One Room Challenge Week 8: Final Touches and Photography
After eight weeks of blood, sweat, and tears (literally, for all three, stapling your thumb is fun!) it’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of our One Room Challenge. We came into this as a newly started Interior Design firm, confident but still wobbly with our big ideas that always seem to get bigger as we go. This was our first challenge or competition we’ve entered as a team, a test for us both to see if our mechanical talents matched the vision we had for the design.
The listing photo of the dining room from when the home was purchase last year
On a very limited budget and working in one of our own homes this project pushed us into doing furniture refinishing on our own, significant large and delicate detail scale painting, gilding and leafing, working with tradesfolk, and living with an ongoing renovation. Throughout it all Karen and I worked as a great team and pushed ourselves to solve problems as they inevitably came up. Most specifically in rearranging timetables and schedules when electricians and contractors couldn’t make it, or when fabric samples arrived late or didn’t meet expectations. We’re used to these skills when working with our clients but on a timeline and challenge where we’re inspired and pushed by so many of you phenomenal designers to take our sense of perfection to the next level, the process taught us so much about how we work. We both learned that our skills are stronger than we even thought and that even in the most frustrating of moments (when your fabric from Morocco looks nothing like the photos) we’re a great team, ready to support each other and push forward together.
Our original mood board for the room design
In the first week Karen described the vision for the room as a bright jewel box. The idea was to take this overly formal space, basically unchanged since the late 19th century, and bring in all of the elements that make her joyful about sharing a meal with friends and family. After a few years of being sequestered in our homes Karen was inspired to bring the essence of her travels in Spain and Morocco with her husband Jason into the dining room. The result is a stunning, jewel toned room full of art, seductive warm lighting, pattern, and easy comfort. This space is ideal for sharing sumptuous meals, crafty cocktails, and stories between friends old and new.
We’re thrilled to unveil our Moroccan dining room transformation:
Our Moroccan Dining Room unveiled!
We’re so incredibly proud of how this space turned out. Karen’s husband came home to see the space set up and his expression of wonder and satisfaction nailed the job well done. The room is filled with art and trinkets that remind them of their travels, antique furniture from local shops reworked and refreshed to serve a new purpose, and exciting new furnishings and lighting.
A table set for food, drink, and many stories
One of our major projects was finding a way to take this vintage mid century dining set with bow-tie backs and transform them into something international, colorful, and with gorgeous texture. Check out the before and after:
Another major project was for us to take this beautiful antique china cabinet and make it into an art deco stunner. The color, the gilding, and the delicious handmade diamond patterned papering on the back of the cabinet really took our vision and exceeded our expectations in every way. See it here:
And of course the star of the show for anyone who sees the room are these gorgeous pendants from Morocco. The patterning they cast on the wall are thrilling and magical to see in person, and go from delicate during the daylight to dramatic and precise when the sun sets.
Everywhere you look in the room are delicate details that help bring the theme and its colors to life. Check out this gallery and see the smaller elements that really make the design.
Thank you again to the One Room Challenge, Apartment Therapy, to our fellow challenge participants, and to our spouses for the inspiration and opportunity to make this challenge a success. Please check out the work of the other folks participating at the link above and stay tuned for more regular blogs from us about what we’re working on. Thanks to everyone for the support and engagement!
Cheers,
James
