our new guest room

You know what the best motivation for getting your house in order is?

Hosting a guest.

Because our family lives locally, we don’t often have sleep-over guests. But my friend Paige was coming to visit {and take our family photos – can’t wait to show you!} and I wanted so badly to give her a comfortable, pretty, welcoming guest room to stay in. Our house has three bedrooms upstairs – one is the boys’ bunk room, one is Audrey’s and the third has been a million different things. Most recently it was in a transition from a playroom to an extra bedroom and it was a mess.

These photos were taken about three days before Paige flew in. Why do I wait until the last second on everything?! As much as I would have loved to paint the walls to get rid of the stripes and make a great upholstered headboard, I just didn’t have time. I kinda challenged myself to only use what we had, shopping from different rooms and being resourceful to give the room some style without spending a bunch of money.

A few days later and a bit of scrambling and here is the new and improved guest room:

Because we didn’t have a twin headboard, I moved the bed under the window to make it the focal point. Switching out the dot curtains for simple white ones frame the bed and brighten the space.

The bed is dressed with polka dots sheets borrowed from Audrey’s room, an old matelasse coverlet, and throw pillows gathered from around the house.

For some late night or early morning reading, a few of my current favorites sit stacked on the bedside table.

On the wall to the right of the bed are a set of shelves previously used to display picture books and rather than take them down, they became the perfect spot for propping artwork.

Again, I shopped the house for black, white and gold artwork/photos/ephemera to put in the room.

Clockwise from top left: Mighty to Save art print, salvaged grate, my grandparents’ engagement photo, Greatest is Love print

bobby pin print, old playing card, graphic number print, be still calligraphy {my first real calligraphy work!}

silent night sheet music print {coming friday}, photograph of city benches by my cousin, little wooden sign

On the wall opposite the bed is this media cabinet/shelf that badly needs a facelift. Above it is my twirl artwork in a thrift store frame. The lamp was a cast-off from my grandparents – it’s tall and brass and heavy. The only items I bought for the room were a few different lampshades, but none were quite right. I’ve had this wire shade frame in a storage closet for years, never really knowing what to do with it, and while it is super weird to put a wire frame on a lamp, it totally works. With a reproduction vintage bulb it is a funky lamp/shade combo that gives a soft glow when flipped on.

The final touch to the guest room happened in my imagination while driving in silence one day. I pictured a sort of whimsical canopy made of book page paper chains and paper poms.

I already had a few long paper chains from our Christmas tree last year and the kids and I just made a few more while watching a Seahawks game.  The paper chains are tacked into the ceiling at the center and both sides.  Because they are so light-weight, it doesn’t take much to keep them up.

The center hanging collection is an assortment of coffee filter foofs made a few years ago, paper flowers and flattened cupcake wrappers threaded on a string, and book page poms {made the same way as for the tissue pom wreath}. It’s so random and odd, but it gives the room this interesting focal point and was a free way to add whimsical charm.

So just in time, the room came together – for basically no cost.  It welcomed our special guest and gave her a place to rest in this crazy home.

Are you hosting overnight guests this holiday season?