Here we are: the beginning of another One Room Challenge, and this time I am taking on my Workroom. This multifunctional space is a combination of home office, library, sewing room, craft room, and art studio. And it needs some love and attention! So over the next six weeks I am doing a Workroom Makeover.

But this is part of the One Room Challenge — an Instagram-based challenge where people all over the world commit to redoing a room in their house in a six week period. Some are professional designers. Some are influencers. Some are DIY-enthusiasts. But we all have a problem area of our house that we need to fix. That’s the best part of the ORC — seeing the huge variety of projects that people undertake and cheering each other on. Each week I’ll post an update on my project with photos, tutorials, how-to projects, and more. I will post all of the resources I use was well.

And for this project, I am guided by several principles about which I have written in the past:

Sustainability and green design: home renovation can have a very negative ecological impact. It can be wasteful. And it can be toxic. But it doesn’t have to be any of those things. I’m committed to doing this project — and every project — with sustainability in mind. I will talk more about what this means later, but there are several commitments I have made for this project:

• Using less plastic and more natural materials

• Repurposing what I already have when possible

• Sourcing vintage and pre-owned items as much as possible

• Eliminating waste

KonMari: since discovering Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up several years ago, I have asked myself countless times, “Does this spark joy?” I will be taking on my Workroom as if it was an apartment — using the KonMari method to tackle everything in the room from art supplies to books to files to sewing materials. Can you KonMari a creative space? I aim to prove that you can, and it isn’t as bad as you might think.

The Not So Big House: while this is part of our house-buying philosophy, so much of what Sarah Susanka laid out in her book, The Not So Big House, informs every design decision we make.

So, I hope you will hop over to the One Room Challenge page and check out the first installment of this new project! I have the before photos as well as a roadmap for where I’m headed. It promises to be fun and exciting!

And if you haven’t subscribed to my mailing list, do it! You’ll get the weekly updates in your inbox before anyone else!