One Room Challenge, Urban Chic She Den – Lighting and Floors

Well, we are halfway there!! Can you believe it?? It’s Week 3 of the One Room Challenge !! If you’re just joining me and want to catch up you can view Week 1 and Week 2 here.  🙂 Thanks again to Linda at Calling it Home and House Beautiful for sponsoring!!!

As a reminder, I’m trying to make this a fun, learning experience. Each week I’m taking you step by step through the process of a whole room makeover. This week is about Lighting and Floors.

One of my favorite images ever on Pinterest!! While the whole scene is gorgeous, the chandelier, in my opinion, steals the show. It makes a statement without overpowering the room. It draws your eyes to the window and the view but doesn’t detract from it.

Make It Simple, But Significant

Wise words and ones that I’ve been trying to use in this space. It’s particularly true with my lighting choices.

Ok, here it comes…the Ugly Before Pic.

While this small chandelier isn’t hideous, it wasn’t anything special. More importantly, it was too small for the room and gave off terrible light at night…see for yourself.  I was quite excited to replace it!

It’s harsh and dark and sadly this was the only source of light in the room. Hmm…I wonder why we didn’t use this space much? 😉

Ok, let’s forget the nothing special, too small chandelier and gaze upon this beauty I found online. Talk about inspiration!! Ooh La La!!

Isn’t it amazing? I can’t even imagine the nightmare in hanging this piece. If you have ever untangled one of these or hung crystals on a chandelier you understand what I’m talking about. 🙂

While I don’t have the space for either one of these gorgeous inspiration chandeliers…they did serve for exactly that…inspiration!

I’m so happy to be working with Lamps Plus for this One Room Challenge. They are always so great to work with and carry such a variety of items.

When choosing your lighting for a room consider these points:

1. Size…that means width, height and even the weight of a fixture. I’ve had to forgo some fixtures because the weight was just too much.
2. Style…will the style work with your decor for a while? You don’t want to have to change out a chandelier every other year. Try to choose something that has a classic charm for your home and can stay a while.
3. Light…What kind of light will it give off? Warm, White, Bright? Will it be direct or ambient lighting? If you only have one primary light source make sure it will be enough at night.
4. Impression…will your new light fixture make a statement or get lost in the space? The lighting in a room is just as important as the furniture and accessories.

So keeping all these points in mind, I finally narrowed my choices down. Here is a collage of lighting ideas that made the short list for me.  As you can see, I considered a number of styles, materials and designs. Also, don’t be afraid to mix metals in a room. Sometimes the finish of a light fixture may be different from other pieces you have in a room and that’s ok. It’s fine to mix and match styles as long as they complement each other. In fact, mixed metals is quite popular right now, so go for it!

Now it’s your turn to choose the pieces you would use in your She Den and then take a guess at which one(s) you think I chose.

If I could have incorporated all of these I would. It was hard enough just making a short list. The lighting out there these days is a work of art and even high tech.

I can’t wait to see which ones you would choose and which ones you think I went with…hope you’re keeping notes each week. You can also pin these on from my ORC She Den Pinterest Board. Create a board of your own!

So now that the walls and windows are done (Week 2), the Lighting has been selected, let’s talk about the floors.

Since we have wood floors there was no need for major reconstruction here. Let’s be honest, most people don’t have the budget to make over their floors or the desire to take on that kind of a project. Want to know a secret? Area rugs can save the day! Within 5 minutes of putting down a new rug you can create a whole new feel and look to a room! You can even go crazy and layer your rugs. Get a large 8×10 or 9×12 and layer a smaller 4×6 or 5×8 over it adding texture and color. Trust me, no one will be looking at your floor if you have beautiful rugs all over the place. And in case you were wondering…you absolutely can layer a carpeted floor with an area rug! I get that question all the time.

I worked with my friends at Rugs USA for this project. Again, I am recommending companies that I work with on a regular basis, trust and believe in their products and prices. I’m not just pushing products! 😉

So I had to decide which direction I wanted to go in with this space. I love jute rugs, I love soft and plushy and I love color! What to do? Hmm… well, you’ll have to follow along and wait for the reveal to see which one I chose. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites that I was considering. Which one would you choose? Which one do you think I chose? To make things more fun, if you create a board for me OR you…send it to me via email or DM me on Instagram. I’ll share some of them in my Stories when the ORC is over!

Ok, there you go some more things to think about and hopefully a little more information to help you with your next project or makeover. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message below or email me on my contact page. I love answering your questions.

Since it’s Week 3 of the ORC, I guess I can finish off by giving you a peek at the room. You’ve been so patient. 🙂

Here you go…

What? I told you I was gonna give you a peek. You didn’t really expect to see a lot, did you?? I really want you to design my space AND yours so I can’t spoil it with too much information! Again, you can see all my images from these posts so far with my shortlists and possibilities on my ORC She Den Pinterest Board. Also, revisit Week 1 and Week 2 if you missed them!

In addition to working with Lamps Plus and Rugs USA on this project, I’m also excited to be working with Bed, Bath & Beyond, Joss & Main, and Milton & King. I’ll also be sharing some small shops and artists with you along the way.

I hope you follow along with me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and here on the Blog to see the progress each week. I can’t wait to see what you design for yourself…and what you choose for me, at the end. Be sure to see what all the other bloggers are doing as well by visiting the One Room Challenge official site.

See you soon!