Week 3

May 21

Welcome to Week 3 of the One Room Challenge™. Just as a reminder, the ORC happens every April and October. Twenty design influencers are chosen to take the challenge to transform a space and document their progress as the eight weeks go by. It isn’t a competition, but a sharing of ideas, sources and advice. As a guest, I decided to join in this time to give my powder room a much needed facelift.

When I was a kid I always chose vanilla ice cream. ‘Cause I could never choose which flavour I wanted. I just knew that whichever one I chose, the one I didn’t choose would have tasted better. Hence the safe choice - vanilla.

Making decisions for my own space is somewhat similar.

I have a lot of ideas
I like a lot of different things
I can picture a lot of possibilities
I keep finding something else that I really like
I often think the other option would have been better

You get the picture. Pinterest is like a huge menu at the ice cream counter. Argh, I only have one powder room to design but I have enough ideas for 10.

Working for someone else, I consider their tastes and that makes decisions simpler. In my own home there’s another factor in the mix: my husband and he has his own opinions about things. Pretty strong opinions at times. Like when we were first married, he insisted he didn’t like striped sheets. I like striped sheets. He grew to like them!

So, when I was narrowing down the powder room design, we consulted together. I showed him some options, he hmmmed; more options, he shrugged. Eventually I said please tell me straight up because otherwise I’ll be lost forever in ‘planning land’. When he did, it definitely set the direction. Good-bye wallpaper option #47 that I just fell in love with. LOL

When I asked for input I shouldn’t have been surprised that my husband zeroed in on the wallpaper with oomph. He likes colour. (And he doesn’t choose vanilla ice cream!) Fortunately there is something about the final wallpaper choice that really appeals to me as well. I think it brings out my inner ‘lady of an English manor house’.

Since the powder room is narrow, I needed a vanity that didn’t block the door or the toilet! And also provided a bit of storage for a toilet roll or two. The colour is midnight blue which is dark enough to act as a neutral.

The faucet is from Ollie Nickel, a Canadian company I recently learned about. I’m excited to use it in my home. It seems to be well made and reasonably priced. And it comes with matching accessories. Easy choice and not vanilla!

Finding a new light fixture was another challenge as the room is small. Too big and the light would overpower the space; too small and it would look dinky. I finally saw this fixture online at a local shop and thought it was perfect.

Now for the big picture of how it will all come together. As long as everything goes according to plan!