Designing a Room from the Floor Up {Part II}

When we last joined our heroines, Lindsay and Rhoda, they had selected the flooring for their Shaw Floors/HGTV Blogger Decorating Challenge.  Be sure to read Part I of their journey if you haven’t already.

The next morning, we gathered with the other bloggers to make the 2ish hour drive from Asheville to High Point, North Carolina.  While on a swanky bus that had wireless internet (gasp!) , we were tasked with making mood boards for our room.  Rhoda and I worked very quickly on ours, and came up with a contemporary/transitional style in blues, greens, and browns.  Our gorgeous Deliah rug was the inspiration.

Rhoda is glamorous, even on a bus.

When we arrived in High Point, we immediately went to Tribuzio-Hilliard, a full-time commercial photography studio.  This is where they take the product photos of furniture you see on ads and in catalogs.  Who knew that such a place even existed?  It is nothing short of amazing (and I promise to dedicate a post just about this studio).

As we winded our way through the bays at the studio, we checked out the warehouse full of furniture and accessories.  Think of the type of shelving they have at Home Depot and Lowes.  Now, think of it filled four shelves high with sofas, dining tables, accent chairs, and dressers.  A second giant room housed what I think was every accessory, fabric, and dish ever made.  It was a home bloggers dream, to say the least.

The group of bloggers made our way to our section of bays, and waiting for us there was Lisa LaPorta from HGTV!  We were so shocked and delighted.  Lisa is an absolute doll, and just as approachable and charming as you’d imagine.  She hung out with us for two days, offering design advice and just generally being awesome.

Lisa explained that we could use any of the furniture and accessories in the warehouse to design our dream rooms.  We got to select paint from the new line of HGTV Home line of paint at Sherwin-Williams, and the staff at Tribuzio-Hilliard would paint the walls for us.  They also were happy to move furniture for us, wire our lighting, and anything else we could come up with.  We DIY gals (and guy!) felt like queens (and kings!), since we are used to doing all of that ourselves.  The only catch was that it all had to be completed by around noon the next day.

We checked out our bay where our flooring selections had been installed the night before.  The carpet and rug were so soft underfoot that I just wanted to roll around on it and make “carpet angels.”

But, we didn’t have time for that.  We had to rush around like mad women to grab all of the furniture and accessories we wanted to complete our room.  With the help of our darling in-house designer, Laura, we selected our large furniture pieces and then loaded 4 or 5 baskets high with accessories.

When our day was over, our room essentially looked like this.  Ha!

Would we be able to put this room together in the few hours we had the next morning?  Would we be able to pull off the “best” room and win the contest?  Tune in next week and find out!  There will also soon be some details {ahem, a rocking contest} that you aren’t going to want to miss!