What Is The One Room Challenge?

Tell all ya friends and neighbors!

The easiest explanation as to what the One Room Challenge is, including our personal experience, pros and cons, and our decision on participating again. Is the One Room Challenge right for you?

Oh, boy. The One Room Challenge. I feel like if you’ve read anything I’ve ever written ever on this blog, you’ve probably heard me talk about this. Mainly because it nearly derailed this entire shindig.

To see any of our weekly progress from our first One Room Challenge last April, click any of the links below:

• Guest Bathroom Mood Board and Demo Day
• Plumbing, Electrical, and Other Unsexy Things
• How We Scored A FIVE DOLLAR Tub
• Creating a Bathroom Niche & Inset Wall Shelf
• You Spent An Entire Week On That?
• You Almost Saw A Carmen Shaped Hole In The Side Of Our House

I don’t even really know how I originally heard about the One Room Challenge, but I was a teeny baby newborn blogger then and thought, “Why not? Everyone else is doing it. LET’S JUST FRIGGIN KNOCK DOWN ALL THE WALLS BRO IT’LL BE SICK!” It was not sick. SickENING, perhaps, but not as the youths say, “sick”.

What Even Is The One Room Challenge?

Well, I’m glad you asked. It is pretty well explained in its name. It is a CHALLENGE where you transform ONE ROOM in your house on a timeline of 6 weeks. Hopefully that makes sense, because if not I really don’t know how else to explain it to you.

There are a few rules, but they’re very simple and manageable. Basically, you have to sign up as a guest, make sure to link your posts and not be a turd basically and get all clique-y or stalk-y. That’s really it!

Pros

Before I say anything:

There. Is that enough of a pro for you? Look what you can get done in just 6 weeks 8297 weeks!!! Seriously, though, even though our timeline was way off, I could not be more pleased. It’s crazy how much one room can change your entire house.

ALLOWS YOU TO FOCUS

If you’re anything like us, you have 1094 projects in your head at any given time and with the One Room Challenge, it lets you focus energy at least for a time in one room.

SMALL CHUNKS

If you live in a fixer like us in which EVERY SINGLE ROOM needs to be touched probably more than once, then this will allow you to make a huge task seem way more manageable.

COURAGE

For us, I’m not sure we would have taken a hammer to walls especially this early on in our home renovation careers if it were not for the One Room Challenge. So, it kinda gave us the, uh, testicular fortitude (aka. balls) to go for it and I think it can do the same for you too.

Cons

Hair Loss

I mean, kinda kidding, but kinda not. I feel like I aged so much in the 9+ months it took us to finish this bathroom. I cried. I yelled. I wanted to punch things. I definitely threw things. It was miserable at times. But here again, I think this was because we definitely had a little too much of that courage I just talked about up there.

Inadequacy

I love a good timeline. I love a good schedule. It makes the world go round. But because I was unable to finish this in the time allotted, huge project or not, it just made me feel like I couldn’t do anything else to the house until it was finished. It made me feel like because I couldn’t get my room looking like THE PROFESSIONALS THAT DO THIS THING, that it wasn’t going to be a good product when or if it ever did get finished.

That’s simply not true. LIES FROM THE DEVIL! We aren’t professionals, and for not being professionals, we learned so much from doing this that the next time we have to, we know how to tackle it with a much better mindset.

Professional or not, I got my funny poop sign and that’s really all I care about.

Would we do it again?

You bet! And we ARE! I just signed up for the April challenge and it starts THIS WEEK. I’m so excited that for this One Room Challenge we are tackling…..

MY OFFICE!!!

We’ve been planning for a real long time, coming up with mood boards and per usual, going FRIGGIN NUTSO on Pinterest getting ideas! Come join us over there for some inspiration and maybe to get a sneak peak of styles we are thinking for the space!

Should YOU do the One Room Challenge?

Yes! This year, they’re opening it up to social media participants, whereas in the past it was just those with blogs! However, I would say even if you don’t have a blog or a social media, go for it! Being able to take one room and transform it can give you such a sense of peace, calm, and accomplishment. You know, after you throw all the things and it takes 9 months to do something that was supposed to be done in 6 weeks. Do as we say, not as we do or whatever.

Let me know below, are you going to participate?? I’d love to support you!!