Lopsided Living Room: The One Room Challenge Begins

Yep, we’re doing this again. I have stopped thinking of myself as a glutton for punishment, and I am embracing my personality. I like doing things, and most of all, I like finishing them. The six-week timeline of the One Room Challenge works for me. When I sat out the spring ORC, I became acutely aware that nebulous deadlines or those with too long of a timetable do not work for me at all. I end up procrastinating until I get fed up with myself. Then, I push through all the work in six weeks anyway. So, I’m cutting out the middle man (guilt) and getting right to work instead. Let’s start with the five Ws.

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Who

If this is your first time here, welcome! I am Stacy, devoted old house lover, original window restorer, DIYer, and host of the True Tales From Old Houses podcast. Most of the time, I work solo, but I am short and I have T-Rex arms. Therefore, I enlist the help of my family to reach things in high places and move the furniture around.

This is my ninth (!) One Room Challenge.

Some of them have gone very well:

• Cabin Vibes Bedroom
• Blank Slate Laundry/Office
• The Scary Bathroom
• The Breakfast Nook (featured in This Old House magazine!)

Others? Well…The Street Side Front Porch missed the six-week mark, but with my friend Dale’s help, it all came together by mid-summer.

My first loves of any project are demo and construction. Decorating is not something that comes easy to me.

What

My fall project is the living room. Gah…where to even start? Like most rooms in BHH, this one has beautiful details. I am going to save some of the before shots for future posts, but we’ve already taken one crack at this space.

This was the living room in 2014:

First, dear lord, those are horrible pictures, and second, dear lord, those are horrible pictures.

Some people were really into the green, but we were not. This entire house was green, and we have spent the last six+ years changing that.

The living room smelled strongly of mildew and mold. Poor BHH sat empty for nearly a year, and the weather variations took a toll. Within the first year, we removed the wallpaper, patched the plaster walls, painted the woodwork a fresh shade of white, and bought new furniture. Here’s where we landed.

Meh.

Not much changed in the living room until the pandemic hit. We all hunkered down in BHH, and I got a few wild ideas, including painting the bookshelves black and creating faux bois on the back of them.

Oh wait, I totally forgot that we did refinish the floors in 2019. The color of the Douglas Fir floors changed quite a bit, which made the robin’s egg blue on the walls looked terrible.

Throughout the next six weeks, I’ll talk you through my process and all of the hits and misses, as if you cannot see them already. I will also tell you more about the history of this room, which is really pretty interesting.

When & Where

See above.

Why

I have dubbed this project the Lopsided Living Room, and here’s why. The living room does have beautiful bones, but it is enormous and most of the original features were built on the left side.

There are two bookshelves and a bench there. I always joke that if this room were a boat it would tip over with all of that heavy stuff on one side.

There is no balance, scale is an issue, and there are competing focal points. I’ve managed to create a super boring and wildly chaotic room at the same time. Go, me!

How

Next week, I will talk more about my plans, which are still forming. Until then, I will say that the book, A Place to Call Home, by Gil Schafer III is my bible this round.

Every image in Schafer’s book inspires me, and I will need a lot of hand-holding between now and the big reveal.

Gosh, just writing this post makes me feel like we’re getting the band back together. I’ve missed the ORC. I’ve missed the rollercoaster, and I’ve missed YOU.

For more inspiring projects and information about the One Room Challenge, please check out their website. You’re going to love this round’s group of featured designers, and the rest of the guest participants too.

Many thanks to Linda from Calling it Home for starting the ORC so many years ago, and to Better Homes and Gardens for being the media partner.

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