After living with our backyard for a little under two (2) years, we've experienced all four seasons at least once, which gave us time to really think about what works & doesn't work. We've spent the better part of these two (2) years daydream planning our backyard and this year, we expanded our daydreaming to include our front yard. P.S. the front yard requires a lot let work which is why it's not as much of a priority - it just needs some more TLC for more curb appeal. My original iteration for the backyard design plan included a lot of the original design elements of the space. Now, a year later, a lot of the yard has changed... and so have our design priorities.
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Working on the powder room half bath washroom gives me a bonafide excuse to do some window shopping - as if I ever need one anyway - for all the details of the space. Shopping for a bathroom is nothing like when I was doing so for other projects, because (1) it's a renovation and (2) the space is extremely small.
This kind of project really only calls for shopping renovation fixtures, storage solutions, and finishing touches.
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While plotting this reno, I've also been grappling on whether to call this a half bath or a powder room - which do you use by the way? - and I've landed on washroom: "a room with washing and toilet facilities" because that's all that's in there anyway lol.
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Going into this holiday season is the first time I am like geeked to decorate... like actually planning & designing a "holidayscape" versus just picking a color scheme and seeing where it leads me... which is exactly what I would do in the past. I knew the vibes I was looking for & I knew what colors would gimme that. From there, I would just go on a shopping spree of sorts & then figure it all out once everything is unpacked and in front of me. This year - after a year of home improvement projects, deep personal trauma, and just general exhaustion, I decided to reclaim this season. Even as a content creator, I was like I will not be rushed to create or feel forced to perform. I wanted to take my time with this. Who knew the end result would be not one... not two... but THREE holiday designs for the hygge ranch.
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The holidays certainly aren't the only time of year that any of us may have overnight guests, but during the holiday season — the season of merriment & counting one's blessings — we all want to go the extra mile for our guests.
I've put together a list of essentials that every guest bedroom/suite should have, but this isn't any ol' essentials list — no ma'am (or sir). Each of these items was hand-picked by yours truly to make the holiday guest experience comforting, special, and memorable. But before we start shopping, let's talk about some practical steps to pulling your guests' home away from home together.
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When we bought the house, there was very little in terms of the footprint that we took issue with. The layout of the house is actually what we loved most about to because it was perfectly compartmentalized for the way we wanted to live - walls where we wanted em & no walls where we didn't... well with the exception of the wall separating the kitchen & the dining room. The only thing that proved to be a real problem for us was that there was no mudroom off the garage and no foyer off the front door.
We needed to find a proper place for our outerwear, footwear, and accessories as we would come in & out of the house.
For the garage, since it's not our main entrance point, we purchased a hall tree. The front door was more of a challenge since we use it on a daily basis, multiple times a day.
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If you've been following along the past 7 weeks, then you know that this is actually a multipurpose area, aka The Flex Lounge... with it having flexibility in terms of its current function, flexibility to change over time as our lives change, and a total flex (as the kids say) because this room is straight from my "must be nice" Pinterest board.
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Oh happy day!
Oh happy day indeed!
And not reveal day... it's "finishing touches for photography" day! This day, for my last 4 major reveals at #thehyggeranch, is always a day that gives me a lot of angst because there's always so many little things to day + it's not just about cleaning & styling for use... it's about cleaning & styling to share & inspire.
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While I love to shop — duh! — I don’t believe I always have to buy everything all new every time I want a new look, because no one has that kind of money or storage! When I decided to set the dining room tablescape, this year I pulled out my fav tablescaping pieces from last year — because that’s when almost everything was purchased — and started to plan out place settings with what I had on hand.
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It should come as a surprise to no one that this project involves removable wallpaper - this'll be my second removable wallpaper project here at #thehyggeranch and my 4th wallpaper project in the 6 years since we've been in Washington.
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Tablescaping isn't exclusive to dining tables, although this time of year, it's often assumed that it is. Any time you're decorating a tabletop surface and/or creating a sort of flat surface vignette -- dining table, coffee table, fireplace mantle, console table, sideboard, bar cart, bookshelf — YOU'RE TABLESCAPING!
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So often when I'm working on a design the biggest dilemma tends to revolve around color -- picking colors, matching colors, using colors -- so I thought it be cool to share some of my "wisdom" on color!
One things that has been a priority for me in this space is having a fitness area. I have resolved that I won't be returning to the gym in the near (or even distant) future but I also can't let my hesitation/distrust of public gyms to cripple my fitness journey. In the past year, my health habits have tanked, specifically my physical health, and so I needed to give myself a space - even a small one - to comfortably workout.
To accomplish this, I made a few considerations -
my preferred type of workouts
my workout schedule
my equipment storage when not in use
So where does that leave me?
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Last week I shared my design intentions for the flex lounge... and I say intentions because things are always liable to change...
In starting this project, I've already resolved to spend as little as possible, even resisting the urge to buy all the organizing things is harder than you'd imagine. There are things I need and then there are the things that I want. My very rough draft shopping list includes -
• a new desk for more surface area
• a new ergonomic desk chair
• a proper place for our printer (and maybe even a new printer eventually)
• wall storage for the mini
• contained storage for fitness equipment
• paper organization
And within the aforementioned list, things get a bit more detailed and itemized... a wishlist of sorts depending on what direction the design ends up taking.
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I consider this to be our "flex" space because it is a multipurpose room - our shared work area, the mini's homeschool turned activity area, and my workout area (the mister prefers a gym environment). It's also our flex space because we need it to be, well, FLEXible - unlike the other areas I've completed so far (living room, media room, laundry room, bonus bedroom, and kitchen) a year from now... three years from now... five years from now... the way we use the space could be completely different. Agility, when comes to the design of this space, is a top priority. That said, I don't want to make too many permanent decisions and I don't want to spend a ton of money. I hope be able to use things we already have & where purchases need to be made, hopefully they'll be with us for a while.
And lastly, this room is in many ways, as the kids would say, a "flex" because we went from not having dedicated areas for activities, work, and fitness to now having a whole room to do exactly that... aka another one of my "must be nice" rooms crossed off the design bucket list.
P.S. in case you don't get the "must be nice" reference, you may wanna check out this ORC post from last year.
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When I got the call to be part of this year's One Room Challenge — one year after being a featured designer for the first ever virtual ORC — I knew it was exactly the kick in the pants I would need to (1) start blogging again, because it has definitely also been 8 weeks since the last time I posted, and (2) to finally finish work on one room in the house that we've been tip toeing around since the day we moved in — the flex lounge.
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