Excitement is in the air…er, all over Instagram. Why? The Spring ORC starts today! If you don’t know what the ORC is, check out my last post here. And if you want to follow along other creators or DIYers like me, check out the ORC blog here.

For the next eight weeks, I’ll be tackling what is currently our music room and turning it into my new home office. There isn’t anything truly wrong (structurally) with my current office, but it has no doors and is right next to the front door, so we have multiple dog gates set up to keep the dogs out while I’m not working and keep the dogs in when I need to answer the door. Oh, and it has a pink carpet inlay. But that’s a topic for another day.

The room of requirement

So far, I’ve given y’all two clues regarding the theme of my new office space. Have you figured it out yet?

I have a few requirements for my new office space:

• Doors to close off the space
• Built-in cabinets and bookshelves to store all office-related things (and some other fun stuff)
• A big window for the dogs
• A new desk that isn’t three times the size I need it to be
• No popcorn ceiling

I have very minimal requirements. I also have a list of things I’d love to see in the room but may not be feasible:

• An enchanted ceiling
• Window bench seating for the dogs
• An electric fireplace
• Some hidden nooks and crannies

Regardless of what I’m able to accomplish, I’m just excited (and nervous!) to get started.

The (current) plan

If you haven’t guessed by now, this room will be modeled after my Harry Potter obsession. I love all things Harry Potter and have amassed quite the collection of memorabilia and trinkets over the years.

Here is what the music room* looked like when we purchased the house (you’ll have to go to Instagram to see the current state):

As you can hopefully see, the room is a nice size and has great natural light. But there are recessed lights only on one side of the room (top right of the picture), and that’s it. The lighting (or lack thereof) decisions in this house baffle me sometimes.

And yes, the carpet is a nice zebra print (again, not our choice). The carpet will most likely stay for now as this room is connected to the living room, and we haven’t budgeted to replace the floors. Of course, if paint gets spilled on the carpet, that’s a different story…

Looking at the second picture, I plan for the built-in cabinets and bookshelves to be on the right wall. My desk will be in the middle, perpendicular to the window. If I go the fireplace route, I’m thinking in the corner over to the left, but we’ll see. My biggest focus will be the built-in cabinets and bookshelves.

I’ll hopefully be hiring out to remove the popcorn ceiling (unless that number comes back and is astronomical) and have an electrician install lighting in the middle of the room. I plan to make the ceiling appear magical, but you’ll have to wait and see how that works out.

The mood board

And here’s the current mood of my Harry Potter-inspired home office.

Will there be floating candles? Access to the Ministry of Magic or Diagon Alley? I guess you’ll have to follow along here and on Instagram.

^{*It’s called the music room because we have a piano in here. Blake and I both played piano as kids, but not as adults, so clearly, it gets a lot of use.}

Even though my Fall One Room Challenge (ORC) is sitting at about 95% completion, I still signed up for the Spring ORC.

What I loved about my first ORC experience was the community I started to build. There are many women out there, just like me, who want to tackle one room at a time, learn from their peers, cheer each other on, and be proud of their accomplishments. And that’s what the ORC was for me.

Each week, I’d post a carousel on Instagram of my progress for the week (which for five weeks were just the windows, over and over), and I’d be overwhelmed by the responses I’d receive. It motivated me to keep moving forward, even when it seemed there was no end in sight.

What’s the ORC?

If you’re not sure what the ORC is, I urge you to check out their website. Here’s what it is in a nutshell:

• You choose a room you want to redo
• You have eight weeks to complete the room
• Each week, you post your progress

Like I said earlier, it’s a great way to build a community. Your peers cheer you on, and you support your peers, too! You’ll get great advice or tips from your followers (shout out to Leslie at @pink2palace for providing tips when needed!) and support when you feel like you’ve had an unproductive week. You’ll meet like-minded individuals and those that will make you think outside the box.

I’m lucky in that I haven’t met any trolls yet.

Oh, and hey. It’s not like it’s a competition—it’s community over competition. And even if you don’t finish your room to 100% completion, that’s okay! You just join the 95% club like the rest of us.

Sign up for the ORC

Anyone can sign up to participate in the ORC as a guest participant. It’s a great motivator to finally tackle that one project (or twelve) that you’ve been putting off. Plus, you’ll get support from an amazing community to help cheer you on to the finish line.

Share your journey through Instagram or through your blog. There’s no rule that you have to get in front of the camera, but I guarantee we’d all love to see your face!

Sign up now by clicking here.

Spring ORC reveal coming soon

I’m excited to share the room I’ll be doing for the Spring ORC, both here and on Instagram. But you’ll have to wait until April 6th, just like everyone else. If you aren’t already, be sure to follow me on Instagram and sign up below to get notified of any new blog posts.

It’s bound to be magical…