Welcome to the 2021 BHG Spring One Room Challenge Week Four

We’ve entered week 4 of the One Room Challenge and I’m here to tell you I’m already feeling the pressure. Last week I was off the renovation grid because I had to have a major procedure done on my mouth. So this post covers progress made in both weeks 3 and 4. If I had to put a theme on the posts over the past two weeks, it would be a story of the emotional dilemma of choosing a paint scheme.

Last week, I settled on the color for my cabinets after a great deal of patchwork. There wound up being six contenders for the cabinet prize. Then there were three: Sands of Time, Portobello, and the winner, Dromedary Camel. The goal was to find a timeless golden color that would play along well with my dark and moody kitchen color scheme without looking like a mistake. Making this decision was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

The two main colors of my kitchen are Raisin by Sherwin Williams on the walls and the 2021 Color of the Year, Urbane Bronze, on the ceilings. Now originally I wasn’t going this dark on my ceilings. The plan was to leave them white. However, over the last few weeks, I felt the pang of making what I called a half-ass commitment to my new design. I thought of Jason Alexander’s old slogan from Desperate Landscapes…”Go big or go home.”

In the case of my kitchen design, the slogan needed to be modified a bit… “Go all in dark, or go back to light and airy.” Well, that won’t be happening anytime soon. The transformation of my kitchen from its original Tuscan-inspired color scheme to its current Haute Bohemian one is an event a long time in the making. I’d spent years pouring over Instagram accounts of dark and moody queens like Abigail Ahern, Pati Robbins, and even Kelly Wesrstler who manages to bring the drama of color into her designs. It was time for me to explore the dark side. And no, I’m not talking about the Darth Vader style darkness either.

As a newly made empty nester, I found myself faced with the decision of reinventing my life. My sons have created their own lives and pathways in the world. The ranch house we all painted and renovated into a Mediterranean escape also needed a new direction. Your home holds the heart of your personality. There’s a reason we interior designers stress the importance of jazzing up your daily abode to reflect who you truly are as a person.

When someone walks into your home they should immediately say: “Yep, I can see you all this design.” Paint is one of the simplest yet most effective and cost-efficient ways to do this. Over the past few years, I’ve been transforming our Tuscan abode into a dramatically Haute Bohemian escape.

I chose the kitchen as the room for the 2021 One Room Challenge because a) It was the only space in the main part of the house that hadn’t been repainted in our new inky color scheme and b) what better way to hold yourself accountable to a design plan than posting your progress weekly for the world to see.

The transition to dark and dramatic marks a new stage in my life. The emotional turmoil associated with the paint and flooring choices comes on the heel of a traumatic and unusual last three years of my life, a time during which I’ve grown as both a person and a mom. It was time to take my home in a new direction as well.

The plan for our $2500 jewel box kitchen didn’t come together easily. However, the important thing is that the design materialized in the end. Designers spend most of their days creating the perfect space for everyone else. Yet when it comes to making decisions for our homes the muse oftentimes decides to take a last-minute creative vacation.

Thankfully both my sons helped me get through this creative block. A long time ago, we painted the dream home we’d just bought, a true fixer-upper, and turned it into an Italian villa. My boys were only 7 and 8 years old at the time. Fast forward sixteen years later and they’re now helping mom create her forever home, the place where she’ll ultimately slide into retirement one day and then pass down to one of them. Painting over that mural of Venice didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Instead, covering the photo signified a new direction for all our lives and a new canvas for adding something special to come.

Tune in next week for part 5 of the 2021 Spring One Room challenge as we tackle the cabinet design. Don’t forget to follow along each week to see the progress of each of the Featured Designers and Guest Participants!