DECORATING | The Fall 2020 One Room Challenge (ORC) and … yet another MCM bathroom? 

Guess who’s back!? Back again!? I am back! Tell a friend!

Yep. I did it. I signed up for the One Room Challenge (ORC). Again. This is my first year dabbling in the ORC (during a pandemic! wooooo!) and the spring challenge was my first experience. It was a … mixed bag, but I’ll say this: It is motivating, and really, is that not the whole point?

We moved into this house four years ago and there are still spaces and places I haven’t touched.

This small, second MCM bathroom between the kitchen and the master bedroom is one of those places. I’ve done literally nothing to it. It’s a mess. It’s a dumping ground. And I need a little push to fix that because I imagine that I could let it stay this way forever.

I’m fine with secret shame. Unpacked boxes. Mess pushed out of the frame of the photo. But one thing I’m not fine with is missing deadlines. I never once missed a deadline when I was journalist. Never. My paper would send me to an evening concert expecting me to submit review copy well before midnight that same night, so that my piece would run in the morning paper. And did I? I did, good sirs. Always! (I submitted review copy within an hour of a Sarah McLachlan concert, a Jessica Simpson concert (saw her boob, didn’t put it in the story), and a Harry Connick Jr. concert this way. Just for a few fun examples. And sure, I was in my early 20s, and full of youthful vim and vigour, but still, my point stands. I never ever miss a deadline.)

And this is why I’m doing the ORC again, because it activates my deadline-obsessed weirdo brain and gets me off my ass and doing something. So here we are.

This yellow MCM bathroom is original to my 1955 ranch house and has barely been touched.

The walls are a classic MCM square style, not true candy coloured yellow, but more speckled and muted, with a brown/terracotta bullnose trim. My daughter calls these “poo and pee colours” which in her opinion, are “perfect for a potty room!”

There is an absurdly tiny shower stall (which we never use unless there is some sort of emergency, and which is where I currently store the boxes of crap I intend to donate), as well as a toilet, a sink, and a window that gives my backyard neighbours a nice look at my saggy tittays if I ever walk past unawares. The bathroom is also a jack and jill, with one door leading to the master bedroom and the other directly into the kitchen/mudroom nook.

It’s … not ideal in any way.

But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we all just need to make the best of things.

I don’t have any money for a reno. I don’t have any sponsors. I’m not an influencer. I can’t influence for shit. (Actually, that’s not true. I’m apparently a “nano influencer”. I learned this just last week. Not a “micro influencer”, mind you. Think smaller. Think nano. That’s me.)

I’m just a person who would like a half-way decent, functioning second bathroom that maybe looks a little pretty.

So here we go, eh?

Follow my Will & Bequeath Instagram account. I post pics of my house there, like, every single day. Because I’m a nano influencer! (No, but seriously. I’m up in there every damn day. Come on over.)

Thanks to Linda Weinstein (creator of the One Room Challenge) and @betterhomesandgardens (official sponsor of the ORC) for … I dunno. We don’t interact. [Insert shruggy here.] And to the High Point Market folks, who are (I think???) also sponsoring the ORC this time around? Honestly, I don’t know how it all works. My influence is far too nano. But thanks for creating this motivating event! I am feeling motivated! 

Click here to see all the guest-participants and blog posts.