Some things that did and didn't work with our Spring 2018 One Room Challenge

For the One room challenge, we had a vision and some idea of our goal by reveal week.  When I was sourcing and bought items for A's room, some of it didn't work out and there were many returns and ideas that never materialized.

I thought I'd share some of what did and didn't work.

1. Target's Velvet quilt. It seems they've rebranded these to be part of the Opal House collection. I mentioned in week two that we might use this in A's room. I loved how it felt and the gray had the modern look that we were going for. The velvet on the exterior of this quilt is beautiful, soft and the color was perfect. But the quality is sub-par for the price. The fabric that they used on the underside of the quilt is quite thin and the tufting was becoming loose in some areas. Although I loved that it photographed beautifully, I knew it was just not going to hold up to everyday use. Unfortunately, this one had to go back.




2. Lights inspired by science fiction. A was very particular about wanting lights that resembled something you would see in a science fiction movie. That was one of the elements that she was drawn to with the bedroom inspiration photos that we pinned. This was tricky because I didn't want the room to look like a science lab or worst, a distastefully decorated buffet restaurant (no offense). I struggled the most with this because all of the lights that I looked at could have done that, make the room look like a lab or was too plain. The other options required professional carpentry skills and an electrician to build out in order to achieve the look we wanted and our budget didn't allow for that. We almost went with the bubble pendent or a sputnik inspired chandelier but I'm glad I kept contemplating. On our Ikea trip, we saw the Ikea PS 2014 pendant light. It had the perfect lines and color she wanted. Procrastinating on this decision worked in our favor this time.




3. The war of rugs. Although A's room has carpeting in it already, I wanted to add a rug to pull together the colors in the room. Rugs are usually very durable and can be washed and reused for many years so I wanted a rug that incorporated A's room colors but was neutral enough to be used in other spaces and with other colors many years from now. The ones I was drawn to were more vintage and traditional in style and the only style we both agreed on was a faux fur rug.  We bought a gray faux fur rug but the color was a bit off (I don't have a photo of it).  There was some green undertone that just didn't work.  That went back to the store and we ended up using my pale pink rug for her room instead. A new rug is on the list of things to continue looking for but it's not priority so it may be a while until we replace what she has.




4. No space for a nightstand, what to do? We saw this side table at Target that looks a bit like a fancy plant stand but thought it could be a unique table to use as a nightstand, the picture doesn't do it justice because it's actually a very beautiful (especially for the price) table.  Unfortunately, it didn't fit our space and all of the other more traditional nightstands were even wider. We thought of using two floating shelves and building a floating nightstand but it would have not been substantial enough to hold it's own weight in the room.  Again, procrastinating on a decision, we found the hexagon table which fit the decor and space perfectly just a few days before the reveal. The small table adds some dimension with the marble top and it's silver legs mix well with the other metals in the room.