Guest Bedroom Updates

Since our guest bedroom will be a well-used area of our home in a matter of weeks, Bryan and I have been in a hurry to get it somewhat organized and functional. This room has been known as the "junk room" ever since we moved in. We cleaned it out at this time last year, but alas, it was full of C-R-A-P yet again just a few months later. No more, we say! This room is finally a usable space....but it still has a long way to go before I will call it "done".

I refused to spend a lot of money while updating this room. The whole reason we had a "junk room" to begin with was because I would go out and buy random home decor items....sheets, quilts, frames, fabric, little knick knacks, and then end up not liking or knowing where to use them (this is BAD-- don't do this!). The junk room was where all things home decor went to die, so we ended up giving new life to everything in order to get a decent looking space for our guests to relax. Yes, I would have LOVED to start from scratch and buy all new bedding and decorations....but there's this thing called "being responsible", so I went ahead and stuck with what I already had instead :).


Here is what it looked like in January when I discussed plans to decorate it here: (and yes, the Office in a Closet is in this room as well)

And here is the one-sided "After" (Or "In Progress", I should say):

Much better!! We've had the comforter set, quilt, and sheets for about 2 years now. I bought the throw pillow for the room at TJ Maxx (where else) a few months ago (that was the inspiration for the room), and made the pillow shams with some pretty green linen that I got for "free" at Joann's using this tutorial from Centsational Girl (very easy!).

I originally bought the linen to go in the nursery, but then it didn't end up working out....so when I took it back to return it, I found out that I had never been charged for it in the first place. (That was awkward.) They told me I could just keep it since it was their bad for not charging me (I honestly didn't notice....it was a gigantic order and a gigantic amount of money to spend on fabric). Score!

The only other new purchase for the room was the Martha Stewart sunburst mirror that we got at Home Depot for like $35. I LOVE it. The headboard used to be in our room, but I decided to switch it out (more on that later). Oh, and we (Bryan) repainted. It's Behr Pebble Stone. Kind of green-y gray. Perfect.


I even made the bedskirt with my "free" linen fabric. I took some pictures for a tutorial...we'll see when I get around to posting that :). It was really simple and looks great with the pillow shams.

I think that my next move will be to make curtains or some sort of window treatment for the massive window in the room. We added blackout lining to the bamboo blinds for more privacy (this room is at the front of the house), but I have NO clue how to hang curtains for this type of "half moon" window. Any suggestions???? Oh, and I want to do something fun to that floor lamp.

So, that's just a little peek of the many projects that have been going on around our house! Don't you just love when hard work and things you already own come together to make a room pretty and functional once again?

Have a great day!