When our clients contracted us to design the first floor their historic Rittenhouse Philadelphia home, our initial visit left scratching our heads and asking…hmmmm…what were they thinking? A remodel by previous owners had included the addition of a rounded powder bath that jutted out into the kitchen area. While certainly a conversation starter, in a home with limited square footage it wasn’t the best use of the space. Our clients needed a kitchen that could serve as a workhorse for frequent family meals and also be beautiful enough for entertaining.

In our ongoing practice in interior design, we have learned that there are no “bad” color choices when designing. Color is all about context and emotion. When combined with a palette of different colors, textures and patterns color can add depth and interest.

The process of turning something raw and unusable into a functional, livable, beautiful space is hands down the best part of what we get to do here and this project is a great example of just that.

Our Mainline clients came to us with an unfinished basement space and 2000 square feet of bare canvas just ready to be broken up into rooms that fit the needs of their family. Helping to define those areas as well as create a cohesive design for them felt very daunting for our clients, so they called us in to help them in the early planning stages through the finishing details.

Our young clients, Katie and Brian, purchased this 1912 Prairie style house after it had fallen into years of disrepair. It was originally built by the Goshen First Presbyterian Church as its manse and had only transferred ownership three times.

Today’s the day friends, it’s reveal day for the One Room Challenge and we have a completed bedroom! The last six weeks have been a blur since we purchased this house, put our other house on the market, sold it, moved, and worked on the room somewhere in between while keeping my interior design business afloat. It has been hard, and exhausting, and exhilarating, and I’m really glad this room is complete because it has taken many sleepless nights and early mornings to get to this place. I finished the room Monday afternoon and it seems almost like a dream that it is actually done! If you are just checking in and want to see more of the process, you can revisit the previous weeks here:

I’m sitting here writing this post in the wee hours of the morning in our new green velvet chairs with my feet propped up and a warm cup of coffee in hand, feeling so close to finishing this room (I’m fooling myself really). This is the last week before the reveal and if you’ve been following along through Week One, Two, Three, and Four, you have seen this room go from bold and bare to layered and cozy. Despite having a full list of things to accomplish before the upcoming photo shoot, some things did take place that are making a big impact on the room and helped me see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

It’s week four of the One Room Challenge and a few things happened this week that are making this room start to feel like a real room. Still so much to do and feeling horribly behind though! We moved into the house officially this week and have spent the last four days hauling small loads of our personal items to the house in our SUV, and the furniture movers came yesterday to move the big stuff. We still have a few more small loads to bring over, and our furniture movers need to come back Thursday morning for a few more things that wouldn’t fit on the truck #hoarder. But Friday we’re closing and it’s gonna all be over from that end, so there IS a light at the end of the tunnel :) And I am so, so excited to spend some time this weekend doing more painting and getting the final details together!

Hey friends! We’re moving along on the progress in our master bedroom, but let me tell you, it has been slow going. Two big pieces arrived this week, the headboard and the lime wash from Portola Paints. Unfortunately, the timing aligned with me being out of town for four days for the Highpoint Furniture show, which I had been planning to attend months in advance. The paint arrived from Portola Paints on Friday afternoon. I was leaving for North Carolina bright and early Saturday morning, so I headed over to the house to start getting a coat of the primer on because I wanted to get at least a little something done before I headed out of town, Shelby graciously offered her supervision services.

Hello friends! It’s week two and so far I am the most behind that I’ve ever been on a One Room Challenge-ha! Ok, maybe that’s not totally true, but with moving to a new house and an extremely busy work schedule, I’m definitely a little behind where I’d like to be, but hey, I’m just gonna roll with it, because honestly, that’s just about all we can do, right?

This week I’m sharing my design plan that I’ve been working on for the last few weeks. I hope you've got a cup of something tasty and a comfy chair, because this is going to be a loooong post, and hopefully a good one! If you're just joining in, you can learn more about the room that I’ll be making over in my week one post.

Hello friends! Welcome to another round of the One Room Challenge! If you are new around here, the One Room Challenge is a bi-annual event hosted by Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home and Better Homes and Gardens. Over the next six weeks, myself and other featured designers across the internet will be transforming a room in six weeks and blogging about it every week so you can follow along! In addition to the featured designers (linked at the end of this post), there are over 200 guest participants that are working on rooms as well, so much inspiration!

Last month over the 4th of July holiday, Adam and I enjoyed a mid-week getaway to New York City. We hopped a train early Tuesday morning and found ourselves in the Big Apple just in time for brunch. Our travel style is pretty flexible, with a few key things we want to see, and plenty of snack breaks in between. We spent most of our time touring the main building of The Met and The Cloisters at the Met, and especially loved the Heavenly Bodies exhibit which explores the relationship between high fashion and the Catholic Church.

Today's the day my friends! I'm thrilled to reveal the nursery that I've been working on these past six weeks. For those who don't know me, I'm Nicole Cole, a full-time Interior Designer and Stylist living in Philadelphia. This is my second time participating in the One Room Challenge as a guest participant and I'm so excited for the *almost* instant gratification that having a six-week design challenge brings.

It's the hooooooome stretch! Last week of the challenge and we decided to tackle probably the largest component in this nursery, the built in daybed! We had planned all along to do it at this stage in the project because we knew the homeowners dad was going to be in town. This daybed project turned out to be a family affair, with the grandpa, uncle, and dad to be all spending a weekend tackling this project like champs!

It's week four of the One Room Challenge and things are getting real serious up in here folks! Other than the initial painting in the room, things have been fairly mellow with the updates, these last few weeks are bringing some of the biggest changes to the space-so exciting! This week we added some new lighting. A new ceiling light that more closely matched the vibe in the space was installed, and of course a dimmer, because in my opinion, almost ever room should have a dimmer so you can adjust the lighting as the mood dictates (including bleary eyed sleepy mom/I don't want a bright light shining in my face mood).

We're on a roll here with the One Room Challenge and half way though the process, it's going so fast. If you're just following along, you can catch up with Week One and Week Two. This week was a little bit slower paced since I am at the Highpoint Furniture Show in North Carolina this week. The homeowners assembled the Ikea SNIGLAR crib that we picked out a few weeks ago and the light wood tone looks gorgeous against the pale blue and green walls.

Week two was productive as we dove head on into the project with painting the space. But before I show you the progress on that I wanted to share a bit of the design plan with you. If you missed week one, you can catch up here. As I provide with most of my clients, creating a 3-D model of the space is the first step, this allows us to see the pieces in proportion to everything else and play around with different layouts. Here is the plan for the space as seen from above.

Whew, can anyone tell me where the year has gone? It seems that not so long ago I was finishing up that big green beauty of an office space that was the last One Room Challenge and here we are again kicking off the next one! So not only is it exciting times with springtime and warm weather on it's way (at least that's what we're telling ourselves), I'm starting on another room design that you are going to see progressing over the next six weeks in real time, so hold on to your hats folks, here we go!

As an essential, everyday use kinda space, bathrooms can be tough when it comes to renovations. Especially when you're in a home where there is only one bathroom for showering. In addition to finding alternative showering locations, complete bathroom renovations can be messy, dusty, expensive, and long. This bathroom in particular had been partially updated by the previous owners with new floor tile, vanity, toilet and fixtures. Unfortunately, the original wall tile had been painted with some sort of tile paint that may have covered up the original peach color but has proven to be less than durable in the shower area. But despite these misgivings, it's not currently an option to do a complete tearout of the space. Instead, we focused on increasing the functionality of the space and giving it a bit more character with some new fixtures and finishes to spice up the builder-basic renovation that was previously completed.

Earlier this month over 200 guest participants and 20 featured bloggers revamped spaces in just seven weeks during the One Room Challenge. As part of the challenge, I finished up my Office/Guest Room that had sat relatively empty for almost two years and there were so many great rooms I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Earlier this month over 200 guest participants and 20 featured bloggers revamped spaces in just seven weeks during the One Room Challenge. As part of the challenge, I finished up my Office/Guest Room that had sat relatively empty for almost two years and there were so many great rooms I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.