If you have been keeping up with me on Instagram you know that I am participating in Calling It Home’s Fall 2017 One Room Challenge! It is my second time taking part in the challenge, and as always I am humbled to be in the company of such a talented group of designers and bloggers. If you had told me after I finished my first One Room Challenge that I would be back for a second round one year later, I would have been thrilled. But what I really could never have imagined is that I’d be tackling a room in one of my biggest projects to date! — The renovations of The Woodhouse Lodge have turned my life into a perpetual One Room Challenge. Seriously.
If this is your first time stopping by, my name is Megan. I am an Interior Designer and design blogger. I started out in fine art, fell in love with interior design through my work in editorial, and then two years ago I opened my own Interior design business. I love what I do in the city and its boroughs, but as a long time resident of Brooklyn, my husband and I were ready for a change of pace. He is a city guy at heart, but still has the slow pace of the South in his bones.
This spring, the stars aligned and we bought a lodge in Greenville NY, a little town in the heart of the Hudson Valley. To make a long-ish story short, we purchased a 1962 A-frame lodge with ten guest rooms that we plan to run as a boutique hotel and event space; you can read more about it here. We’ve been furiously renovating for the past six months, and now that the dust is settling, I finally have a little bit of time to write about the project.
Over the course of the next six weeks, I’ll be documenting the transformation of our living /dining room, which located on the second floor of the lodge. The second floor was originally designed to be an owner’s apartment, and that is exactly how we plan to use it. The space requires way less work than the gut renovation that I took on for my last One Room Challenge. However, it still has a few obstacles!
The Floor Plan
The open floor plan is a head-scratcher. This space needs to accommodate both a dining area and a living space. With no natural divisions in the room, furniture placement is going to have to take the place of walls and do this for me. Plese try and forgive me for this room full of chair madness. Currently, we have 5 miss matched chairs, 3 of which are “projects”… because obviously, I don’t have enough of those.
Lack of Wall Space
The lack of wall space is by far the most frustrating part of this design! The largest wall in the room is all windows, and every other wall has at least one door.The biggest uninterrupted lengths of wall are located on the south side of the room, making it the natural location for the living area. Dealing with an open floor plan is a total change of pace form me considering our house in Brooklyn was built in 1910.
So the big question remains, where do we put the TV and my husband’s extensive record collection? I want to avoid media overload, and it is going to require all of my design powers to come up with a solution. I’ve tried and failed many times over the years to figure out a way of storing thousands of records in an accessible yet understated manner.
Painting
Try not to be jealous, but we are painting every single square centimeter of this room, including the 18 ft. ceilings. Obviously, the coolest thing about this space is its dramatic ceiling height but yikes, painting is going to take FOUR-EVES!
And this friends, is our upstairs kitchen. The previous owner removed the cabinets and fixtures, for completely unfathomable reasons. We will be putting all of that back soon, although not in the next six weeks (sorry). For now, it will remain the cats’ lounge and that’s just the way they like it.
Behind this countertop looking thing are the stairs to the first floor. The stairs were covered in carpet that I ripped up shortly after we bought the lodge. Luckily, there was a pretty pine floor underneath that I plan on showing a little TLC.
I think the wide plank that wraps around at floor level could be a cool feature somehow… My impulse is to put a few Shaker style hooks on it near the landing, but I don’t want the stairs to feel congested. What do you think?
For now, I’ll wrap up our Week 1 post with another design dilemma for you to ponder: I originally really wanted this Shaker woodstove pictured above but with a price tag of 5K and a costly installation, I just can’t make it happen. What I love about the Shaker stove, aside from the fact that it’s insanely beautiful, is that it could potentially sit in front of the windows and give our limited wall space an ideal anchor point.
In search of an alternative (read: cheaper) solution I took to the Facebook Marketplace and found this cool vintage electric fireplace. It was a total bargain at 80 bucks, so if I don’t use it, I’m not going to be heartbroken. I could see building a little platform for it and adding a few other helpful touches to make it feel integrated and “real.” My only hesitation is that it is NOT actually a real woodstove and because our wall space is so limited…what if it isn’t worth the effort? Eek! So dear reader, do I give up the woodstove dream and move on? Or do I try and make this (cool-but-kooky) vintage one work?
Next week, I’ll be back to fill you in on my design plan, and show off some serious painting progress. Predictably, I’m painting the doors black and we’re banishing the brown walls. These are exciting times over at The Woodhouse Lodge. I can’t wait to show you what I have planned, so be sure to check back in next week! You can keep up with my progress in real time on Instagram, I’ll be posting updates on my stories.
Be sure and check out the other One Room Challenge participants!
Boxwood Avenue | Coco & Jack | Design Manifest | IBB for DWD | The House That Lars Built | Little Green Notebook | The Makerista | Making it Lovely | Old Brand New | Old Home Love | The Painted House | Megan Pflug Designs | Pink Pagoda | Erica Reitman | Sacramento Street | Simply Grove | Jill Sorensen | Sugar & Cloth | Vintage Rug Shop | Waiting on Martha *Media Partner House Beautiful | TM by ORC
IF ANYONE CAN MAKE THAT FIREPLACE INTO COOL, FOCAL POINT IN FRONT OF AMAZING WALL OF WINDOWS THEN IT IS YOU. i THINK IT COULD BE SUPER COZY AND IT WOULD MARK THE SPOT FOR WHEN THE LODGE IS A BOOMING BUSINESS AND YOU GET THAT SHAKER STOVE INSTALLED TO CELEBRATE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR FABULOUS INN. i’VE NEVER BEEN TO THAT PART OF THE COUNTRY BUT IF I EVER DO – DEFINITELY STAYING AT YOUR LODGE!
Thanks, Marcie I appreciate your vote of confidence. ; ) I like the idea of installing the real one later on! I still can’t decide if I should spend time on the vintage one…
Your dream fireplace is now my dream fireplace 😍😍.
That being said, if anyone could make that electric fireplace work, it would definitely be you. I do wonder if it would kick out enough heat in such a big room to make it beneficial.
Ha Ha! Sorry and you are welcome… It’s sooo pretty it’s hard for me to think about anything else!
I love the lines and those ginormous windows in the Lodge Megan! Excited to see what you come up with this time!
Thanks Vel! Im excited too! Thanks for checking in : )
oh my gosh what a crazy fun project. I am sooo excited to watch it come together!
Thank Morgan! Check back next week, more to come!
Oh wow, those ceilings are amazing. I can’t even image how to tackle this space. But, it is so cool and brings back childhood memories.
Ha ha! It’s turning out to be a little less insane that I originally thought! It’s funny because the space also brings back memories for me too. I wasn’t a child in the 60s but Friends of mine growing up definitely had spaces like this… and some questionable decor! Let’s just say it wasn’t considered a “cool” look!
i cant wait to see what you dream up, love tHose windows!!
THANk Jana! It’s a really fun project!
Hi,
I’m really excited to see what you do with this space and to chime in on your 2 questions, one I don’t think i would hang hooks in the stairwell. and secondly, if you know of a metal fabricator, I would have them build some cool stand or legs for the fireplace, similar to the inspiration piece. It could end up really amazing. of course, it’s just my 2 cents.
Hi Amy! Thanks for chiming in! I think you are probably right about the stairs. Also grate minds think alike because I currently on the hunt for som type of stand with legs. Even a metal bench (with the right look could work! Awesome suggestions 😉
Great find on the fireplace! I think it’s awesome. Also love that you’re turning this into a boutique hotel, how cool!! So nice to meet you through the ORC! xx
Hi Chloe! I’m so happy to meet you too! Excited that we’re in this together 🙌
Such an amazing space! excited to follow along!
Thanks for stopping by Brittany!
so nice to ‘MEET’ you and i look forward to following along!
Nice to meet you too! That’s for checking in ; )
That vaulted ceiling and those windows… I can just tell this space is going to be amazing when you are done. Can’t wait to see it all come together! I just love the ORC!
Thanks Kristen. It’s gonna be a fun one! Now if I can just figure out what to do with the wood stove!
I’m sure you’ll knock it out the park. This space presents some challenges but definitely some opportunities. I’m excited to see where you take it!
I really think the fireplace is super cool! Also, loving that paint color. I need to make a reservation to come stay at the lodge, pronto!
Erica! OMG you gotta com visit. When we’re open!
im not a decorator, just a reader born in the ’50s, grew up in the ’60s. i visited many a frame homes of our parents and stayed in a number of them vacationing. every one of them had a mod type fireplace and the motels always had a floating one. seems like a basic feature of an a frame to me.
[…] of the One Room Challenge, we are so excited to follow along with my (now IRL) friend Megan Pflug as she renovates the main living space of the Woodhouse Lodge. She recently purchased this A-frame […]
What an exciting project! Can’t wait to see the progress of this room and also of the whole lodge!!
xx Katie
katiekubitz.com
Thanks, Katie. the lodge is a big project and I’m excited that we are carving out one finished room. It will make the remaining renovations feel so much less stressful.
I have every confidence that you can make that little stove work. that space is amazing with all those windows! I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Thaks Susanna, I’m just working on my post for this week and playing around with some options for the fireplace… stay tuned & thanks for your vote of confidence.