Hi, everyone! I’m back after a short break from blogging and traveling to New York City for the Better Homes & Gardens Stylemaker Celebration. I’ll share a recap of my trip later this week, but long story short- it was incredible!

If you’re finding me through the One Room Challenge, welcome to my home on the internet! I’m Avery and I live in rural Iowa with my husband. You can learn more about me here, and see some of my previous design work in my kitchen. My design style is cozy, whimsical, and collected. I’ll be sharing my One Room Challenge progress on my Holland Avenue Home Instagram. Thanks for following along!

While I was in NYC with Better Homes & Gardens, I went to Mood Fabrics and the Chelsea Flea Market and picked up a few souvenirs for our home. I planned to use the fabric from Mood to sew some new pillows for our bed, which snowballed  into the decision to enter the One Room Challenge as a guest participant! If you’re not familiar with The One Room Challenge™, here is the description from their website.

The One Room Challenge™ , currently in its fourteenth season, is a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October. Each round, twenty design influencers are selected to take the challenge and transform a space. Every Wednesday, the designers document their process while sharing their sources and professional advice over the six weekly posts.

In addition to following along, everyone with a blog is welcome to join the fun as a Guest Participant by linking their own room transformations up during the six weeks. Each Thursday, the internet and social media are flooded with interior design inspiration, ideas, and encouragement.

To date, more than 2,200 rooms have been transformed through the One Room Challenge™.

All 20 featured designers shared their design plans yesterday, and all guest participants are sharing design plans today. For the next six weeks, you can follow along with the featured designers on Wednesdays and the guest designers on Thursdays.

Now on to my design plans!

I wasn’t planning to buy fabric for pillows, but when I saw this gorgeous floral bird fabric at Mood, I wanted to sew all of the things. It is only available with a white background online, but in the store I was able to purchase the same print with a lovely berry colored background.

This fabric was the inspiration for my entire design plan, and I’m so happy that my inspiration could come from something I loved and not from another person’s previous design. Creative inspiration from other designers can be good, but in the age of Pinterest it is easy to be influenced too much by what other people have already done instead of relying on your own creativity. I am making my own uninfluenced decisions without searching for a design to inspire me, and it feels incredibly refreshing.

Here are some recent “before” photos. The bed used to be on the opposite wall in front of a window, but we recently moved it to this wall. I don’t have a photo of the other side of the room (which is currently COVERED in clean laundry that needs to be put away. At least it’s clean?). We have a dresser to the left of the bed in between the door to our room and the closet door. There is a door to the right of the bed that leads to a master bedroom sunroom.

The lighting in this photo was a bit strange because the light from the window was reflecting off of the headboard, but the headboard has a lot of different warm wood tones.

You can see the door to the sunroom in the reflection of the mirror.

Here is an older photo from when the bed was on the other wall (so you can see the curtains. )

I will be keeping all of our current bedroom furniture because we love it and there isn’t anything wrong with any of it!

My updates will come through paint, new pillows and additions to our bedding, refinishing the nightstands, and meaningful artwork. 

Here’s a look at my moodboard!

I’ll be painting an accent wall behind our bed, and leaving the other walls the same pale grey. I plan to stain the nightstands a darker color, and switch out the Ikea knobs with some unique Anthropologie knobs. I’ll be keeping our white bedding, but adding an indigo throw from the Chelsea flea market and some accent pillows with my fabrics from Mood.

I said on Instagram that I would keep this next part a surprise, but I want to make sure I’m abiding by the rules of the One Room Challenge, so I will go ahead and share the surprise now!

In addition to the main part of our bedroom, I will also be updating our master bedroom sunroom!

A few months ago, I began painting the room white. It previously had a dated wallpaper border, beige walls, and a lot of damage to the wood trim from the sun and extreme temperatures. I decided to paint everything white to give it a fresh and clean look. We don’t use the room, so I’m hoping that giving it some personality and love will encourage me to spend more time out there.

Here are some “before” photos from before I started painting the room white.

The above photo is very old (2 years). The desk was in the house when we moved in, and we sold it on Facebook. We’re also currently trying to sell the giant chair and ottoman. This room has been so neglected, and is currently being used to store our suitcases, random decor that I’m planning to get rid of, and clothes I’m going to sell. It still has the pale green shades, which I’m planning to remove.

Here are my plans for the space!

The room has beautiful hardwood floors, and the beginnings of white paint have really brightened up the space. I’m picking up the West Elm glider from Des Moines on Friday, and it might just be the best Craigslist deal of all Craigslist deals in the history of Craigslist deals. We already have all of the other decorative elements in the moodboard.

The main attraction in this space will be the hand painted mural! This photo of a mural from Anthropologie is serving as a placeholder for my own hand-painted mural. It will be inspired by the style and colors of my pillow fabric from Mood.

That’s my design plan, and I’m sticking to it!

Be sure to check out the One Room Challenge Blog to explore the other Featured and Guest Designers, and check back next week for my progress! If you’d like to receive an email when new posts go live, enter your email in the “Brighten My Inbox” tab on the right side of your screen. I’ll also be sharing daily updates on my Instagram Stories.

That’s it for this week- thanks for following along!

Update: Follow along with all 6 weeks of the challenge through the links below!

Moody Accent Wall: One Room Challenge Week 2

DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork: One Room Challenge Week 3

Hand-Painted Modern Chinoiserie Mural: One Room Challenge Week 4

Ikea Dresser Makeover: One Room Challenge Week 5

Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6