Oh the guest room. The place where old furniture and unwanted decor goes to die. In our house I call it our bone yard. It’s also where I stash piles of stuff when I’m too lazy or don’t have enough time to put it where it really belongs. And to think that’s where I have guests sleep when I welcome them over night to our home. Even though I pick up the piles of junk before hand, it’s not exactly inviting. Sorry about that mom and dad. I wanted to freshen it up, but as is normally the case, on the cheap.
BEFORE
Certainly not a nightmare, but incredibly blah. And honestly this was looking way better than it had before. Wishing now I had some photos so the before and after would be more impressive 😉 It was a mash up of furniture. The other side of the room had a dresser and mirror that matched the sleigh bed. It was A LOT of dark furniture.
AFTER
I’m calling this eclectic because there is still definitely a mix of styles in here, but it’s much more pulled together now. The biggest change was slipcovering the bed in drop cloth. It was super affordable and lightened the room up a ton (UPDATED: You can find the slipcovered bed tutorial here). Other than the drop clothes I used to make the slipcover, the only purchase were the two matching brass lamps. Since the tables stayed the same, matching lamps brought in some form of symmetry. Everything else was added in by shopping the house! When you think you’ve got nothing to work with, you just might surprise yourself.
To give you an idea of layout, this is right off our front entry. I used to keep the door shut so I didn’t have to look at it. Now I’m happy to have it open.
I couldn’t come up with what to do over the bed. Thought about the usual piece of art and then thought about how I’d love to have a collection of round baskets on the wall. I didn’t have any baskets and didn’t want to buy any. But, what I did have was a pile of hats in the playroom that the kids never used. I love it way more than the baskets! The perfectly round one was leftover from Izzy’s tea party birthday years ago and was probably less than $5 from Hobby Lobby’s floral department. The other’s were old hats that had lost their shape or weren’t being used.
Mike had a box full of seashells, sand dollars, and little star fish stashed away from when he was a kid. I decided to pull them out and put them in a glass box so they could be enjoyed.
That then inspired me to fill the antique french table with some of my grandmother’s seashells that she lined her driveway with.
I kept my DIY subway art but hung it over by the door. I’ve also been working on the attached bathroom to the right. It’s a boooooger to photograph, but I’ll share it with you soon. Lots more DIY’s going on in there.
The bedding is a happy mash up. The banded pillow shams came with the duvet I used in Sam’s room. The quilt used to be in our master. The white euro pillows are several years old, and the throw pillow was a newer find from Homegoods that I didn’t intend on using in here, but works perfectly.
My takeaway from this is that you don’t have to spend much to freshen up a space.
- Shop your home before going out and buying new decor. Move stuff around, you just might surprise yourself.
- Look for like items that you can turn into a collection for bigger impact (like the hats and seashells)
- Instead of purchasing matching nightstands, create symmetry with matching lamps. Much cheaper.
- Mix and match the bedding.
- If you just can’t stand it, slip cover it. I’ve done that with our master bedroom’s nightstand, our dining room buffet, and now this sleigh bed. HUGE money saver.
- Greenery goes a long way. You don’t have to hit up the florist, just snip anything green from your yard and toss it in a vase. Instant life.
SOURCES: DIY slipcovered bed // campaign table and oval table – antique // brass lamps // white duvet – Homegoods (similar here) // quilt – Target, no longer avail (similar here) // gray print pillow – Homegoods (similar here) // plastic white tray // glass display box – Junk Gypsy’s (similar here and here) // green glass vase – Homegoods (similar here) // DIY subway art // white drapes // bamboo blinds
SHOP THE LOOK:
Shelley I love that hats over the bed for this room! Great texture and warmth. And the slipcovered bed??? Can you just please move in next door to me? I aspire to be a sewing goddess like you…..one of these days. It's amazing how that changed up the whole room!
Could you imagine how much trouble we would get each other in if we were neighbors?! I'll sew for you all day if you could put in one of those gorgeous fire pits for me 😉
beautiful!! i love your style SOOOO much and this space is just so you. the textiles are perfect and those hats!
This room is nothing compared to your stunner of a quest room, Cassie! I'm now on a search for more hats. I'm going to think of them like baskets, you can never have too many 😀
Good job. I'll also try to do something like that as it looks gorgeous and if it doesn't work, I can always contact interior design architects to help. At once I did so and I don't regret. Everything is much easier with their help, moreover, I will be sure in what I do
I love the idea of the hats on wall and the black and white monochrome bedding… lovely.
Cielo