Hi friends! Welcome to Week 6 of our Bohemian Glam Office Renovation that we are have been doing alongside the One Room Challenge! If you are new here, make sure to catch up on the last five weeks by clicking through these links: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5
It’s crazy to think that we only have two weeks left to go and yet it feels like we have SO much left to do. This weeks update post is a little different – I was to firstly update you on what we’ve done and what is left to be done. But secondly, I want to take a few minutes to talk about what happens when you start to doubt your designs (because, ahem, that definitely has been me the last two weeks).
So first, update time! As you can see, the room is a complete disaster! I’m sure you are thinking to yourself right now “Man, do they ever have a TON of work over the next two weeks!” And if you thought that, you would be right! A TON OF WORK left to do! The biggest thing that is left to do is build our desk and wall unit. Chris has been working on it for the last few weeks. We’ve had some delays sourcing wood and parts with everything going on. So that is causing some challenges.
A huge update though this week was to finally get that wall closed! This was the old pass through that used to join the office (well, technically this office space is supposed to be a formal living room) and the former dining room. After we closed up the kitchen last Fall, we never bothered to finish the office side of the wall until now! We had left it open on purpose, however, and it was because we figured we would want to install some lighting for the new built-in office desk, which is also something Chris did this week. He installed a ceiling light outlet for a gorgeous pendant that will go above the island part of our desk (I know that doesn’t likely make a ton of sense right now, but trust me, it will once we reveal the final look). He also moved all the outlets so we could have them on that back wall for our computers, printer and desk lamps! So while that progress doesn’t necessarily look like a lot, it was huge!
You can also see that I’ve started working on adding the gold leaf to the mural! When I tell you that it changed the entire look, I really mean it. I don’t want to show it all to you because it’s not fully finished yet and also, I want to save some of that drama for the reveal! But it was SO MUCH FUN adding gold leaf to the wall (and SO easy too).
Okay, now that the updates are done, let’s chat about what happens when you start second guessing your designs. I will be honest and say that this room that I’m designing is like no other room I’ve ever done. While I’ve taken some chances here and there, I’ve still relatively stayed within “safer” design aesthetics before. But this one has me stepping so far outside of my comfort zone. I’ve never tackled a space like this before and with the very nature of boho glam design, lots of it is about being organic and a bit wacky! There aren’t necessarily strict rules as this design style borrows from multiple design genres and can have various interpretations. I’ve found myself scouring the internet trying to find out as much as I can about this design style and there’s just not a ton of information out there. So that has left me having to take some risks in my design choices that I’m not 100% confident in.
Let’s talk about the mural that I revealed last week. That was so out of my comfort zone to try and tackle this mural. It was a TON of work and I was exhausted after painting for 72 hours, trying to get it perfect. But when I stepped back at looked at it, I honestly wasn’t in love with it. Not because I didn’t think I did a good job – I do think it turned out how I had envisioned it would – but all of a sudden, I found myself second guessing if this design even worked within the overall space. I started questioning my original vision that I had months ago in the early design stages of this space, wondering why I had thought these colours and this pattern was a good choice. My husband and kids and friends and even community online kept telling me how awesome it was and I honestly laid awake for three nights in a row wondering if I had made a HUGE design mistake.
Finally my husband said to me one day (after listening to me question the mural for like the 10th time), “Christine, you clearly had a vision for this from the start, don’t give up on it now. It’s not even done yet – keep going – keep pursuing that design you had in your mind and once the room is complete, if you still don’t like it, we can change it. But don’t give up on it now – it’s not even finished yet!”
Boom. That was all I needed to reminded of – first, that I needed to trust that initial design that I had months ago when I came up with the mood board for this space. It made sense to me then, so I needed to trust my gut on it and not let self-doubt creep in halfway through. Secondly, it was a good reminder that at the end of this whole process, if I maybe changed my mind on it and still didn’t like it, it’s not permanent – we can change it with either a coat of paint or some wallpaper!
And you know what happened after that? I stepped back from the project a little and I started seeing it through that initial lens that I first did months ago when I came up with the design for this space. And I started to really like it again…especially after I added the gold leaf!
I share all of that to say, sometimes self-doubt will creep in when designing a space, especially if it’s something that is far out of your comfort zone. I’m not the type of person that likes to have an entire house that looks the exact same, room to room to room. I know that design aesthetic appeals to lots, but not to me. I want each room to tell it’s own story and have it’s own design. So this space was SO out there compared to the rest of the house, it made me really second guess if I still loved it.
But I’m glad it did – because here’s what happens when you second guess your designs – it forces you to really look deep into why you designed the space the way that you did. It makes you look up other designs to see if maybe you should have done something different. It makes you think critically about the space which I think makes you fall even more in love with what it is you are designing. I’m more confident now than I have ever been about what we are creating in this office, so I’m glad I went through that week of questioning and doubt. Because now I can’t wait to see it all come together because I KNOW it’s going to be AMAZING!
So, with that, we will see you next week friends!
Love & Blessings,
Christine
