I finished my first One Room Challenge (and only a day late!). I jumped on this train very last minute, so I’m actually thrilled I was able to wrap up decorating and photographing my home office in just six short weeks. Do you remember the before photos? This little room off the kitchen had lots of honey-colored wood, and very green walls:

You can check out the original design plan and learn some DIY tips for painting your floors white in my prior weekly ORC posts. I think paint certainly made the biggest difference here! And baskets! It seems most designers have a thing with baskets. I LOVE them for organization. I’ve got a basket for each client to keep samples, papers, and drawings organized. The office feels so bright and clean, and the light walls and white floor is the perfect backdrop for looking at color against.

Just a note about costs: this office did not cost a whole lot to put together! I wanted to spend money on more prominent areas of the house, so the office budget was minimal. Paint and the baskets (which are HERE from Container Store) were the biggest expenses. The desk, rug and white shelving above the desk I re-purposed from my old office space, and the vintage blue bench was $60 at a flea market. The bulletin board from Amazon is linked in the design plan post, was about $50 bucks, the wall hooks were a few dollars from the hardware store. The big set of IKEA shelving we actually found in the alley! Chicago alleyways can be the best source of home decor, wink wink! The magazine rack is also IKEA, and so is the top of my standing desk, which is sort of an IKEA hack. My husband Luke built the desk base out of birch plywood a few years ago, and we attached the IKEA top. Also, it was hard to get the light fixture in a shot, but I picked a simple and inexpensive drum shade from Home Depot. Paint color is Benjamin Moore Gray Cloud.

So there you have it! What do you think; successful first experience with the One Room Challenge? Did you like following along week to week? Would love to hear from you!

Photography by Carolina Mariana

XO – CLAIRE