aiming to do most of my major design execution myself (like doing my own upholstery, artmaking etc.), in a way I normally wouldn't with my clients; making this a great opportunity to participate in the One Room Challenge.
For those who don't know, the One Room Challenge is a twice a year event where artists, designers, bloggers and general DIYers pick a room to transform in 8 weeks, documenting the process weekly as they go. I have loved following along over the years, and am excited for an opportunity to contribute.
In addition to the 8 week limitation, I have a few other challenges for this project:
I would like to make as many items myself as possible. We'll dig into the specifics of this room more soon, but the major element I would like to add is a sense of rooted soulfulness that I believe comes from handmade and personal details
While I already know this won't be executed perfectly, I would like to be as mindful as possible about the environmental impact of a re-design. I will be aiming to include artisan and vintage items, recycle or gift what is being replaced, and use existing and found materials when I can. While I know this won't all be executed in its highest iteration, it is a principle that is guiding a lot of my decision making, and I want to be continually aware of my impact in an industry that can be famously wasteful.
I will be doing this project without a car! I would love to point to challenge #2 for this, but in reality, our car is officially out of commission and no longer part of our lives. I live in a fairly walkable part of town with decent(ish) public transit, but in the context of a large project where you need to grab bulky supplies, like lumber, huge rolls of fabric etc. I will be forgoing the convenience of throwing supplies into a car and driving to my doorstep. I know this isn't a new concept for a lot of people, but for those in more convenient and drivable areas following along, just know that this is an added element for me to plan around.
Challenge number four might go without saying, but I am trying to be as cost effective as possible. While living in a rental, I am open to investing in some pieces, but I am very aware that this is not the home that I'm trying to settle into in a huge way at this point, so I would like to keep the spending reasonable and on elements I can take with me.
Okay! Onto the actual room and plan:
This is the main view when you walk into our apartment
This is the general view from the kitchen doorway looking into the living room and hallway
Our front door as well as tv area and book shelves
TV area and little glimpse into the kitchen
There are several things in this room that I am happy about and several things I am eager to change. I am proud to see that a lot of things in my living room have already been made by me over the years like the coffee table, roman shades, wall mounted shelf box that holds our router, and the book cases that I didn’t make, but did paint and upgrade over the years. I also am fond of our oak buffet that the tv sits on, the less than pristine leather arm chair and the brass reading lamp that I saved from the trash a few years ago.
The things I am less pleased about are the red fabric on our sofa; a hand me down that I was never completely in love with, the dated and not excellent quality area rug, and the general lack of color, interest, and texture.
At this point, I’m going to shift gears into my “design self” (you were reading a mere civilian up until this very moment!) and show how I would approach this room if I were working with a client.
My Conversation Points During a Design Intake
-Tell me about the space in general
-What are the challenges of this space? Function? General problems?
-How do you want to feel when you're in this space?
-General perimeters? What are you willing to change, what is off limits?
-What do you want to keep, what are you open to changing?
-Budget/timeline?
-Any other considerations/thoughts?
To synthesize my answers to the above question this is how my “client self” would generally answer:
Our space functions decently with the limited floor plan available. I would say our challenges are aesthetic. We were gifted this red sofa 8 years ago when we got married. I've never cared for the color and I feel like it's holding me back design-wise. Most of the other visual details are in response to balancing out the red. I would love to replace the red fabric, rug, and Grasses art in particular. I want the space to feel calm, cozy, whimsical, intriguing, and rustic. I am visually drawn to English manors, English cottages, and spaces that use older items in unexpected ways. I also love a wild, rustic, highly nature-based design. There is a lot in Celtic, Welsh, and Scandinavian design and philosophy that I love; particularly the through-line of a deep love and respect for nature. In addition to the items I want to fully change, I am also open to replacing lamp shades, the overhead light, adding art, handmade elements, and rustic items.
Okay, back to my neutral self to synthesize all of this information. For the more visual learners, here is the room again with my notes for change followed by my rough design plan.
My Design Plan
Step 1: Change the sofa!
This sofa is over 30 years old and is unfortunately in perfect condition. I cannot justify buying a new one and pitching the current one, so instead I will recover and reupholster the sofa myself. Once the red fabric is moved to something more neutral, it opens the whole room up to new design possibilities. I will look into recycling the old fabric to eliminate waste. I will also be teaching myself how to reupholster with limited tools, as I have never taken on an upholstery project this large before.
Step 2: New rug
I would love to purchase a vintage rug, but after many many moons of searching, I am skeptical I will find the right size and preferred colors. I will likely buy a new rug, but my solution to limit waste here is to purchase a piece I love, believe to be durable, and maintain it for many years. I am confident I can sell or give away my current rug and keep it out of the landfill.
Step 3: Add art and handmade pieces.
There are lots of fun opportunities here, but overall, the major gaps in this room are lack of special details. I look forward to using art and objects to add a personal and rooted connection to this space.
Step 4: Consider a wall treatment
I really don't know what this will specifically look like, but after years of maintaining white walls to keep my red couch in check, I am so excited to even entertain adding color or special details of some sort to the walls.
This covers the general problems to solve, but as far as the aesthetic direction, here is a general collage of what I am feeling inspired by:
Living Room Visual Inspiration
I am interested in slightly darker, whimsical, fantastical elements with a sense of deep warmth and affection (ie: not too spooky). I love the celestial ceiling at Grand Central Station (top right). Anna Spiro’s stair landing (far left) has such beautiful comforting colors, it’s really making me reconsider my previous aversions to pinks and reds. The tree mural by Vincent Farelly (center) from his Port Louis home is the perfect balance of whimsical story book motifs with tasteful lightness. Large sculptural light fixtures (right and left) add a striking contrast to the other organic elements. Mostly I love the unique story that all these elements tell when put together and its exactly the layered, intriguing feeling I’m looking for.
Hopefully that gives everyone an idea of what my challenges are and where I’m hoping to get in 8 weeks. I invite everyone to keep following along as I update weekly here and on Instagram. Feel free to check out the many other contributors to One Room Challenge from now to the end of November.
Next week I will be reupholstering my sofa in a one room apartment with limited upholstery experience! What could go wrong?! You don’t want to miss it! (I assume)
See you next time,
Aimee