If you are new to my website or my blog, welcome! My name is Emilie Kyle, and I am the Owner and Principal of Lush Interior Design, located in a charming historic townhouse studio in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. We work on projects that range from furniture projects to kitchen and bathroom projects, to full scale redesign of commercial spaces like condominium buildings and their amenity spaces.

Let me first tell you how excited I am to be a Guest Participant in this spring’s One Room Challenge. So excited! I know what you’re thinking. “What is a One Room Challenge and what does ‘guest participant’ mean, Emilie?” Today’s post will answer all of your burning questions. Let’s get to it!

I have seen several of my fellow designer friends participating in this “One Room Challenge” over the last couple of years, but I didn’t really know what the One Room Challenge was. Here’s a quick summary. The One Room Challenge (or “ORC”) was created in 2011 by designer, Linda Weinstein, to finally finish one single room in her home. Being a busy designer sometimes feels similar to the “cobbler’s children having no shoes” so to speak, and it’s not that surprising that our personal projects get pushed toward the bottom of the list as we take care of our valued clients. In order to gain some focus to finish her one room project, she and several other designers banded together to help encourage and motivate one another to finish a room in a six week period (this season it will run for eight weeks). Pretty cool concept, don’t you think?

I decided back in March that I really wanted to participate in this year’s One Room Challenge for several reasons. One, I don’t blog or post enough on social media, so this will at least keep me on a project, and posting on a specific schedule. Second, I thought you might find it interesting to see a full project from start to finish all the way through, broken down week by week. And lastly, to see what other designers’ projects are looking like as we move through the process together. Don’t worry, I’ll link up previous weeks and a link to the main ORC page where you can go see more designers and their work every Thursday.

Featured ORC Designers – Spring 2021

I know, you don’t see me up there. Because I’ve never participated, I’ll be a guest participant in the challenge this season 🙂

So I’m sure you want to know what room I will be working on for the challenge. As much as I’d love to design and remodel a room in my own home, we’ll be putting that notion on hold until the real estate market cools off a bit. I currently am an apartment dweller and we’re not supposed to paint or even put holes in the walls for art or window treatments! Gasp! Of course I immediately broke the rule about holes with both art and window treatments as soon as we moved in. Between my building’s rules and the super long lead times on furniture right now, I decided a small remodeling project would work for the length of this project. So let me share a little bit about it.

My sister and her family moved into a brand new subdivision called Willowsford in Aldie, Virginia about 5 years ago. They were able to make some design decisions from the outset for their new home. Now that they’ve been there for some time, they’re ready for some upgrades! We discussed several rooms to transform after we toured every room in the house and settled on the oft overlooked Powder Room. It’s a room that just about every guest in your home will visit, so it should function, be pretty, and has the opportunity to go a bit over the top from a design perspective. I love a little jewel box powder room!

A blank canvas! This room is begging for a refresh, don’t you think? We already have some good ideas flowing and I’ll be sharing them with you next week, so stay tuned!

Written by Emilie Kyle

Lush Interior Design LLC is a Hospitality, High-end Residential, and Commercial interior design firm located in the Washington, DC area. Lush specializes in elevating brands through beautiful and functional interior design to make the most impact on guests and users of each space. If you are a restauranteur, hotelier, creative brand, or association and want the Lush team to manage your interior design project, book a complimentary call to discuss how we can help!

Featured

May 27, 2021

One Room Challenge | Week 4 | Prep

May 27, 2021

Not sure what you’re looking at? Plans! Come check them out!

May 27, 2021

May 20, 2021

One Room Challenge | Week 3 | The Decision

May 20, 2021

This week is short and sweet. I’m sharing which design direction my sister decided to go with!

May 20, 2021

May 13, 2021

One Room Challenge | Week 2 | The Plan

May 13, 2021

The lowly powder room can often be overlooked, but because it’s such a small room, it’s really a great opportunity to glam it up or go a little wild on budget here since the volume of materials isn’t that high. Also, just about every guest that visits you will likely make a stop inside. You might as well make it worth it, eh?

May 13, 2021