Big Changes Ahead for the Chris Loves Julia Living Room Makeover!

It’s finally time for a Chris Loves Julia Room Giveaway Update!

Not going to lie, our plans for the makeover have been a bit of a merry-go-round since we won the giveaway this past winter. Allow me to break a few things down for you about where our plans have been, where they are now, and where they’re headed!

Plan A:

The original plan was for their team to come with their team to Lancaster this past summer for a few days to revamp the room. I would get a mood board from Julia about the plans, then we’d order the goods and share the plan with all of you. In late July, they would arrive en masse early in the week, spend the better part of two days redoing to room, then take some pic and head on the last day.

Plan B:

Over the course of the next few months, however, some health issues popped up in Julia’s family, and a mood board was nowhere in sight. As we got closer to the scheduled date, I started to wonder if everyone might be better served if we pushed back the project to the fall. After all, we’ve been living with the room as-is for a couple years already, so what’s a couple more months, especially when there were way more important things going on that really demanded their family’s time and attention.

I reached out to see if they were interested in giving the project some additional time, and everyone was on board with making some adjustments. After some email back and forth about some options, we decided to keep with the plan of having their team come to Lancaster, but we’d push back the date to mid September.

Plan C:

The rest of the summer was a blur—as summer with a bunch of kids tends to be—and before we knew it, we were once again just a few weeks away from our makeover date, and I was concerned that we’d be limited on furniture choices due to time constraints.

This time, we went back to our options again to see what made the most sense at this point.

Option 1, which would be having Chris, Julia, & company come to make over the room during the span of a few days, meant that Jim and I wouldn’t really have to do much besides approve the mood board, and their team would take care of the rest. Easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy.

Option 2 came about as an alternative because it was pretty clear from this here blog that Jim and I also enjoy getting to do some of this fun house stuff ourselves. Instead of a visit from the Chris Loves Julia team, this would be a “virtual” option, wherein Julia would send us a mood board, along with a budget to order the furniture and tackle the project ourselves.

Both options were pretty damn great, so Jim and I took some time to discuss our hopes for the room, the limitations we might have with each option, and ultimately, what we actually wanted to take on.

I personally knew I would love to be involved in a more hands-on way, since it’s really, really important to me that the room functions well for our family. On the other hand, getting the chance to meet Chris and Julia and see them in action is just an absolute dream.

There were, of course, a ton of pros and cons for each, so in the end, we worked out a hybrid situation that I’m super excited (and also scared?) about…

Option 3, a.k.a. the Hybrid Plan, involves Chris and Julia coming to Lancaster to scope out the room for themselves, so Julia can really get a sense of the space and the unique issues it presents. We’ll also get to talk – in person! – about our ideas and thoughts for the room design and furniture. She might hold a baby as well, who knows?

After that, we’ll get a customized mood board from Julia, plus a budget to order furniture and get this project going. The downside to the hybrid option is that our budget will be smaller to offset the cost of their trip to Lancaster, but we felt that it was worth the difference to have them get to visit the space in person and kick start the makeover with a bang. 

Now that we’ve gotten you up to speed, stay tuned for more details soon, because we really need to go clean our house… Chris and Julia are coming to Lancaster this week!