Last week, we completed the One Room Challenge, where we completely transformed our living room in only 6 weeks. This week I’m sharing tips and tricks for completing the one room challenge for those who want to take the challenge in the future! Check out all of our One Room Challenge posts here:
- One Room Challenge Week 1 – Living Room Design and Inspiration
- One Room Challenge Week 2 – How to Turn a Dresser into a TV Stand
- One Room Challenge Week 3 – Living Room Rugs and Furniture
- One Room Challenge Week 4 – DIY Woven Pendant Lamp
- One Room Challenge Week 5 – Hymnal Wall Art Instillation and “New” Piano
- One Room Challenge Week 6 – Belgian Country Inspired Living Room REVEAL
One Room Challenge Tips
This was the first time we participated in the One Room Challenge and I must say – I’m in love! I work best under a deadline and I loved the motivation of working on a room with 200+ other bloggers and designers. I thought I’d put together a few tips just in case any of you are planning to join the One Room Challenge in the future.
Choose a Theme AND a Room
Don’t just choose a room for your One Room Challenge makeover, choose a theme to help your room stand out. For example, one person might write a post about a ‘Christmas Party’, the next person writes a post about a ‘Christmas Cookie Party’, and the next person writes a post about a party called ‘The Great British Bake-Off Christmas Cookie Party’, which post will stand out and catch your eye?
Be specific and choose a theme to set your room apart.
Plan a Schedule
Six weeks seems like plenty of time to plan a room makeover – it’s a whole month and a half! But let me tell you, that time goes by very quickly. We laid out the plan for the whole month well before the six weeks started.
That meant that I knew ahead of time that I would be sharing the plan for the room on week one, the DIY dresser transformation on week two, etc. I knew that we had a lot going on personally around the middle of October, so I planned in a week to talk about our rugs and furniture that didn’t require completing a project. If you sketch out a schedule before you begin, you’ll have a much easier time sticking to it.
Think Ahead
Some people think that the entire one room challenge must be completed within the six weeks, but I think that’s baloney. We ordered our furniture months ahead of time because it had to be custom ordered (and some of it STILL didn’t come in on time!). Designers will work with companies to order wall paper, flooring, and more well before the first post. I had most of the pieces of our living room makeover before the event started.
I used the six week timeframe to complete DIY projects and put the pieces together to create a finished look. Don’t feel like you have to stress out to plan and complete a whole look in 6 weeks. Plan ahead and save yourself a million headaches.
Do you have any questions about what it takes to complete a One Room Challenge? Ask me in the comments below or find us over on Instagram, where I’m always sharing behind-the-scene glimpses into our projects and processes!
Check out all the fabulous rooms for the Fall 2018 One Room Challenge here!