A One Room Challenge Experience:
Guest Participant Sarah C. Wilson
Studio Designer User Sarah C. Wilson of Chansaerae Designs designed the perfect bedroom for herself as a Guest Participant in last April’s One Room Challenge, In its 7th year and 14th season, the One Room Challenge is a popular design challenge that takes place in April and October in which interior designers give themselves just six weeks to complete one room in their own home. Designers must stick with the same room for six consecutive weeks and document their design and installation experience with regular updates on their blogs.
In this challenge, Sarah rose to the occasion and over the course of six weeks was able to achieve her vision of a dark and elegant bedroom topped off by an amazing ceiling treatment. Called “La Chambre Noire,” Sarah shared her One Room Challenge experience on her own blog, https://www.chansaeraedesigns.com/blog/, and here we present the highlights of her “One Room Challenge” design journey. To read the detailed blog post for each week, simply click on the Orange titles of each section below.
Week 1: All Things Electrical
“We as designers are notorious for creating amazing spaces in other people’s homes but are victims of the ‘cobbler’s children have no shoes’ phenomenon.” -Sarah
For her personal One Room Challenge, Sarah opted to “treat herself” to a new bedroom to help her stay motivated during the six weeks of the challenge. The photo above shows the unadorned room ready to be transformed in just six weeks. Sarah followed her heart’s true desire and decided to go bold by designing a black room. She started off the creative project using inspirational photos she pinned on Pinterest as well as a mood board with colors, wallpaper, objects, and lighting.
For Week One, Sarah focused on the electrical aspects of her room by installing J-boxes and switches for her lighting. She had to wait to install Legrand Adorne switches and outlets as she was still waiting on product delivery.
Week 2: Legrand, Lamps Plus and TDN
For Week Two, Sarah was still dealing with the logistics of product delivery and focused her attention on her switches and outlets, lighting options, and design concept. She opted to use Legrand switches and outlets because the company offers the most refined and sophisticated designs with many customization options. Some of her choices for the room are seen below.
Sarah was able to use both a sponsorship and a challenge prize for her room lighting needs. For overhead lighting, she got Lamps Plus to sponsor her light fixture so she chose a Crystal Teardrop Chrome Ceiling light. She was able to use a challenge prize from the Design Network to get matching pendant lamps to hang above each nightstand in the room.
She also created a rendering of her design concept.
Week 3: Benjamin Moore® Experience Century
In week three, Sarah admitted that she does not enjoy painting especially with the efforts to paint and cut into the more difficult parts of the room with a ladder. She opted to use Benjamin Moore’s new line of paint called Century, which is a small batch interior paint with a soft touch matte finish. She chose the color Black Currant as seen in the sample palette below. Using a special roller, Sarah applied the black paint to the walls that seemed dark purple at first but dried black with a velvety, touchable finish. Check out the video of Sarah painting the wall on her blog by clicking on the Week 3 link above.
Week 4: Astek Wallcoverings
As a designer, Sarah considers the ceiling a “fifth wall” and loves an eye-catching and dramatic ceiling treatment. Sarah chose Astek Wallcovers as her vendor for the ceiling and selected the Ukiyo wallpaper that takes inspiration from the ancient Japanese marbling process of suminagashi. She was also successful in getting them to sponsor the large mural that would cover her entire bedroom ceiling. During this week, she received her Astek wallcovering, a portion of which can be seen below.
Week 5: I Might Be Panicking
This week started Sarah in a panic due to an unreliable wallpaper installer but thankfully she was able to find a companion to help her put the ceiling wallpaper herself. She also spent this week shopping for furniture and items to complete her room vision including a fabulous tufted pink bench. She went economical with purchasing a dresser from Ikea but elevated the piece with stylish knobs from Belwith-Keeler.
This week Sarah also assessed the elements that need to be installed, painted, and the artwork from Parima Studio Art to put up.
Week 6: The Finale
The previous week had been extremely stressful for Sarah as she struggled with wallpaper application and item shopping. But as she entered the final week of the six-week One Room Challenge, she was confident that she would complete her room design to her satisfaction. Although her pendant lamps were missing some rods, causing them to be uneven at first, the design came together in the final week. Sarah’s keen vision and hard work came together in the completion of her La Chambre Noire (“black bedroom” in French). See some highlights of her final vision below and check out more images on her blog by clicking on the orange title above.
Week 7: The Week After
Sarah got a loaner rug from Stark to enhance her photos and help her envision what rug to ultimately select for the room. See how the room is greatly enhanced by an area rug.
The pressures and time restrictions of the challenge proved stressful for Sarah but she came out at the end completely satisfied. She was able to design a room for herself just the way she wanted and gets to enjoy it now on a daily basis.
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