The 2019 BHG Fall One Room Challenge Week 3

About that Feng Shui thing…

One Room Challenge Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5| Week 6

Last week we talked about our wall color dilemma. I called it the battle of the blue paints, an appropriate title for an equally distressing point in the ORC design that we’re tackling. If you have followed along for the past few weeks then you’ll know that I’m participating in the BHG One Room Challenge sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens.

Each week designers around the world take time to renovate a single room and then record their progress. For the fall 2019 challenge, I chose to makeover my son’s room. We are turning it into an urban modern college student oasis that will become our main guest room when he’s gone. Did you miss the previous posts? No worries. You can find the links to all posts in this series at the beginning of each article.

This week we made significant progress and the room’s plan is finally coming together. After traipsing across the city while visiting every single Ace Hardware in hopes of getting a sample of the blue that would speak to my heart, I found success. Oh, and did I mention my son needed to fall in love with this blue as well?

That was where the disagreement began during week two. I don’t want to say that we had a terrible fall out because we didn’t. Part of the excitement of organizing a design is the implementation stage… aka, the disagreements. Most times, this becomes the point where the validity of your design gets put to the test. Our differences in opinion actually worked in my favor. I was able to find several popular indigo inspired paints that I’ve now added to my source library. I can certainly use these blue babies for my clients as I am sure they will love them.

From left to right: Newburyport Blue by Benjamin Moore, Naval by HGTV/Sherwin Williams, and Adriatic Sea by Benjamin Moore

The designer in me finally convinced my son that his choice of blue and mine was one and the same. What does that mean exactly? I helped him understand the power of tranquility in Naval. Although Adriatic Sea put up a tough fight for consideration.

Yes, my choice won the battle. Let the celebration begin.

HGTV and Sherwin Williams created the most beautiful shade of dark blue ever in Naval. I’m seriously not exaggerating. You can pair any color with Naval and the result looks fantastic. We’ve already tried this. It works. What I love most about Naval is that its indigo base changes throughout the day. During the sunny hours, Naval gives off a bright but dark blue luminance. At night, the color deepens and could easily rival any black without getting too depressing. The walls are dark but they pop at the same time. I must say that even I was surprised by the low key beauty of this particular Color of the Year.

Ok…back to that feng shui thing…

So how did I persuade my son over to the dark side? The basis for using our chosen color boils down to implementing the five elements of feng shui: water, metal, fire, earth, and wood. Functionality baby! That’s the name of the design game. The thought of a peaceful abode convinced my son more so than any Color of the Year label was able to do. I helped him understand that Naval provided the water element in his design, a must-do for a person born under the fire element.

Paired with the white ceiling, we had covered the element of metal. For the time being, the fire will remain in the carpet color, a bright reddish-pink (this color had an official name in the 64 count Crayola box but I can’t remember it) that we had recently replaced with the same shade of what I call 80’s red. The old rug was worn down but my son loved the color. So we updated his room with the same odd red shade. I believe it was called violet-red (not red-violet) now that I’m thinking back to the day.

A modern room design will work with a brightly colored carpet such as the one pictured in my son’s room. In the spring, we will be replacing all carpets with hardwood flooring. To modernize the design, we added a beautiful black rug.

Shop the Look

We’ve decided to use a couple of floor plants to represent the Earth element. The orange mesh office chair provides plenty of extra fire. When the carpet goes away in the spring then the chair will take its place on the balance wheel. We chose a beautiful hutch desk from World Menagerie that gives the wood element a fabulous representation in the plan.

I think it’s safe to say that our design successfully covers all five elements of feng shui. My son agrees as he already feels the difference in his room since we finished painting the walls and started adding the various representations of the five elements.

In week four, we’ll be tackling the ceiling fan remodel (yes, you read that correctly) and the accent wall design. Pics will be a-coming. Until then, please take the time to have a look at the other One Room Challenge participants and get even more ideas for your next renovation.

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