One Room Challenge Final Reveal
8 Weeks, 38 Weeks – Who’s Counting?
Did you think I forgot? Did you think I didn’t finish?
No, it’s finally here: the final reveal of my One Room Challenge project!
My version of a home gym, with green walls, a shiny fuchsia ceiling, and jungle parrot wallpaper.
I think a little recap is in order. Back in October, I signed up for the Fall 2025 One Room Challenge event, with plans to transform our daughter’s old bedroom into a dedicated workout space. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the One Room Challenge is an online event held twice a year that invites designers, DIYers, influencers, and all sorts of overly ambitious homeowners to tackle the transformation of a single room in just eight weeks. Needless to say, I didn’t get my project completed in the eight-week time period. Along the way, I tackled several tasks that I had never tried before, including wallpapering (surprisingly easy), and skim-coating the ceiling to make it perfectly smooth so I could paint it a high-gloss mirror finish (kind of a fail, and also way more work than I thought it would be).
I actually finished the bones of the project a few months ago, and considered posting a semi-final reveal to show the paint and wallpaper. But after such a long wait, I thought it would be anticlimactic to show the room sort of completed, but not really completed. Instead, I took my time searching for the finishing touches to pull everything together.
I don’t even know why this wallpaper makes me so happy. There’s just something about a giant parrot wearing a crown that brings me joy.
I found the perfect floor lamp with display shelves to tuck alongside the small sleeper sofa. And it came in pink!
Additional finishing touches include storage shelving for workout gear, and fun art and décor for the walls.
Here’s what’s included in the room now:
The treadmill, of course, which needed to be partially disassembled and hauled through a little maze of doorways from the adjacent room. Now all my workout gear is in one room, with just enough space for a few additional future items like barbells and a weight bench.
A very small sleeper sofa. This solved our dilemma of whether to get rid of the twin bed that our daughter left behind when she moved out. Now we have a comfortable loveseat, so we can use the sunny window bay as a reading nook, but also an extra pullout bed for use in a pinch as an addition to our dedicated guest room.
Storage shelving to keep workout gear neat and organized.
Lighting, art, and décor.
Last but definitely not least was the closet, which I turned into a gift-wrapping center. Now all of my wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, bows and ribbons, scissors and tape, and package embellishments are in one hyper-organized space.
The gift-wrap closet is another thing that makes me unreasonably happy. But isn’t that what design is all about? Every space in your home should make you feel good, for whatever reason – even if nobody else really gets it.
Unrelated and Completely Unnecessary Side Story
Okay, I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here: For those of you too young to remember, back in the ‘80s and ‘90s there was a popular television show called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, offering a peek at the extravagant homes and glamorous lives of celebrities. Among the richest in those days were the television producer Aaron Spelling and his wife, Candy, who owned a 73,500-square-foot French chateau-style mansion decked out with crystal chandeliers, opulent furnishings, and rooms that included a bowling alley, a screening room, and a doll museum. But what seemed to pique people’s interest the most about Spelling Manor was that it boasted not one, not two, but THREE gift-wrapping rooms. Who has even one room dedicated solely to wrapping gifts?!
The rich and famous, that’s who. But also now me, on a much more modest scale.
I like giving gifts. And I like taking the time to make sure the gifts are wrapped beautifully and creatively. So I need a gift-wrapping room! However, since I don’t own a massive mansion, I settled for a gift-wrapping closet. It makes me feel so bougie, in all the best ways!
Clear boxes hold ribbons, bows, and embellishments, all easy to see and grab.
Ikea pegboards are perfect for organizing big rolls of wired ribbon.
Gift boxes, gift bags, and tissue paper are also stored in clear bins.
Side Story Done; Back to My Fabulous Room
I’ll finish this off with a few before and after shots of the room:
BEFORE
BEFORE
BEFORE
AFTER
AFTER
AFTER
The Fall One Room Challenge wrapped up last November, but you can still check out all of the final reveals from the participants who managed to get their projects completed on the ORC website at Fall 2025 - Week 8 (The Reveals!) — ONE ROOM CHALLENGE® or on Instagram (@oneroomchallenge).
For more on my project, including videos of the reveal as well as my ORC posts from previous weeks, check out CanCan Interiors on Instagram (@cancaninteriors) and Facebook (CanCan Interiors).
