One Room Challenge, Our House

One Room Challenge: Nursery Design Plan

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Welcome! If you’re finding me through the One Room Challenge, thanks for visiting! I’m an interior designer living in Alexandria, Virginia and my husband and I have spent the last two years slowly fixing up our house not far from George Washington’s Mount Vernon. I’m currently pregnant with our first child and using this spring’s One Room Challenge as an opportunity to finish the nursery.

Last week I shared some before photos some inspiration for the nursery, and today I’m sharing the design plan that I’ve been using to help guide my purchases for the space.

Over the weekend designer Alison Giese posted a quote on instagram by David Hicks who said, “The best rooms have something to say about the people who live in them.” I couldn’t agree more, and it got me thinking about that philosophy in the context of designing a nursery. Although I’m designing this space for our family to enjoy together, I’m also I’m designing a space that says something about someone I haven’t even met yet. My design says both a lot about our family, but also who I want this child to be, how I hope he feels in the space, and the things I hope are important to him as he grows up.

As I mentioned in my post last week, I knew even before I was pregnant that I wanted to paint the room a cozy dark green and I wanted it to be loosely dog-themed. We have two hounds, one of whom is a tri-color treeing walker hound who looks like the foxhounds you see in antique paintings. I initially envisioned the color palette loosely based on one of those paintings, and as I sourced different items the design plan kind of evolved from there.

English Hunt Print from One Kings Lane

While I’m not currently planning to include any of the bright reds, I do see the space having plenty of warm caramel and brass tones to play off of the blues and greens.

Mobile | Artwork | Window Fabric | Crib | Sconce | Window Shade | Side Table | Rocking Chair | Crib Sheet | Hound Stuffies| Rug | Basket | Bookshelves

After sampling a bunch of green options in the space, I decided on Isle of Pines by Sherwin Williams. It was dark but not too dark, and was slightly warmer and more saturated than a few of the other options I tested. In terms of furnishings, I am trying to include pieces in the space that we can use over time and that are relatively gender neutral so that this room could eventually become a second child’s nursery.

My parents generously purchased the Crate & Barrel Jenny Lind crib that I’ve been eyeing for a while, a piece that has classic lines and will work for a boy or girl in the future. I opted not to go with a crib that would convert into a headboard because I suspect my tastes will have changed by that point and I won’t want to feel locked into the bed. Plus, we’ll (hopefully) be using this crib for a second child when the first is old enough to sleep in a big boy bed.

We’ve been using my grandfather’s old pine dresser in this bedroom since we moved in, and we’re opting to keep it in the space because it fits it well and I like the wood tone and patina in the room. We plan to use it as the changing table as well and since it’s on the slightly taller side I think it will actually make changing diapers a little easier on our backs.

Because the room is small, sourcing a rocker/glider was somewhat challenging. I’ve also become very picky about upholstery fabrics in our house and have pretty much stopped using anything with much of an open weave after five years with two big, shedding dogs, so that eliminated a lot of options from places like Buy Buy Baby and Wayfair. Kyle is also pretty tall, so I we needed something that has a tall enough back but isn’t too deep to fit in the space. We ultimately decided on a leather convertible wing-back rocking chair from Pottery Barn Kids, which Kyle’s parents generously bought for us. Once we’re done with the chair in the nursery we can take the rocker rails off and put stationary feet on, allowing us to use the chair somewhere else in the house.

The room has hardwood so I ordered a vintage wool rug from Etsy. As I posted in my instastories a few weeks ago, we are 100% in on vintage wool rugs because they vacuum up so easily and the vintage wear is forgiving. Both windows are a little challenging because the frames hit directly against adjacent walls, so I ordered cordless woven bamboo blackout shades instead of curtains. I really like the texture they add to the room and they will grow well with the space. To soften the look of the shades and add more pattern to the room, I plan to DIY valances out of an adorable woodland toile from Calico that gives a nod to the trees outside the windows.

I have a loose plan for lighting and accessories, but I’ll honestly end up layering most of it in as I find it over the next month. I’m particularly excited for the artwork we’ve already purchased–two custom water color portraits of our dogs that I ordered on Etsy! I’m having them framed by Framebridge and haven’t quite determined where we’ll hang them in the room yet. I also purchased a perfect mobile to play up our dog “theme” and help build our color scheme.

So that’s the plan! Painting is nearly done and we’re hoping to get the crib put together this weekend. It’s so exciting to see the room come together and makes everything feel more real. I’ll be spending plenty of time this weekend working in the space. Follow me on instagram to get real-time updates as well as tips and tricks and I’m sharing along the way!

And make sure that you visit the One Room Challenge guest blog and check out some of the gorgeous spaces that people are working on for the next month! Every time I look through the different spaces I’m insanely impressed by what people are able to accomplish in their homes!

One Room Challenge, Our House

One Room Challenge: Nursery Before + Inspiration

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Back in March I posted on Instagram that we’re expecting a baby boy in July! Which, among other exciting things, means I get to design my very first nursery. If you’ve been following my instastories you’ve already seen some of my plans for the space. When I realized last week that the timeline for the Spring 2020 One Room Challenge had been pushed back it seemed like a perfect opportunity to participate again so I would document the process and give myself a hard deadline for completion (my last blog post was actually the Spring 2019 ORC Reveal). I’m due July 30 and I’m starting to feel the third trimester slow-down, so making sure this project is done by the June 25 ORC reveal is just the kind of motivation I need right now.

Read more about the idea behind the One Room Challenge and check out some of the amazing past projects.

Truthfully this project could not have come at a better time and I am very thankful for it. Back in early April, when the reality of COVID-19 and the timeline of the closures really started to settle in, beginning to plan and execute a series of home projects with the finished nursery as my end goal gave me something tangible to get excited about in the short term (of course I’m excited for the baby, but that felt like an eternity away at the time). Now that we’ve been mostly home-bound for two months and all of our other pre-baby plans have been cancelled or are on hold, having home projects to keep me busy on the weekends has given me sense of normalcy for which I am grateful. I knew it already, but this was confirmation that I am definitely happiest with a project.

OK, now onto the space I’m transforming. Keep in mind when you see these before photos that participating in the ORC was not at the forefront of my mind when I started this process…

Before (Kyle’s Dressing Room)

This is the best “before” picture of the nursery I have. It’s a photo from the real estate listing for our house.

When we bought our house we knew the room next to our bedroom would be the nursery. I had a loose vision for it long before I was pregnant (getting pregnant took longer than we hoped so I had plenty of time to think about it). The bedroom is modest and typical for the second story of a Cape Cod, with low 7’6″ ceilings that slope on one side and a dormer window looking out onto the backyard. The architecture feels appropriately quirky and whimsical for a child’s space. My favorite part is the big magnolia tree outside the windows, and the slightly lower canopy of some other trees in our yard that make the room feel like you’re sitting in a tree house.

The big magnolia tree outside the windows and the tree canopy slightly lower in the yard make this little spot feel like you’re sitting in a tree house. You can see the many shades of green that I tested on the adjacent wall.

In each of the four houses we’ve lived in together, Kyle has always had a separate “dressing room” outside of our bedroom. That’s partly because we’ve never had enough closet space for both of us in our bedroom but also because he generally gets up and goes to work much earlier than I do and it always made sense for him to get dressed in a space outside our bedroom so that he didn’t disturb me or our pups. Up until recently he was using what we planned to be a nursery as his dressing room since it’s conveniently located right outside our only 2nd floor bathroom. One of our biggest tasks before we could begin the nursery was to clean out the room, as evidenced by the photos below. We also had to make closet space in a finished attic space off our bedroom so that we had a spot to put everything.

This what the room looked like while Kyle used it as his “dressing room”. Gym bag on the floor, stack of hats and business cards on the dresser (business cards are to our house now what golf tees were to my house as a kid), Trader Joe’s bag of items for Good Will, etc.

Cozy Green Nursery Inspiration

I pretty much had the same idea for the space whether we were having a boy or a girl. I envisioned a dark green space that felt cozy and friendly, with classic accents. I wanted it to be loosely dog themed because we love our pups and there are few things more pure of heart than the love a kid has for a pet. I figured I’d keep most of the big items gender neutral and go a little more “boy” or “girl” with fabrics and accents.

I’m drawing inspiration from a few sources and the final product will land somewhere between them.

The nursery below was designed by Erin Napier for her daughter and it’s the closest inspiration image I’ve found in terms of the vibe I’m trying to create in the nursery. It feels pulled together and everything works well, but none of it feels overly “designed”. It has a sense of age without feeling old.

Design By/Image via Erin Napier (see more of the Nursery via HGTV)

I love the cozy dark green walls and gold and wood accents in this nursery by Jean Stoffer Design (and honestly I love the whole house!). It’s slightly more refined and formal than what I’m hoping to achieve, but I love the color and moodiness of the space.

Design by/image from Jean Stoffer Design

The nursery below that Lindsay from White Buffalo Styling Company designed for her son shows a combination of blues and greens with vintage elements that I plan to use in the space. I’m also planning to do woven shades so that the window treatments grow with the room as much as possible.

Design by/Image from White Buffalo Styling Company

I LOVE the Hygge & West wallpaper in the room below designed by Residents Understood. I love that the pattern is sweet without being overly precious and traditional without being too stuffy. Sadly wallpaper just isn’t in the budget for the nursery. I so badly wish that it was available in a fabric! Before I saw this space I was all-in on gingham and stripes for my fabrics in the space, but after I fell in love with the wallpaper I expanded my search a bit to include some slightly more whimsical prints.

Design by Residents Understood. Image via Project Nursery.

To-Do List

I had every intention of including my design plan in this post since I missed week 1 of the One Room Challenge. But since the challenge is a little longer this go-round–8 posts instead of 6–and I’m a bit worried that my in-between posts won’t be very exciting (and I’m tired), I’m going to go ahead and save my design plan for next week. To give you a sense of what to expect here over the next few weeks, here is what I need to accomplish between now and reveal week:

  • Finish painting the walls (dark green takes quite a few coats to cover)
  • Paint the closet doors
  • Order window shades
  • Order fabric for decorative window valance
  • Schedule electrician to replace ceiling light + add wall sconce(s)
  • Put crib together
  • Order crib bedding (why is it so hard to find affordable crib sheets in basic blue and white patterns???)
  • Frame artwork
  • Figure out bookshelf solution for next to rocking chair
  • Finish and upholster ottoman
  • Stay on top of rocking chair order status
  • Hang window shades
  • Build decorative window valance
  • Hang art + accessorize

Continue to follow my progress via Instagram and make sure you check out the other great spaces that people are transforming as part of their own One Room Challenge!

One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge Week 6: Sun Porch Reveal

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One thing that drew me to our current house, besides the amazing lot, was that the house itself is just kind of, well…quirky. It sounds cheesy, but its personality spoke to me. The spaces felt interesting, even without furniture, clad with dated wallpaper and floors that had seen better days. The bulk of the work we’ve done on the house in the last year has been an editing process–a tweaking and streamlining of what already exists–in an effort to freshen and modernize the space without taking away the inherent character of it.

The sun porch was one of those spaces that I knew had so much potential with a few tweaks. Before we officially moved in, we had a few take-out meals just sitting on the steps of the porch, looking out at this dream lot we had just purchased and soaking in the sun. I envisioned eating out there all the time, but we never got around to furnishing it. One Sunday in March when the weather finally warmed up and the sun was shining, Kyle and I sat on the sofa with the door open while the hounds played outside and we really appreciated the space for the first time since we moved in. The room needed some attention before we could enjoy it fully, so when I got the email reminder about the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge I knew it was the perfect opportunity (and necessary kick in the pants) to get the project done. Which is, by the way, the point of the One Room Challenge: to encourage people to finish a space, buoyed by the simultaneous misery and support of a bunch of other people documenting their progress on the space they are attempting to transform.

The Before

So now to the space itself. As a reminder, here is where we started:

The During

If you want to read about my design plan and more details on the process, you can check out my posts for each previous week:

Week 1: Sun Porch Before + Plan
Week 2: Plans and (Little) Progress
Week 3: Paint and More Paint
Week 4: Life got in the way and I didn’t post
Week 5: Tile in the Sun Porch

After removing the existing window shades, we made a couple major finish changes to the space that made a huge impact. The first was painting the windows and surrounding panels black. The room was originally an open porch, enclosed in the 1990s with some arched picture widows and wood paneling. I painted the window frames, window panes, and surrounding paneling Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams, which is the same black I’m using on the doors throughout our house. It took FOREVER but I’m so happy with the result.

The second major change was adding a slate floor over the existing knock-down texture concrete floor. I HATED the existing floor so much. Not only because it was generally unattractive, but also because it was a little slick and seemingly impossible to clean. Not great when you’re talking a surface that frequently gets water and dirt tracked through it from the backyard. The most budget-friendly slate I could find was from Home Depot, and it was thankfully in stock at our local store. I’m so happy with how the flooring came out and the combo of the brick + slate in the space.

Furnishing this room was challenging. It’s quite long and narrow (about 8.5′ x 21′), and the door placement and steps protruding into the space create some difficult obstacles. The sliding glass door is the only exit directly to the backyard, and there are two sets of french doors leading from our living room into the porch. Each set of doors has one door blocked on the living room side by an end table, so the only way in and out of the space is from one of the doors closest to the perimeter of the room. We basically have to keep a path of travel available from an outer edge of the room to the center…as I said, it’s a challenge.

The After

Sources: Sofa | Green Velvet Pillow | Lumbar Pillow | Blue Floral Pillow | Coral Pillow | Floor Lamp | Ottoman | Drink Table | Slate Floor Tile | Rug

The solution was to create separate lounging and dining zones on opposite sides of the room, linked by a small seating area in the center of the space. The name of the game was attempting to reuse some of what we already had and to stick to budget options for new furnishings, and we definitely accomplished that.

Our Ikea English roll arm sofa that was previously in the living room of our last two houses replaced the outdoor sectional that we had on the porch. I added a soft ottoman that could do double-duty as a foot rest and coffee table, since this is definitely a spot to put your feet up. The circular shape helps prevent it from cutting off the path to the door, and it’s on wheels so it’s easy to move if needed. I added a floor lamp for visual height, and to bring some ambient light into the room closer to eye level since the primary lighting in the space (at night) is from the ceiling fan. My original design plan called for a garden stool by the sofa but I pivoted when I saw the adorable tiny brass drink table at the West Elm that recently opened near my office. I’m so glad I went that route because that corner would’ve felt crowded with something larger and I love the sculptural element that the drink table base adds to the space.

I know it sounds ridiculous but I envision this lounge-y side of the room to be the spot where we take family photos for the long haul. Right now it’s just the two of us and two hounds, but it just feels like THE spot in the house. The room gets great natural light and I have this vision of watching our family grow and change, documented in this very same spot for various special occasions long into the future.

The “leather” love seat was a Craigslist find that I intended for our living room, but the back was just too tall and the tall arms made it feel too cut-off from the other furniture in the room. I still love the shape of it, and it’s the perfect size for this awkward spot between the stairs on the porch. I added a gallery wall of items I’ve collected over the years and on the brick wall to give an eclectic feel to the space and bring the eye up. The ceiling height gave me the perfect opportunity to hang a vintage flag I bought from a Chartreuse & Co. sale a few years ago. I placed a rug in the center of the space to warm it up a bit. It was cheap when we bought it four years ago to go under our bed in our first house, so it’s OK if it gets dirty from the backyard and we have to replace it. We’re actually hoping that having a rug in that room cuts down on the amount of dirt that makes it into the rest of the house.

Sources: Green Velvet Pillow | Blue Floral Pillow | Pink Paisley Pillow | American Flag Print | Garden Stool (Similar)

The far end of the room is our dining spot, and I hope to be eating our meals out here all summer long. It has lovely views of our garden and (seasonally) the Potomac River. I snagged the quarter-sawn oak table on Facebook marketplace for $240 and surrounded it with vintage Windsor chairs that I purchased on Craigslist for $100 total. I painted the chairs with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite, which is inadvertently the same color as the slate tile. I may darken them up with some black sealing wax but I’m going to live with them for a bit first and see how I feel.

Sources: Striped Placemats | White Dishes | Napkins (Similar) | Glasses (Similar)

At the last minute I decided to add a vintage rug underneath the dining area for a little more visual interest, and to give the tile a bit of a break under the chairs. We were hoarding the rug after my mother-in-law decided to get rid of it, and this just happened to be the spot we found for it. It’s admittedly too small for the table and chairs, but it’s honestly pretty challenging to find a rug that’s the right size for this space.

The green cabinet in the corner holds random outdoor things like grilling supplies, marshmallow roasting sticks, bug spray, and baby wipes to clean off the dogs’ paws when they come inside on a muddy day. I painted it with Annie Sloane Chalk paint in Amsterdam green and replaced the hardware with these adorable black glass knobs. Instead of hanging a lantern over the dining table, I opted to place a lamp on top of the hutch. We have it plugged into a smart switch so I can ask Alexa to turn it on instead of having to reach up high. I’m hoping the plant will grow to drape down the side of the cabinet…but we’ll have to see if I can keep it alive first.

This is the first time I’ve styled a table to photograph a room and I LOVE IT. And I just realized that I managed to set my silverware wrong…whoops. Sorry mom! Oh well. I layered striped placemats with floral napkins that we got for our wedding and I have literally never taken out of the package. The tortoise glasses were a gift from the designer I used to work for and I really need to hunt down a few more so that I can set a larger table with them. I added a few of my precious glass insulators for color (and general happiness), and clipped a few branches from a tree in our backyard to give a little more height to the space. I need to have friends over just so that I can set it this nicely again soon!

One thing we didn’t manage to complete in time for photographs was the tongue & groove ceiling. The carpenter I was planning to use for the job is booked for a while I might be able to do it myself, I know he’ll do a better job. We’ll wait till he’s available and tackle it in a month of two, but in the meantime I’m so excited to start using this space more often. I’ve already enjoyed a nap on the sofa and I’m looking forward to a jigsaw puzzle and some reading on the porch this weekend.

So how was my first experience doing the One Room Challenge? I’m definitely ready to take a few weekends off from projects, but it’s been super satisfying to give myself a deadline and to have an event through which I can share my hard work and see what all the other designers/influencers/bloggers have accomplished. Speaking of which, make sure to check out the headline designers One Room Challenge spaces along with the guest participants! There are some seriously talented people displaying some gorgeous spaces and I’m pumped to see what they’ve all come up with! Thank you to Better Homes & Gardens for being the official media partner of the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge! Now to start thinking about which space I’ll tackle for the Fall 2019 ORC…

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One Room Challenge Week 5: Tile in the Sun Porch

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Today is my last check-in for the One Room Challengebefore the big reveal next week, and I’m definitely going be busy trying to get as much done as possible! I missed a Week 4 update last week for our Sun Porch renovation progress, but that’s in part because there wasn’t much progress at all. To be honest, all the painting is taking FOREVER. Painting the panels black required two coats of primer and three coats of black paint, plus touch-up in some spots. Then the mullions took (are taking) much longer than I anticipated. I’ve also been in the process of painting a cabinet and 5 Windsor chairs, which is brutally tedious.

The biggest news and transformation for this week is the floor. We finally got tile installed and I am in LOVE! I knew that I wanted a slate or slate-look porcelain tile because I love the look of grey/blue slate with brick. I toyed briefly with the idea of a cement tile or even a black and white checkerboard pattern, but the slate just felt more appropriate to the house and I wanted the flexibility to add in additional pattern or quiet the space with a rug. I searched high and low for a budget-friendly slate tile that didn’t require paying $500+ in freight to get here, and that I could get quickly. Somewhat surprisingly, I found it at Home Depot for $2.99/square foot, which is cheaper than a lot of the quality slate-look porcelain I’ve used for clients in past projects. Don’t get me wrong, the tile definitely isn’t as nice as the $15-$20/square foot slate tile I’ve used in client projects, but understanding that we still have a long road of renovations ahead of us that will be much pricier than this cosmetic update, $2.99/square foot was exactly what we needed.

To save a little extra money on the tile, I bought a 15% off coupon on ebay for Home Depot that was going to net us an $80 savings. The only catch was that it had to be used in stores and wasn’t valid online, which meant we couldn’t place the order ahead of time and just pick it up. So we went to he store nearby that had the most inventory of the tile, and proceeded to load up our cart with 25 boxes. They even had to shut down the aisle and use a forklift to get another palette down. We were totally THOSE people. My sweet husband hauled the tile three times, first onto the cart, then into the car, and then into the garage, all the day after he removed a gigantic fig tree from our yard. He’s not much of a DIYer but he’s been super supportive in trying to get this room finished, and I very much appreciate that!

Sophie’s new favorite spot is the corner of this sofa where she can simultaneously lounge in the sun and look out the window…which is basically why it’s my new favorite spot too.

Many of you who follow me on Instagram have asked if the window panes are going back in the windows, and a few of you noticed that two sets already have gone back up like in the picture above. My intention has always been to put them back to make them look kind of like steel windows, but painting those window panes has taken forever! In order to paint them, first I had to remove all the little prongs that hold the window mullions into the window frame. Then I had to tape the back of each piece so that they are still white from the outside. I had the two (smaller) sets set up in my garage on a drop cloth where I applied two coats of white primer, and then three coats of black paint to each mullion. I painted most of those coats one at a time, before and after work. Once I pulled the paint off I had to touch-up the back with white paint and use my X-acto knife to trim the edges where the paint separated from the tape. Then I had to use my knife to cut paint out of the little slots that the prongs were originally held, and then I could FINALLY reinstall them. I still have two more to tackle this week/weekend, but I learned from the last go-around and will be making a couple changes to my process this time.

The cabinet got painted last week. We use this cabinet to store outdoor things like grilling tools, bug spray, baby wipes to clean off dog paws, and treats to bribe reward the hounds for coming inside from the backyard. I painted it using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Amsterdam Green because I knew I wanted to do minimal prep work and also use a black wax to add a little bit of depth and darkness to the green color, since my goal for this space is give it a sense of history and depth with patina and layered finishes. I ordered black glass knobs for the piece and will installing those this weekend.

I also got two coats of paint on my Windsor chairs that I scored on Craigslist for $100 total. I am painting them with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite so that the chairs are slightly different from the black behind in the window they will sit in front of. They need another coat and then I will probably do a tiny bit of distressing around the edges before adding a coat of clear wax to them. I’m not normally into a distressed painted look, but I think the style of the room lends itself to a little wear.

Unfortunately we determined that there’s no way we are going to be able to add the tongue & groove to the ceiling in time for the completion of the One Room Challenge, but that’s OK. I’m glad we prioritized the floors since they are such a dramatic change. We’ve come a long way in this room and I would rather wait and have one of my favorite carpenters to install the ceiling when he’s available in a month rather than rush it or attempt it myself purely to show it off here. I still plan to replace the ceiling fan since that’s relatively easy to do myself and it won’t be a big deal to take down when we do finish the ceiling.

I have a lot to accomplish over the next week but I’m looking forward to getting this done so we can enjoy the space–and so I can give myself a break before the next project! Make sure to visit the One Room Challenge Blog and follow #oneroomchallenge on instagram to see everyone’s progress and their big reveals next Wednesday and Thursday.

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One Room Challenge: Week 3

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This weekend I continued to plug away on our sun porch renovation as part of the One Room Challenge. It may not look like much progress but it felt like I spent the whole weekend painting the panels and window trim black! Last week I prepped for paint by sanding the wood paneling and pine window trim. Saturday morning I started to tackle the paint. I used two coats of grey primer and at least three coats of black paint on each panel, with a little touch-up Monday and Tuesday when I had good afternoon light to see the spots that I missed.

I still intend to paint the window panes and put them back on so that we get the feel of black steel windows. That’s on my list for this weekend.

In addition to painting, I started to round up some of my new purchases for the room. My new ottoman that I ordered during Way Day arrived. Sunday morning I drove 45 minutes to purchase five vintage windsor chairs that I found on craigslist. I’m debating whether I will spray paint them black or paint them with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in graphite, which is a bit more of a charcoal color.

I also unearthed a small bench that I had originally pulled from my grandparents’ house many years ago before my grandma moved into a nursing home. My grandpa always had a collection of furniture refinishing projects in the cellar. When he passed there were a few things left that he never got to finish. This little bench was at one point caned (it has holes on the top for caning) and my grandpa undoubtedly intended to re-cane it. Unfortunately I lack his caning skills so my plan it to make a plywood top for it and cover it with a green fabric.

This weekend I’ll finish touching up paint and work on my furniture projects. We’re in the process of making plans to have the tile installed professionally and to have tongue-and-groove paneling added to the ceiling. I feel like we’re making great progress but getting subcontractors in will be critical to getting the space finished.

Make sure you visit the One Room Challenge blog and check out the other guest participants!

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One Room Challenge Week 2: Plans and (Little) Progress

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My participation in the One Room Challenge is off to a slow start but for good reason! I spent the last couple weeks preparing to host my mom’s surprise 60th birthday party at our house and I couldn’t exactly turn the room upside down. The party went well and I’ve hit the ground running this week by prepping the space for paint and solidifying my furnishing plans.

Paint prep involved removing the snap-in mullions from the windows along with the existing window treatments. I can’t believe how much taller the windows look without the shades cutting them off at the top! I also sanded all of the wood paneling and the pine window frames/sills so that the primer adheres well to those surfaces. This weekend I’ll finally be painting those areas black to simulate the look of steel windows.

A few weeks ago we also sold the outdoor sectional that previously occupied the space and moved our old Ikea Stocksund sofa from our living room into the porch. Between the warmer weather and more comfortable seating, we have already started to enjoy the space more often than we ever did previously. I took a nap in there Sunday afternoon after cleaning up from the party and it was perfectly pleasant. I was so excited to find the perfect quarter-sawn oak table on Facebook Marketplace and plan to surround it with black Windsor chairs, which I will also hopefully be able to source vintage through Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. I would love to be able to enjoy more of our meals in the room as the warmer weather continues.

The furnishings for the room will be a continuation of the color scheme from the rest of our house, which consists of navy, green, and red/pink accents. We already own many of the items you see in the design plan, and I’m taking advantage of some sales to supplement what we already have.

Sources:
Fan | Sofa | Floor Lamp | Navy Ottoman | Pink Ceramic Table | Rug | Loveseat | Chinoiserie Ceramic Stool | Green Skirted Ottoman | Windsor Chairs | Slate Tile | Pink Printed Pillow | Salmon Velvet Pillow | Blue Floral Pillow | Lumbar Pillow | Green Velvet Pillow

Next week I will be back to showcase our newly painted windows and (fingers crossed) plans for the tongue-and-groove ceiling.

One Room Challenge

One Room Challenge: Sun Porch Before + Plan

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My first One Room Challenge! I’ve toyed with the idea of participating for a while now and have been in need of some motivation to get some projects done around the house. The One Room Challenge is a twice-annual event that encourages designers and guest participants to finish a room in 6 weeks, blogging about the progress weekly, so I’ve decided to challenge myself and attempt to get a project finished around here.

The space I’m tackling is one of my favorite in our new house. Deemed the “Sun Porch”, the room is a formerly open porch that was enclosed in the 1990s by the previous owners. It’s accessible through two sets of French doors from our living room and doesn’t have any AC or heat. The large picture windows overlook our backyard and the river (in winter and spring) and it’s a perfect spot to enjoy a sunset in the evening.

The finishes and architecture of the room are a little funky. The porch was constructed with a brick arcade, and the arches were filled-in with paneling and picture windows when the porch was enclosed. The window trim is a natural pine color and the paneling kind of looks like flooring. The ceiling fan provides critical air flow and light to the room but is looking dated. One of the house’s original 1960s exterior lanterns is still on the house wall. I don’t so much mind the look of orange peel texture floor but it is is impossible to clean and it really needs something else. The ceiling has a concrete skim coat.

When we moved in, we put our outdoor sectional in this space along with the dog bowls and not a whole lot else. The sectional wasn’t quite working for us, blocking the view and generally not being comfortable enough for long-term lounging.

The goal is to turn this porch into a comfortable reading/lounging/napping spot along with a place to enjoy meals, morning coffee, or a puzzle (because I am an old woman and LOVE a jigsaw puzzle). I’m going for something that feels organic and has a sense of age that will hold up well to muddy paws and wellies tossed by the back door.

I’m pulling inspiration from the steel windows, slate floor, and tongue and groove ceiling in this addition by Revival Construction.

My dream for this space is to replace the picture windows and paneling with steel casement windows/french doors that open to allow the room to function like a screened-in porch. But those windows/doors are pricey and we don’t know how a future addition would affect this room, so for now I’m painting the paneling and window trim black. I actually like the idea of painting the brick white but the boy is STRONGLY against it so the brick will remain unpainted. The ceiling will get a painted tongue-and groove paneling and the flooring will be covered with slate tile (hopefully…the floor could be an item that might not make it into the 5 week timeline but I’m going to try my best to get it done!).

This sitting room at The Pig in Brockenwurst, UK via Wurthering Bites has the lived-in, layered look that I’m going for with our furnishings.

I plan to pull most of the furnishings from places in the house where we recently upgraded pieces or reuse items that haven’t found a spot since our move from the previous house. The left side of the room will include a seating area and the right side of the room will include a round antique table with seating for four. The existing window shades will come down for painting and I can’t decide whether I should replace them with bamboo or just leave them off altogether. I’ll also replace the ceiling fan and add a little more lighting to the space with floor lamps and MAYBE a lantern over the table.

I love the way the patina’d wood and black windsor chairs pair with the brick floor of the sunroom in this Connecticut home via Traditional Home (with a view of major #gardengoals).

Wish me luck! It’s a busy month and I’m going to need to make the most of my weekends, but I think it’s doable. The ultimate goal is to have this porch ready for plenty of enjoyment in the warmer months.

Our House

Our “New” House

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Another year in between posts and I’m back again to share the belated news of our “new” home purchase! I figured it was high-time to make a formal introduction to the home and fill you in on what prompted the move before I dive into blog posts about the house itself.

Sometimes when you write something down and send it out into the universe, things start moving in ways you never anticipated. In my March 2018 post I walked through our various options for improving our little rambler house that we bought in 2017. I discussed doing nothing and saving our money, renovating within the existing footprint of our house, and putting a master bedroom addition on the house. The last line of the post read:

“In the meantime, I’ll continue monitoring the local real estate market for a manageable fixer upper with views of the Potomac in a decent school district…”

It turns out that fixer upper would be found sooner than later. We closed on it in May and we are SO HAPPY to be in our “forever” house! We also still have SO MUCH PAINTING to do. In August we closed on the house we lived in for a lone year after another scramble to get it in better condition for sale.

Three houses in three years seems pretty crazy, so let me walk you through our rationale:

Were we planning to move? Not yet. But we were open to the possibility. It was always our intention to move to our long-term house with the emphasis on the house instead of timing. I never wanted us to be in a position where we felt desperate for more space and settled for something that would work but didn’t excite us. Our “dream house” was on .5+ acres, had river views, and was located in our current community. The emphasis there is dream, as houses meeting that description generally go for $900k+ on the low end. There’s plenty of $2mil+ houses available to meet that description, but the affordable ones don’t have much turnover. We were comfortable with the idea that we would be in our starter home 2.0 for a while in order to save, grow our incomes, and buy the house we wanted for the long haul.

Then a fixer-upper came on the market in late April at a price that you don’t generally associate with (seasonal) views of the Potomac. It wasn’t huge but certainly big enough to grow into, it was in need of some major cosmetic updates, and the floor plan had some wonkyness. Despite all that, I could tell immediately that it had been meticulously maintained by the previous owners.  The shell of the house and its systems were in excellent condition. We’re talking new roof, new zoned boiler (boilers often last 50 years), basement water management system (excellent since our area is a swamp), upgraded windows, a generator, etc. Given its cosmetic condition and square footage, the house itself didn’t seem to justify the asking price, so we put in a low offer and came VERY close to losing out and walking away. The day we went under contract was a roller coaster, with the competing buyers increasing their offer beyond ours and wiping out some of their conditions.  By some stroke of luck we still got the house. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, your realtor and her/his relationships can really make or break you.

Do we regret selling our first house in 2017? Sometimes I do but only because I would love to have an income property. When I think about Amazon HQ2 coming to “National Landing” I wince a little because our old house is nearly walking distance from that location–something we knew was a possibility when we sold. But we would not have had the cash to buy our new house if we still had our old house, even with the extra money we would have saved. Housing prices in our old neighborhood didn’t seem to come quite as high last spring as they did the year we sold so I’m not confident we would’ve gotten as much out if we had sold it last year instead. We also probably would’ve spent more money on a substantial a kitchen renovation instead of the quick cosmetic updates we did to put it on the market. When I consider those other factors I don’t really see us in this new house had we not sold last year so I’m happy that we did.

What are your long-term plans for the house? That will be answered in another post down the road, but we are toying with the idea of an addition that would give us three true bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, as well as a kitchen/dining/living area that takes better advantage of the area in our house that gets the best light and best yard/river views–the main reason we bought the house. I’ve measured the whole house and started trying to figure out what’s possible. We don’t see doing an addition for a few years, so most of what we are tackling right now is cosmetic to make each room feel clean and pulled together.

Our House

Deciding How Far to Take Our House Renovation

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Now that we’ve lived in our house for almost a year, we’re seriously thinking about how we want to renovate this house (if at all). Our neighborhood is hot–though not quite as hot as our previous one–and this strong spring market suggests that if we’re smart about renovating this house, we could literally sell it immediately and make a profit. I’m finding THAT is my favorite kind of renovation.

The thing we’re struggling with right now is just how far to take that renovation. We pretty much have three options:

  1. Don’t renovate. Make cosmetic updates like painting cabinets and updating the bathroom. Pay off my student loans. Sit here and save, and jump ship when we find our “dream” house.
  2. Add a second bathroom within the existing footprint of the house. Make cosmetic updates so this house looks totally renovated.
  3. Bulldoze our 1950s carport and connected storage/laundry/mudroom and add a 400 square foot master suite addition.

I’m torn between all these options. They all have pros and cons, which I’ll detail below. If you watched my instastories a couple weeks ago you’d think I’d choose the middle ground scenario, but I actually think I’m leaning towards one or three above right now. For reference, here’s floor plan of our existing house:

Like many homes in our neighborhood, the house was advertised as “3 bedrooms/1 bathroom”, but it’s functionally 2 bedrooms. The third bedroom is blocked in by a family room addition that was built from a screened-in porch in the 1960s. That bedroom currently houses our dog crates, a dresser of my clothes, and some boxes of artwork we haven’t hung up yet. I’ve seen some people open it up and make it into a dining room. But people seem to be weary of removing the “bedroom” for fear of resale, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t share those concerns.

Now to discuss the options.

First, the argument for doing nothing: It’s honestly very tempting to do nothing. It would be very easy to do nothing. The designer in me says no but the house dreamer in me says yes. We’ve seen a couple houses lately (for fun) that would be a stretch right now but comfortable fairly quickly, and it’s made me wonder if we want to tie ourselves to this house for a while (which a substantial renovation would require). We’re saving so much money right now that we would have a good downpayment on a great house whenever the right one came along. We could probably break even with some cosmetic updates if we sold our house tomorrow. We could also pay off my remaining student loans and be totally debt free except for the mortgage, and still have a good downpayment for our long term house in a year or two. But our house wouldn’t really be working for us and the notion that we are leaving potential profit on the table frustrates me. My student loan rates are pretty low and I’m mindful that using our cash to pay off that debt when it could be invested in something with a higher rate of return might not be the smartest financial move. Doing nothing would basically be deciding to move sooner than later. That would be an unconventional decision but we could afford it and it could be a good long-term decision so I’m not taking it off the table.

OK, now for renovating in the existing footprint. This renovation would be substantially cheaper than an addition, but it’s also risky. It has the potential to generate a good ROI, but it might also narrow our buyer pool. It doesn’t add any square footage so we’d have to make the house look totally updated to generate a high enough sales price to justify the effort. The cost could be small or get out of control quickly. The good news it that move-in ready houses in our neighborhood seem to be at a higher premium than space, but I’m not sure it’s the best way to use our cash. For kicks, here’s what I’m considering:

The biggest thing we would do is add a second bathroom, but where to put it? Some houses in our neighborhood have a second bathroom in a family room addition but I think that’s kind of weird. Who wants to walk all the way from a bedroom through the living and family rooms to take a shower? I’m also not sure it would work very well in our house because our addition is lower than the rest of the house and a bathroom might not work with the existing drain line. I’m playing with the idea of converting the non-bedroom “bedroom” 3 to a master bath and walk-in closet, giving this house a true (albeit modest) master suite. The down side is that it eliminates one of the pathways from the bedrooms to the family room so we’d likely enlarge the opening to the kitchen to make up for that. We’d have to move the refrigerator to accommodate a larger opening but that’s not a huge deal.

To maintain two paths from the front of the house to the family room, we could also simply add a master bath and use the remaining space from “Bedroom” 3 for circulation. We wouldn’t have to open up the kitchen and we’d create space for more pantry storage. The downside is that we wouldn’t gain any additional storage in the bedroom. That’s probably not a big deal for resale but for the purposes of us living there comfortably, we need more storage in our room.

OK, now for the addition. I did a financial analysis on the cost of an addition and projected sales price, and it’s definitely the most profitable option on the table (right now).  It would make this house more livable for us longer and provide me an opportunity to build my own personal design portfolio. It would also be the most expensive option and tie up most of our cash in the house. While we would very likely get it all out and then some, that still makes it a lot harder for us to buy our next house if the right one came along. The Alexandria market we live in is very competitive and contingent offers just can’t compete. We want the flexibility to move for the right long-term house. I don’t want us to sell our house and then choose a house we like enough because we have a deadline to move. So we’d be committing ourselves to living here for another 2-3 years minimum. I realize that most people live in a house for at least 5 years so this shouldn’t seem like a problem, but interest rates are rising and I worry that we’ll kick ourselves for not borrowing for our most expensive house while credit is so cheap and life is flexible. Here are two options we’re considering for the addition:

We have a sizable side yard and for a number of reasons, our carport/storage/laundry area actually scared off some first time home buyers who saw the house before we did. I have no problem with those spaces (it turns out they’re permitted and on the books) but I also have no problem losing them for a nice addition. In this option we would bulldoze the whole structure and build a master suite off the side of the house. To replace the laundry room, we’d tuck one into the addition so that it was on the same side of the house as the bedrooms. We would convert “Bedroom” 3 to the dining room and open up the walls into the new dining room and the kitchen. I like the way the laundry room makes for a small hallway so the bedroom isn’t right off the living area, but the master bedroom isn’t very big.

The mudroom/laundry room in our house was easily the most underrated space when we bought it. It’s the entrance I come in and out of, and having a dedicated laundry room is awesome. I wanted to explore an idea that kept the larger laundry/mudroom (also so muddy yard work shoes and rain boots stayed contained). I call this option a laundry/mudroom “revision” because I actually think we would end up rebuilding most of that room. The whole structure is kind of a funny shape (in plan and in section) and is heavily incorporated into the structure of the carport (my guess is that the storage room was previously a shed behind the carport). If we’re already building an addition, we might as well tackle the laundry room too. We still have to walk our laundry to the back of the house but it’s nice to have laundry in the more “casual” side of the house anyway.

Right now we’re thinking addition, but I also feel so tempted to do nothing for 6 months-year and move. My next step is designing the full addition in three dimensions so I can get real pricing from subcontractors for all the many components that go into this kind of a job. We really can’t make a good decision without those numbers. I look forward to finishing that process so we can feel resolved in whatever decision we make moving forward.

In the meantime, I’ll continue monitoring the local real estate market for a manageable fixer upper with views of the Potomac in a decent school district…

Our House

Updating for Resale: Kitchen Finishes

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On Monday I detailed our experience selling our first house and the improvements we made to get maximum value out of our house in a short period of time. I touched on the finishes briefly and today I’m including a list of sources for the updates we made to our kitchen.

As a reminder, here’s what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house. The cabinets were solid but looked dated, the appliances worked but were old, the countertops never looked clean, and we didn’t have a dishwasher or room for a microwave off the counter.

Here’s what the kitchen looked like when we sold it:

We removed a cabinet and added a dishwasher, replaced all our appliances with new stainless steel appliances, and tiled the kitchen floor. I added molding to the soffits and painted the cabinets and soffits white to make them feel taller and more interesting. I replaced all the dingy brass hinges with new satin nickel hinges and added pulls to the cabinets. Absolute black honed granite tops replaced the stained white laminate tops. The builder dome light got swapped out for a more stylish schoolhouse light fixture, and a faux roman shade makes the window look more finished. See below for sources.

 

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