Today is the day! Good grief! It has been six  l o n g  weeks. Yesterday, I finally had to stop working in the library and simply move forward with the project as it was. I realized that I could not make the library better in two days time, but I could certainly make it worse. It was a little difficult to let go of what I imagined in my head, but course correction is the name of the game during the One Room Challenge™. Tomorrow, I will post about where we go from here, but today, today (!) is all about how far we have come.

If you would like to catch up on the entire six weeks, feel free to read all of our ORC posts.

week one / week two / week three / week four / week five

Before

I love sharing before photos because they are such a reality check. Although the library in BHH was our favorite multi-use room, it was in a state of great disrepair. There was significant water damage throughout the room, there were acoustic tiles on the ceiling, and the windows and floors required complete restoration.

Weeks 1-5 flew by in a blur of sawdust, spackle, and paint. I worked many twelve hour days.

Sunday, Andy and I were still hanging the grasscloth wallpaper.

Even this morning I was dabbing black paint on the chalkboard wall. This restoration/renovation was the most physically demanding DIY project that we have completed to date.

But, it is all a pleasant blur now because we have a beautiful new library. Picture me with my hand over my mouth, making the stereotypical HGTV crying face because this. is. happening.

After

Just look at it.

The tall table is a stand-up workstation that I built with my own two hands. The bandaids on my fingers tell the tale. Mistakes were made, but there it is.

The wall hanging is a vintage map of Scotland. When we moved into BHH, we found it here in the house. It belonged to Dorothy. Her husband was Scottish. It is a beautiful piece, and I love that it still has a place here in BHH. It is perfect for this room.

The other side of the room is a cozy reading area.

One of my favorite last-minute projects was this side table.

I bought the metal table base at an antique store last summer and promptly forgot about it. This morning, I was scrambling to find a table when I stumbled upon the base in the garage. After I dragged it upstairs, I ran to Home Depot for a piece of pre-cut plexiglass for the top.

As I was creating the design plan, I knew that I wanted the whole room to be full of quirky little details such as our rock collection from California and New York. The large piece of petrified wood came from our property in California.

We pick up smaller rocks here and there when they catch our eye.

The library was also the perfect place to showcase Andy’s childhood comic book collection that the kids still read regularly. Check out those authentic Guardians of the Galaxy comics.

And my personal favorite, Richie Rich. (He has zillionz!)

The chalkboard wall, still a work-in-progress, is a place for the kids to have free expression, and M. couldn’t wait to make her mark.

Every shelf is a little museum display of our memories and interests.

Our new fish, Gil, lives on the work table. He keeps unburying his plants.

Coincidentally, or not, although this project was incredibly demanding, the emotional return on our investment was almost immediate. The library is now a cozy and functional multi-use space for the whole family. We couldn’t be happier.

Be sure to come back Monday for the bloopers, budget breakdown and the down-low on all of our sources. A million thanks for keeping me company this past six weeks. Your encouragement and support kept me going.  You are the wind beneath my wings or something like that.

Please head over to Calling It Home to take a look at all of the One Room Challenge™ rooms from the featured designers and the other guest participants too. You are in for a treat. I am so proud of everyone. If you participated in this challenge, pat yourself on the back. You did it, and I hope you enjoy some well-deserved R&R.

Next week, I will share all of my favorite ORC projects. There are so many good ones.