Trying the One Room Challenge for My Office!

In my daily Pinterest-ing I noticed a few interior design photos with “One Room Challenge” noted in the title, so I looked into it. Turns out it’s a biannual design event over the course of eight weeks that’s open to guest participants. In partnership with Better Home & Gardens, it’s a community event that celebrates the process of completing a room. I’m a little late to the party, as they’re in week six. But I decided I’m all-in for it. I’m trying the One Room Challenge for my office!

My office on painting day a little while ago. Yes, I had to cover both a crazy bright pink and blue in the process. It felt so great to bring it all to one color!

Am I being a little too ambitious? I think we all know the unwavering answer to that is YES. But I’m excited for the challenge. I feel like I totally overthink my own spaces. And this one is exemplary of that! This room has so many uses for me. I use it as an office, extra shoe storage, a cardio fitness zone, a photo studio and a storage unit for over 250 items for sale on Poshmark. Yikes, right?

By the way, if this is your first time reading my blog, I just moved to a mini-farm in a new city a few hours from Tampa. This happened the same time as kicking off my new career, no less! Check out my first blog post for the full back story if you’d like to hear more.

Kaitlyn Loos Headshot
Photo of me in my new office in the spot I often use as a photo backdrop for my stories and some Poshmark photography.

So I hopped to it this week and created a plan for bringing this space to its full potential. After hours of going back and forth about some of the decisions, I finally had to say to myself: “What would you recommend to a client?”

It sounds crazy, but this was a game changer.

I would tell my client not to settle for a plan that they’ll have to change later. If they love something but it costs more than they wanted to spend, look at the scenario 360 degrees and decide what would truly be best. Turns out after taking every role of this office into account, that the Plan A and Plan B that were competing so hard in mind, were both not the answer. Plan C has emerged, and it’s going to take some major decluttering, streamlining and putting together new furniture. But in the end, I think it’ll be worth it.

One of my “Plan A” drawings from around midnight last night. I’m going to let Plan C be a bit of a surprise!

So here’s the situation!

A lot has happened in this little office in the right direction since moving here, but I think this event is a great push to get it done. Here is where I’m at today!

This is my truth right now. All of these shelves contain my Poshmark inventory which is clearly not contained or looking good right now. But it’s all about to change.

Again, I’m very lucky to have this space in the house. I’ve never had an office before. But with the clutter right now I feel like I don’t even deserve it, and I know that’s not the attitude to have! I’m the type of person who can stay neat-ish if there’s a system and it looks good to me. With the mis-matched fabric storage cubes, it never felt right! And, to top it off, I can’t just order more of the ones on the left because the two shelves from IKEA have different inside cube dimensions! Ugh, you would think they, of all stores, would have this streamlined, but this was not the case. But hey, that’s what I get for buying them piecemeal.

Today, an official plan has been born to finish this project, and you get to watch it all happen, too!

Some Good News This Week!

New plant and pot from IKEA

I purchased this cute little plant from our recently reopened IKEA to get my positive Feng Shui going as I dive into finally finishing my office.

Fancy foot rest DIY I created today

I also had some success creating a little custom foot rest from a West Elm pillow and an IKEA children’s wooden stool. Check out my Instagram stories for the full DIY on that.

My Goals for the Space

Below are the objectives I’m trying to achieve in the process of finishing the work I’ve started on this office. I hope in two weeks I can come back to this and say I’ve got it all down pat!

1. I want to have an office that feels as put together and stylish as the spaces I create for my own clients.

2. I want all of my Poshmark inventory concealed and organized. And I want my packaging products to remain easily accessible when I make sales.

3. I want to better utilize the vertical space of my office for much needed storage.

4. I want to be able to look up from my desk at my pin board hanging on the wall with inspiration images attached.

5. I want a system of organizing paper and tech pieces so that it’s not cluttering my glass desk.

6. I want my elliptical space clear and ready to use at a moment’s notice.

7. I want to create one shelf of interior design references.

8. I want everything in the office to have a place.

This feels so crazy to me to post something that I haven’t finished! I’m excited to see where I can take this space in the next two weeks. Check back on my blog next Thursday for the next progress report.

Thank you for reading and I hope you’ll wish me luck!

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