Feb. challenge - Plan

Orgjunkie uses a plan called PROCESS, which I will be trying out for the first time.

The first step is to PLAN my space. I really like using Better Homes and Garden's "Arrange a Room" to plan my spaces. It's free, it's functional.. but it's not perfect. That's okay, because again.. it's FREE. It's also easy to use.

My current plan is something close to this (budget and actual measurements may call for some small changes).

I got it as close to scale as possible, but some things are a bit off. It works to let me see the room in my head though for PLANning purposes. The room needs to have several functions:

1. Seating. We want to extend the existing 11" deep window seat into the room by another 10" or more, angled at the sides, to create an area where seating is actually possible. The window seat will have a cushion, and a row of floor size pillows going across it that the kids can flop on the floor with their friends. For more grown up seating or for family movie nights, we'll add a large "chair and a half" or small loveseat to either side of the window (depending on what I can locate on craigslist)  as well as large ottomans which can be used for a variety of things, including additional seating.

2. Observation/scent. A small pub table and two chairs will give additional seating next to the fireplace bumpout (a strange and hard to use area right at the top of the stairs and the hallway to the master suite and youngest child's room). This is also where I will plug in a Scentsy to alleviate the boy band-playing funk and girls too-much-perfume gatherings. Important - there is an outlet on this wall! Yay!

3. Empty space. We have a Kinect and a Wii, so there needs to be plenty of empty space between the seating areas and the television - a minimum of six feet, but hopefully 8 feet or more.

4. Enclosing the shelves in the corner of the room to provide hidden instead of exposed storage, for larger items that are hard to display (such as the Rockband drums). We will be measuring and hoping that bi-fold doors can be made to fit this space easily. If not, we will probably use a tension rod and some type of curtain to close off this area visually.

5. The existing rug will be kept for now, although it won't match our vision for colors. When we find one we can afford of that size, to replace it, we will. We're looking for something more cushioned for a better sound dampening in this room.

6. A coffee table of some type will go in front of the window seating and between the chairs. We have several hand-me-down possibilities from a relative, but this will be one of the last things we add as we don't know what will fit that space best yet.

7. The entire room needs to be purged and painted (except for the TV wall) before anything else can commence.

8. I do not know what will go along the empty area to the far right side of the room. We have talked about an EXPEDIT unit, bookshelves, a small 8-in-1 game table... we're just really not sure yet what other functions this room should have or will need, so I'm leaving "growing room" for the time being.