Guest Room...A Work in Progress

Remember when I mentioned way back here that I was redoing Kennedy's room as a guest room? We were planning to get going on her new room in the basement and figured with company coming we might as well get her moved out of the room and get it ready for guests. Well, since then we've had my niece and her kids come for a visit, my sister came and stayed with us for a few weeks, and my parents were here for 10 days and just left this morning. So I've made some progress on the guest room, but haven't quite got the finishing touches on it yet. And now school has started back up and Kennedy's bedroom still isn't finished so she's going to have to move back into the guest room for a while.

So this is what it looked like before.



Kind of a typical tweenie type room.


Here's where we're at today:






I painted the room in two different colors, planning for an eventual chair rail and wainscoting. I went with lighter colors because this room does not get a lot of natural light except first thing in the morning. Painting the trim white went a long way toward remedying the brightness issue.

I bought this lamp at Goodwill for a couple bucks.


It was dirty and dingy and had a tube in the center that had a little light in it so the base would glow when lit. The tube was ugly in there but I could see the potential of the glass lamp base. I wasn't sure about the frosted roses on the glass at first, but after I took out the tube and washed the glass, I decided they were actually pretty. While I had the entire lamp disassembled, I spray painted all the metal parts with oil rubbed bronze. If the glass wasn't a bit amber, I was going to paint the metal in brushed nickel. But it was amber, so I went with the ORB. I rewired the lamp and reassembled it and fell in love! I think it's gorgeous. I am still looking for the perfect shade for the lamp, but this one will do for now.



The headboard is an old door I bought at a Lands End Prop Sale. I love this door and I've used it in a few different places in my home. I knew that someday I would probably want to use it somewhere else again, so I did nothing to the structure or patina of the door. I just anchored it to the wall.

The bedding I ordered from ebay. When it arrived, the colors were not as faded as they looked in the picture online, but they seem to have faded a bit with a couple washings. I had considered washing them in some bleach when they first arrived, but decided against it. I'm glad I did.


So at this point, I'm trying to decide on artwork for the walls. I took a series of photos at the State Capitol recently, and I'm thinking about enlarging, printing, and framing those to use in the room. Hopefully soon I'll have the finishing details in the room and I'll be able to share it with you in its entirety.

I'm linking up to:
http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-before-and-after-new-light.html


You Are Talking Too Much!

Little Girl Room to Guest Room

I have been given the green light from my husband to go ahead and redecorate pretty much the whole house. (Have I mentioned before how much I like that guy?!) I am starting in what is currently Kennedy's room. We will be moving her to a new room in the basement this summer (hopefully sooner than later), and I am going to turn her room into a guest room. Why am I starting the guest room first? Well, we recently were given a king size mattress set and metal bed frame. Given. It's in great condition. We put it in Kennedy's room since that will ultimately be the guest room. Then, I made plans for my niece and her two children to come visit. I'd really like to have the guest room done before they arrive. In 11 days. Sooooo.....

Here is the before picture:


I redid the room for Kennedy a couple years ago. It was a lovely little girl room. BUT...

I hate the oak trim in this house. I really really do. Personal preference. So I am starting by painting the trim white. I think this will really help with the limited natural light in this room. The trim paint is a nice shiny, reflective, glossy white.

I have already ordered bedding for the room. Since this is the first king size bed we have owned, we didn't have any king size bedding other than the threadbare sheets our friend gave us with the bed.

So trim is started, bedding is on its way, and I am totally excited to get this moving. Of course, I also need to get moving on Kennedy's new room in the basement so I should have plenty to keep me busy for the summer!