You can read all my posts about this One Room Challenge project here: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8. You can also watch the whole ORC process on my Instagram highlight. Don’t forget to check out the reveals of the 20 Featured Designers and the rest of the Guest Participants!

I cannot believe that we are only one week away from the big reveal!! Right now I am focused on the finishing touches for the room. But before I reveal the final room, I wanted to share 7 things I’ve learned from these past seven weeks.

It’s going to take longer than you think

Remaking a room is hard work even more so when you’re in the middle of a panorama. Planning will make or break whether or not you meet the eight-week deadline. The way I counteracted this was the moment I made a decision about something, I purchased it. If I changed my mind, I sent it back but I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Furthermore, having a strict schedule for what you are going to do each week helped guide me and make the project flow in a logical way. Because my project is occurring in my apartment I didn’t have spare space to make a mess. You may have noticed that my projects have looked more complete than others and that is because I had no space to keep extra supplies, decor, nada. So I had to plan my project in a way that would allow me to continue to use my room and apartment throughout this two-month-long journey.

STICKY Notes

Speaking of planning, I like to use sticky notes to plan out where I’m going to put things in my space. Green for plants, purple for furniture, pink for art, and so on. As I complete projects I remove the sticky notes. It’s a visual color-coded physical checklist of what I’m doing. Everyone has a different way of visualizing their room and tracking their progress. Some people like mood boards, others will crate visual mocks up. I prefer drawing by hand and using sticky notes. Whatever way works for you, find it and make full use of it.

JUST PICK A SHADE

I spent no less than six weeks picking out a shade of white. I finally picked the shade because I liked the name. It came down to that because I knew I had to pick a shade or end up driving myself up my unpainted walls.

You will find when picking a paint color is so hard but I’ve found that going with your gut is the way to go. Sometimes agonizing over a decision can cause so much stress and get you stuck. It’s called decision paralysis. Close your eyes, pick one and if it doesn’t work try again. which leads me to my next lesson…

It’s just paint

One moment I will always remember from his project happened during week four when my friend and I were painting the room. I had decided to do a jet-black accent wall. Halfway through painting, I was worried I had made a huge mistake. My friend seeing the panic in my eyes looked at me and said, “it’s just painted” and kept right on rolling. The black wall is still one of my favorite choices I made for this project and it reminded me that one of the benefits of being in a rental Is that nothing is permeant and it’s easy to change something if you change your mind. Also, very few design decisions are set in stone. If you want a black accent wall go for it! If it doesn’t work out, it’s just paint you can try again.

Thrifting Gives Character

One of the drawbacks of living in a rental is giving it a personal touch. After all, there are at least a dozen other units in your building that look exactly the same. Thrifting is a great way to find unique pieces that make the space uniquely “you”. In addition, older pieces add character to your space.

FedEx FOR THE WIN

I am such a millennial. I take hundreds of photos and all of them stay on my phone. I finally decided to change that for this project. FedEx prints photos starting at 15 cents each. I decided for my gallery wall that I would print photos from my travels. I wish I knew how easy it was to do this before and now I want to print out aaaaaall the selfies.

There’s No Such thing as DONE

You’ll never be totally done with your project. Even as I approach the end of this project there are still a few things I want to do with the room. As I have seen other ORC participants’ projects, I’ve been inspired to try new things with my space. But instead of rushing and trying to incorporate it in a way that might not necessarily make sense, I’ll add it to my Pinterest board for a long weekend.

I am SO excited to share my project with you all next week. Stay tuned and in the meantime follow along on my Instagram for daily updates as I countdown to the big reveal!