C l a r i M i c h e l e

Guess who has decided to participate in the One Room Challenge™ (ORC) this spring? ME!!!  ORC is an online blogging event hosted twice a year by Linda at Calling It Home. Bloggers/anyone who want to participate are challenged to transform a room in six weeks. Each week they link up to share their experiences, and support each other in crossing the six-week finish line. Last fall, over 170 bloggers shared their transformations, and there are guaranteed to be plenty of fabulous room makeovers shared again this time around. Be sure to check out the other amazing transformations here.

I’ve tuned into ORC for the past few years, and have been waiting for an opportunity to join in on the fun. I’m excited and nervous to participate in this challenge, and I hope it will keep me motivated to finish decorating our master bedroom.

For those of you who are new around here, hello and welcome! My husband and I moved to the UK last summer, and now we’re renting an English row- cottage (we think it was built around 1880?). Let’s just say it’s been an adventure trying to make it feel like home. We’ve felt the cultural differences as we’ve shopped for furniture and home goods without access to a car, and there have also been some other hiccups along the way. For instance, I did not realize that box spring mattresses don’t really exist in this country, and so I made the mistake of buying a verrrry low bedframe assuming the height would be boosted by a box-spring. The budget for this project is about £0, but even Andrew agrees that we need to invest in a new bed ASAP. I’m hoping that a new bed will make a big impact in this room.

So without further ado, here’s what I’m working with.

If you squint and cross your eyes, the walls look white right?

Again, this bed is #sadness.

As you can see, the curtains are attractively strung up by a wire. Please hide your eyes. I’m really not sure what to do about the window situation. The old plaster walls just refuse to hold up a curtain rod without crumbling (note the sets of holes to the left of the window), so Andrew has given up on trying to drill into the wall. But we absolutely need to be able to cover these windows for privacy, and to block out the sun during the summer months (the sun rises at around 4:30 am in the summer – no thanks). I’ll have to get creative and probably break some design rules to hang these.

There was no way both of us could fit our clothes in the one tiny closet in this room, so we bought this cabinet (not sure if it’s fancy enough to be called a wardrobe) for Andrew’s stuff. Luckily it fits pretty well next to the chimney that runs up the middle of the wall. But it also means there is a large white rectangle instead of something cute in that corner. Oh well, it is what it is – I’d much rather live in a functional space than a have a cute corner that we couldn’t use.

We opted for a shoe cupboard rather than a full-size dresser to save space. Even now it’s difficult to move around the room though.

There’s a lot about this room that frustrates me. It’s bland and boring, the bed is so sad looking, and the curtains just depress me. I haven’t done much to decorate since we moved in. For the past 7 months, all of our energy and resources have gone into making our home livable and functional. Because we’re only renting and not planning to live here too much longer, my changes won’t be as major as I’d like them to be. We’ll have to keep the same paint colour on the walls, and unfortunately the carpet as well. But I think even with those limitations, it’s possible to turn this room into comfortable space that feel like ours. Fingers crossed!