My first ever One Room Challenge! I’ve been waiting for this day for months. It seriously feels like Christmas—you buy a bunch of stuff, decorate for about a month, the big reveal finally comes…and then you have to wait again for next year.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the One Room Challenge, it’s a biannual event in which designers, decorators, and home decor bloggers take on the challenge of transforming a single room in their home over the course of 6 weeks. This year, I’ll be participating in the challenge as a guest, meaning that I’m just joining along for the fun of it. You can see what the other guest participants are up to on the ORC website, and don’t forget to checkout out the featured designer's progress too! It’s so fun to see what others create and come up with and have the chance to cheer each other on along the way. There are some amazing, amazing designers participating and I’m always in awe of what they can create in just six short weeks!

You can follow my progress right here on the blog throughout the month of October. In addition to my normal Tuesday/Friday posts, I’ll be giving y’all progress updates every Thursday, so be sure to check back so you don’t miss a thing. Click the links below as they go live to see my progress.

10/1 — October Mood Board — Moody Master Bedroom
10/3 — ONE ROOM CHALLENGE — Master Bedroom Makeover! (Week 1)
10/10 — Week 2 Update
10/17 — Week 3 Update
10/24 — Week 4 Update
10/31 — Week 5 Update
11/7 — Final Reveal! (Week 6)

my moody master bedroom makeover plans!

In case you missed it, here’s a recap of my mood board for this space. I’m going for a complete 180 transformation since the space is currently completely plain and bleh. Think moody, layered, cozy vibes with a striking contrast.

The layout of the room is pretty basic, and not very big, but hey, what’d you expect from an apartment? Ira and I do have a very large shared closet, which is nice, buuut we still have even more stuff that we haven’t unpacked because we don’t have the space for it. *face palm* During the ORC, I plan on taking care of both of those issues—style and function—and I’ve got a couple DIY’s up my sleeve to help me do it.

entry wall

This little nook in the entrance to my bedroom is currently dead space and has been bugging me since the day I moved in. (If you’re following along on the floor plan, this is the doorway on the right.) After living in the space for a little bit, we ended up using it as our laundry drop spot since it’s close to our laundry closet. While I do love how functional that is, a huge mess of dirty clothes is not at all what I want to see every time I walk into the room.

I plan on building a pull-out laundry cabinet that will allow us to hide our laundry bins and serve as a cute styling area for getting ready for the day. On the wall adjacent to the laundry cabinet, I’ll probably be adding some type of art, frames, or a gallery wall. Still going back and forth (constantly) on what would look the best right there, but as of now, that’s my plan.

main wall

The main area of the bedroom is where most of the magic will happen. (Design magic that is, ha!) The rug was a definite must because I hate hate hate apartment carpet. It’s old and used, it doesn’t get cleaned as often as it should, and it just kind of grosses me out. On my side of the bed specifically, there’s also a weird smell that apparently only my nose can detect because everyone keeps telling me I’m crazy. Either way, I can’t deal, so accent rug it is. Plus, I love rugs layered over carpeting so it’s really a win-win for me.

The furniture is staying the same, but don’t worry, I will be updating the bedding to look less like a dorm room. See ya, velvet body pillow! And helloooo throw pillows! It’s a running joke with Ira and I that 9 times out of 10, if I run to the store, I’ll come home with a new throw pillow or pillow cover. But what can I say, a girl’s entitled to her throw pillows, right?!

The pendants will be a cute little add and hopefully help us clear some space on our nightstands. I can’t stand cluttered surfaces, so one of my main goals for this bedroom makeover is to style all the blank surfaces to keep clutter from piling up on them. Only time will tell how that plan goes…

One thing that I’m pumped for on this side of the room is painting the walls. I’m a total sucker for dark accent walls and I can’t wait to have one in my bedroom again. My last bedroom also had a dark accent wall with stripes (you can find the DIY tutorial for that here) and I plan on doing something similar again. I’d absolutely LOVE to add wall trim, but Ira says it’s “nOt PrAcTiCaL fOr An ApArTmEnT.” Dream killer...even if he is just a tad bit right. We will do something more than just paint the wall black though. If it’s the last thing I do!!

bathroom wall

Turning around to the other side of the room—this is the wall that our bed faces, with the bathroom door on it (top of the floor plan). Here is where I plan on creating storage space for all the crap (ahem, I mean, accessories) that don’t currently have a home.

We’ll use bookshelves for the base of the storage units—cheap and easy to assemble—then add our own doors to keep the room looking tidy. I’ll of course post a DIY tutorial for this (and the laundry cabinet) after I figure out exactly how to make it work. Other than that, this side of the room will consist of fairly simple projects like adding cord management and accessory trays inside the cabinets.

For a quick recap, here’s everything that needs to get done.

To do list:

• Shop for materials

• Paint walls black

• Add accent to black walls?

• Hang pendant lights

• Assemble bookcases

• Build doors for bookcases

• Add cord management

• Storage solutions for inside cabinets

• Add pulls to nightstands

• Build laundry cabinet

• Lay rug

• Hang art/frames/gallery wall?

• Hang mirror

• Add plants & style

• Swap bedding

Think I can do it all in just a month? I guess we’ll see! Designers…dip your paint rollers! On your mark, get set, go!