We're Back Baby!!

One Room Challenge Fall 2024-It's time to overhaul the living room!!

It's ORC time again and we're back!! We have no business signing up for another round since we had to ditch our Spring ORC project at the final hour because of plan changes (to be continued on that story...), but this woman is chomping at the bit to get our living DONE!! November will mark our 2 year anniversary in this house and I want this space to feel like an actual living room rather than a tool staging area for all of our other projects.

So this year is the year! I'm so excited about the plans we have for this space! It feels like all of the ideas and musings are finally coming together in a cohesive plan!

For the next 8 weeks we'll be overhauling this space into something special. First, let's just take note that when we first moved in here we started with texture walls, drab grey paint, and even more depressing grey laminate floors that had to go. We quickly replaced the floors with white oak engineered hardwood floors which made a HUGE transformation to the feel of the space. We also skim coated the walls and painted with our signature color for this house, Bistro White, to bring warmth and brightness to this area. This alone has made such a huge impact.

Our next steps will be to add some millwork to the columns the differentiate the living room from the dining room in this open concept layout. I'm still deciding if I want to add an arch for even more visual separation between to the two spaces. After the columns, we'll trim out the massive picture windows. They are each about 5 feet high and 3.5ft wide so we'll need some good trim details to bring these to scale.

After the windows are complete, we're going to focus on the 5th wall! We're adding recessed lighting and getting rid of the ugly and cheap ass fan fixture from the builders. We don't need a fan in this room, so we'll tap into the fan electrical to provide supply to our new recessed lighting. Once we have our lights wired we'll move onto our coffered ceiling with tongue and groove beetle kill pine inlay. I can't wait to see how this transforms the room.

My next favorite project for this room is giving some life to the corner fireplace. We're going to DIY a cast stone look-alike mantle and upper to give the space some presence. I'm hoping to install a remnant piece of marble for a fireplace surround and possibly do some stonework outside of the mantle. This decision will wait until the final stages so I can see how much I want to add to the space.

Assuming all goes well, we'll squeeze in some custom media center and bar area builds using white oak. Then finish off with custom curtains made by yours truly and a DIY chandelier.

Just writing about this is making me so excited for this transformation and getting to express my creativity through all of these projects!! I can't wait. So, follow along in IG stories for the day to day happs on our progress during this ORC. I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions and polls for some decisions we have to make and love to have some feedback.

Follow @lueckyhome on IG and check out more projects at oneroomchallenge.com