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Designing a Room from the Floor Up {The Reveal}

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When we were given the challenge to design a room from the floor up (literally!) at the Shaw Floors/HGTV Home Blogger’s Challenge, I really didn’t know if we could do it.  I was concerned that choosing a rug in under 30 minutes would be a recipe for disaster, since I knew that rug would be the basis for all of our design decisions.  But, once Rhoda and I saw the Shaw area rugs in person, we knew that it would instead be quite easy.

If you recall from my first and second posts on the Challenge, we selected the Delilah rug in Teal.  It has a beautiful combination of teal, apple green, chocolate and a very neutral beige.  That one rug inspired all of this:

Given the size of our bay, Rhoda and I decided to have our room serve a dual purpose – a living room and dining room combo.  We painted our walls Independent Gold from the Sherwin-Williams line of HGTV Home colors.  We were unsure of the color when we selected it, but once we saw it on the walls and realized it wasn’t too gold, we were ‘golden.’

Let’s take a look at the living room area, shall we?  Warning: there are a lot of photos below.  They were like Lays potato chips – I couldn’t pick just one.

Aren’t the turquoise chairs adorable?  Well, they were originally a boring, brown stain.  We were bummed that we couldn’t find a great piece of painted furniture for a shock of color in the room (you know how I LOVE my painted furniture!), and our in-house designer, Laura, convinced the powers that be to paint them for us.  I think they just make the room!

As the mother of an 11.75 month old (I refuse to say she’s a year until she really is!), I totally freaked out about this glass coffee table.  However, as a rug lover, I was thrilled that it looked great in the room, served its purpose, and didn’t hide the rug.

We had the hardest time figuring out a throw pillow arrangement that coordinated well together.  What a sigh of relief it was when that part finally came together.

This deer head is my 2nd favorite piece in the room.  When we found him in the accessory room, he was silver.  I loved him, and I think Rhoda was scared of me and my creepy deer/antelopey-guy.  We had him painted white and then she fell in love with him, too.

What’s my first favorite piece?  Take a guess!  You can see it in this shot:

Heading over to the dining room area, you can see that we kept the same color scheme going.

We were given an entire truck of fresh flowers to choose from to add some life to our rooms, and Rhoda made several beautiful arrangements.  This was a low one for the dining table.

Rhoda also spied this artwork, and I’m so glad that she did because it looks great in the room.  I’m really not an artwork gal.  The only thing other than photographs that I hang on my walls are architectural pieces.  I don’t know why I discriminate against artwork, but I really do.  Am I alone in that?

Beginning September 1st, Rhoda and I will be asking (aka begging) you for your daily vote for our room in the Shaw Floors/HGTV Home Bloggers Challenge contest on Facebook.  Other than having the pleasure to vote for your two favorite bloggers (that would be Rhoda and me, in case you were wondering), you will have the chance to win brand new flooring for your home.  Shaw will select one voter EACH DAY for an entire month to win, and I would be doing the world’s biggest happy dance if it were YOU! I might even video said dance, so I promise you are going to want to try to win.  I’m not as graceful as I once was.

Don’t want to wait until September to win flooring?  Okay, fine.  Then, just come back here tomorrow.  🙂

P.S.  Tomorrow is the last day to enter the fun Scentsy giveaway from Katie Maksimov.  Click here to enter if you haven’t already done so.

Designing a Room from the Floor Up {Part II}

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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!