KS Design Company | Interiors + Weddings | Topeka + Kansas City

It’s Week Two of The One Room Challenge! Now that we have established the before situation, we are getting down to business in the sunroom. This week has been all about finalizing plans and installing a new floor.

If you are coming from ORC and new to KS Design Company, welcome! We are a mother-daughter design team working in Topeka and the Kansas City metro. We started KS Design Company last summer and completed our first One Room Challenge last fall.

The Design Plan

The mood board is complete! Luckily, my husband, Lance is really good about going with the flow when I make design choices in our house. He will give his opinion on major items (more about that later!), but otherwise he says I’m the creative one in the marriage and let’s me plot out the details. Since we are definitely laid back, non-formal people, I wanted a casual and relaxing vibe for the sunroom. I think Kylie and I achieved that with this design plan. It’s light and airy layered with natural elements such as slate, wood, cane, and plants. (Fingers crossed that I can keep the plants alive! No green in my thumb!!) Since the sunroom is off of the great room, I wanted to keep the color palette similar but with less saturated tones, focusing on shades of blue, green, peach, and pink.

Focal Point

The focal point of the room will be a daybed with bookcases on either side to give it a seamless look. I couldn’t find bookcases in the exact width I needed, so Lance graciously agreed to build them. The big question: Stain the bookcases or paint them white? Any thoughts? We will install a large art print above the daybed and use two wall sconces to help add light at night.

Corner Table

We plan on adding a bistro table for playing games, doing puzzles, or just having a cup of tea. We have a base from an old table, and I am in the process of looking for a top. This is proving to be a little more difficult and costly than expected (Plan B might be making an entrance!). Two stools will flank the table to keep the footprint small. A wall sconce that can extend out over the table will round out this corner. Got to be able to see those puzzle pieces!

Finishing Touches

The finishing touches of the room will include a little glitz in the overhead lighting, some smaller pieces of wall art, plants, containers for storage, and pillows for the daybed. Gosh, I better get started!

Floor

The journey to the floor involved quite a bit of leg work and decision fatigue, but I will spoil the ending: the floor is in, and I love it!

Short story: I thought I wanted brick. We went with black slate.

Long story: I had saved numerous inspiration pictures with beautiful brick floors (think Parisian chic). Remember when I said Lance does occasionally chime in on big decisions? Well…he wasn’t sold on brick. He thought it would be rough to walk on and hard to clean. Valid points, I had to agree. My next choice was black slate. Still very organic and has a lot of texture. I had my heart set on a small scale herringbone pattern (similar to what I would have had with the brick floors), which required 3x8 tile. So the hunt began. I found the size I needed at a big box store, but could it be that easy? Nope, no, of course not…Each store location had very limited quantities. Thus, I traveled to three cities buying out all the tile each location had. And I had a border of larger tile installed because there still weren’t enough 3x8 tiles—and I wasn’t going to a fourth city. It ended up being worth it. Nick, our tile installer, worked his magic and the floors are amazing! If you are in the Topeka area, we highly recommend Tile Worx by Nick!

The to-do list. Italics=partially completed.

~~Source tile~~
~~Install tile~~
Paint window frames white
Paint room
Paint and install new baseboards
Source and order lighting
Source and order art
Build bookcases
Build daybed frame
Order caning
Make daybed cushion cover
Sew and purchase pillow covers
Install lighting
Decide on table top
Source seating for table
Buy greenery and plants
Source accessories
Source window treatments

That’s quite a list. Good thing we love this stuff!!

Thank you for stopping by! Next week we will (hopefully) be saying goodbye to the robin egg blue paint. In the meantime, take a look at the 20 featured designers and other guest participants.

Until next Thursday, Staci

It’s One Room Challenge time!

If you are new to our blog, welcome to KS Design Company. My daughter, Kylie, and I started this business last summer and are having a blast working together. We decided to tackle the fall One Room Challenge as guest participants after following along for years as the inspirational and creative designers worked their magic.

If you are unfamiliar with the One Room Challenge, it is a bi-annual event that features 20 featured designers and many guest participants who makeover one room in six weeks. Better Homes and Gardens is the media sponsor.

Last fall’s ORC entailed laughter, hard work, some DIY projects, and maybe even a little bit of panic as Kylie lost her wallet at a Craigslist meet-up. (We did end up with some cool chairs though!) You can check out the final details of our first ORC here. Since we chose a room in Kylie and Matt’s house in the fall, we are going to transform the sunroom in my husband, Lance, and my house this spring. We are ready for round two!

History of the Space

When we moved into our home 15 years ago, this room had a very unusual, unpleasant, unwelcome odor emitting from the bright yellow sponged painted walls. We learned that the previous owner had a ferret, and it’s clear he didn’t like the sponge painting in his space either. 😉 After much airing, cleaning, and painting, the odor was finally gone.

Positives of Space

1. Gets amazing light during the day

2. Has a vaulted ceiling

3. Has a door to the deck

4. Has skylights

Negatives of Space

1. Sucks up the light at night

2. Wasn’t wired for ceiling light

3. Is a relatively small space at 9’6” x 12’9”

The sunroom is located right off of the great room and is accessed through french doors. In our family, the room originally functioned as a sitting room but was underutilized. Ten or so years ago, I converted it to a craft room. Lots of hours of scrapbooking, finishing kids projects, and wedding designing took place within these four walls. With the digital age, it’s easier to preserve memories online, the kids are grown (where does the time go??), and this room has become a dumping ground for the overflow.

The Sunroom’s New Purpose

We would like to have a place for overnight guest on the main floor.
Our dog, Remi, will turn three during the ORC and will finally be getting old enough to have more freedom while we are out of the house. This will be a perfect place for her to hang out. Lance says she is an expensive puppy to get a room redone to stretch her legs! What can I say? The room is returning to its animal-housing roots after all. 😂
The space will act as storage for frequently used craft supplies. The rest of the stash was donated or is living in another room.
Finally, it will be a quiet place to read, play games, and soak up some vitamin D!

Remi (aka The Real Reason this Room is Getting a Makeover)

So, let the work begin. A big shout out to Lance and our son, Keenan, for demoing the floors! (Bookcase building next, pretty please!) Check in next week for the design plan and progress on the floors.

Thank you for following along on our journey. Make sure to check out the incredible ORC work being accomplished by the other guest participants and the 20 featured designers.

Until next Thursday, Staci