ORC Fall '22 Part I: Better Late Than Never?
I have been counting down the days to the Fall’22 ORC for months. First with glee and excitement, and then with a little dread, and finally - panic!
Why panic? Well, it’s day one of the challenge, and I still haven’t finalized my design or even settled on a paint color for my walls. Given that this is my third ORC, you’d think I’d be a pro by now, but it seems I’ve fallen victim to the paradox of choice.
Let me explain. For this challenge, I am making over my bedroom (so I hope), which is a fully enclosed, standard-sized room that gets a decent amount of light and, aside from the weird overhang on the window, doesn’t have any odd architectural details. This is very different from the rest of my home, where each room has at least one special quirk that eliminated most of my design ideas. Furthermore, because my home is an open concept, my color and design palette were also limited to what would fit into the existing design.
With none of these limitations, I was free to design whatever I wanted. The only thing that held me back was my budget, space, skills, and the fact that this is a rental. But besides all that, the sky was the limit. As a result, I’ve changed my mind so many times since I first began this project, and I still don’t have a final design in my head. But here’s what I do have: an end goal.
The Goal
By the time the ORC finish, I want to create a peaceful, organized place for me to sleep and get dressed. This means:
Seating for putting on shoes
Easy storage for my bags, shoes, and accessories
Easy access to my clothes
Light and sound blocking curtains for optimal sleep
A soothing color palette
A functional layout for movement
Underbed storage that isn’t an eye sore
The Plan (Sort of)
These are the things that would make an ideal bedroom for me. For the first time, I am prioritizing function over form (I know, hold your gasps). So far, these are the projects that I am sure I will complete during the next few weeks:
Building a bench with storage
Billy hack for storing shoes and bags
Installing curtain system to block light
Installing shelves in the closet
Installing double clothes rod in the closet
What color will they be? Not sure. What finish? Shiny. How many shelves? As many make sense. What’s the Billy hack? All good questions! Stick around over the course of the next 8 weeks, and you’ll find out the answers (and possibly help me find the answers too).
Before Photos
Let’s bid farewell to my bedroom as it currently stands. Don’t mind all the sticky notes, they are all my design ideas that I scribbled down in real time.
For daily updates, follow along on my Instagram. To see the designs of the other ORC participants, bookmark this page, where we’ll share our progress every Wednesday!