Meet Our Guest Room

Last month I gave you the tour of our new house, and I left out one room because at that time, it still held the title "The Room of Horror." It was the one room where we threw everything we hadn't yet dealt with, and I guarantee no guest would have dared step one foot inside the space that would eventually become the guest room.

And in truth, it's still not done. Not like I want it to be. But I've reached the place where it's good enough to show you and blank enough to continue propelling me to be creative in finishing touches. So today I wanted to show you what I lovingly call our bare bones guest room.

This is the room we did the least amount of work to {and please bite your tongue from saying "AND IT SHOWS!!" - ha!} It was painted the same tan color as the rest of the house, and since there were no dings or nicks, we just left it. Originally I had planned to paint it, but I changed my mind. {For as much as I love to paint, all the other painting made me willing to call a painting truce on this room.}

I should also mention that originally this room was supposed to be a home gym. We had converted a spare bedroom at our old house into a home gym and loved it, but when we moved here, I started wishing we had a guest room. Even though we typically don't have a lot of overnight guests, there was something in me that made me ache to have a place to offer any who might pass through, and we had plenty of space to work out in the living room here. {That was not true of our old house.} So we switched the plans and made a guest room.

Ironically the only overnight guest we've had since moving came before the room was done and had to sleep on Mo in the living room. Whoopsie!

Our guest room is simple, but I wanted to show you some of my favorite parts. I wanted it to be a welcoming and comfortable place for anyone to stay, so here is our attempt at just that:

You can't see it in this picture, but we have my cedar chest in this room. It was my grandmother's and I treasure it! {We use it for storage, which is another bonus, but it provides a good shelf of sorts for guests to place their things at an easy-to-reach level.} I put this tray on it, which guests could easily carry over to the bed if they had a drink or something and needed a level place to put it. The tray was a wedding gift. The vase was a gift from Lynne when I started working at WBCL, and the candle was a housewarming gift. We got the flowers at the dollar store so the vase wouldn't sit empty between guests. {I plan to add a little note to the tray for each guest.}

The color scheme for this room is black/white/gray with red accents. Ryan and I purchased this shelf for our old house, so we put it in here with our black S monogram and some battery operated candles. I thought that would create a welcoming glow when we have guests.

Found this little printable on Pinterest and put it in a dollar store frame - we can write our Wi-Fi password in dry erase marker when we have guests! The little jar was a Christmas gift and the flowers came from the dollar store again.

This was one of the few pieces we bought specifically for the house. We happened upon it when we went on our date to Junk n Java, and it was perfect. {And well priced, too, I might add.} It was made locally from reclaimed wood, and it was the only red one they had! I plan to add more things to the shelves {books, maybe a snack basket, etc.} and thought paired with the mirror we already owned, it would make a convenient second station to get ready in case two people stay and one is using the sink area in the bathroom!

Handmade bowl we received as a wedding gift and some little doo-jobbies I bought long ago at Hobby Lobby.

Another of my favorite pieces: a little box made from reclaimed barnwood. Got it back when I worked at the station and just love it.

I don't have a ton of Thirty-One products, but this was one of the first ones I purchased when someone invited me to a party years ago. I have no idea what this tote is called or if they still make it, but I have it filled with comfy throw blankets in case someone wants to lounge with a blanket.

Lamps I bought years ago at TJ Maxx {sitting on plant stands, by the way}. The room has overhead lighting, but I wanted to add a few softer touches because I just think bedrooms should be relaxing that way.

The bed was the one actual INVESTMENT we made in the room. It was a tricky one, but we found the perfect solution. {At IKEA, of course.} The room is an average sized bedroom that can be accused of being neither too big nor too small. We thought about the potential guests we might have, and we realized sometimes it might be just one person and sometimes a couple - or a small family. How could we accommodate everyone without overcrowding the room for day-to-day life?

Enter this bed from IKEA. It's got a daybed frame, so there are no clunky headboards and footboards sticking up into the middle of the room. It has two storage drawers, which is really helpful. The best part, though? While it sits as a twin, half of it slides out, making it double in size, creating a king bed. Stores as a twin, sleeps as a king. YES. This is our bed.

So when we went to IKEA on my birthday, this little guy was our big purchase. It comes in black or white but since we had the color scheme we did, we went with black.

We got a reversible black/gray comforter at Wal-Mart, added a small handful of clearance throw pillows, and called it done for now!

I have more tweaking to do in this room...I'd like to add more wall art, change out some details about existing wall art, get more throw pillows, and add other random accents, but I am ready to declare the guest room open and accepting company!

So to recap, we really did nothing to the room, other than take down the wall mounted TV the former owners left, we added furniture and wall art, and called it done! Simple but comfy!

We also have a guest bath - not attached, but right nearby - and we hadn't planned to paint this room either, UNTIL....

...we took down the air freshener hanging on the wall and found this:

 Why yes! Someone painted around the air freshener! So we had paint that whole wall! We used the same blue Autumn Fog color from our kitchen and master bedroom because I didn't want to buy a whole new can of paint for one tiny bathroom wall.

This room, too, needs more decoration on the walls. It's a Colts bathroom, and we like it. Got the shower curtain at TJ Maxx, used some wall art we already had{need to add more!} and we purchased Braeya's kitty potty for this room too. It's a decorative piece that fits over the litter box so it's not so unsightly. And it creates an extra surface space for the room too, so that's nice.

So without further ado, here are the before and after pics of the guest spaces! {And my apologies for flipping the before and after in the first duo!} Click to enlarge.

I think this completes the home tour! For now!