My bird prints from last week ended up in the Guest Room, and were hung the night before our guests arrived…of course!
The Guest room is still a work in progress – the quilt for the bed is being worked on slowly – but it’s mostly there. And i’m loving it. It’s actually a very relaxing room to be in.
Our Guest Bedroom windows get a lot of light from the street in front of our house…that also means that a lot of our neighbours can see right in the windows. While no-one is staying in there, its no big deal…but now that my parents visit is right around the corner, we figured it might be nice to add some sort of shade and privacy.
After doing a lot of hunting around, we ended up buying two of the Lindmon Venetian Blinds from Ikea. The great thing about these shades, is that the slats can be removed from the bottom to ensure that the length is correct. Our windows are narrow but long, and trying to find manufactured shades for them is quite a pain in the posterior 
Removing the slats is so painfree…i think all told, installation (including removal of the additional length) took about 30 minutes. And they look AWESOME. If i do say so myself 
Little by little this room is coming together…we took a quick trip to the happiest place on earth on Sunday morning to look for some lighting for the room. We ended up picking up two of these bad boys for the room..
They actually look pretty awesome in the space. Hopefully the addition of shades (later this week), quilt (before the next century) and artwork (in motion) won’t make the room look like a complete circus
Remember way back when, when i mentioned how much i loved this look:
Well i knew i would eventually figure out a way to make it work without making it cost a fortune or involve some crazy eBay antique ladder back alley deal. The wee-b finally suggested looking at Ikea for step ladders to see if they had anything interesting, after i complained again about the ladders i was finding being upwards of $40 each…and not in stock…and additional shipping charges, etc. etc.
That’s when we came across these mighty guys:
I had thoughts of painting them the same colour as the room and sanding them back to give them a bit of a rough look….but the wee-b and i eventually decided on staining them for a more ‘woody’ look (Definitely a technical term).
I grabbed a container of Miniwax Express Color to test out, figuring that if it came out too dark, I could always sand the piece back and start again. Never done that before…but there’s always a first time, right? Sure. Luck was on my side as the Bekvam stools actually came unfinished so i was able to dive straight in!
I really didn’t want the stain to be overly dark or anywhere near the “Emerald” as shown. So i decided to paint each piece of wood with a coat of water first, making the assumption that the more moist the wood was, the less stain it would soak up.
Luckily, this time my assumption was right.
Roses I tell you.
And we ended up with this bad boy:
…and two really fabulous side tables
So the room is painted, now we have to put the bed together. And thanks to the magic of the internet, this step was already taken care of for you…
Honestly? i LOVE this bed. I love the frame, i love the way it sits..it’s just awesome and it fits in the room perfectly. Sure in a different house with a little more room, we could get a nice big comfy guest bed….but this works. And it’s still comfy….and we just need to make sure our guests like each other before they sleep in there (don’t worry mama – poppy jack can sleep on the couch!)
Next on the list is side tables, lighting, artwork and some sort of window treatments.
We’ll see how we can tackle this…never fear internets, i have some plans!
It’s actually really coming along. The one thing I would like to get out of the way first, is to proclaim my love for Frog Tape. This stuff is the SHIT! Man, i have never ever seen such clean straight lines after i pulled down painters tape.
Magic i tells ya.
I applied some more putty to the damaged wall and got that sorted out pretty quickly. After that was dry and sanded, the Weeb and i got the second coat of paint up, closed the door to the room and called it a night. First thing in the morning we snuck in there and reveled in the glory of it all.
Or something like that..
It’s actually a really lovely colour and a super cheery room now. I think that any of our guests will really like staying in this room Either that or they can bunk up with the littleb…
Cut a hole in the box..
Or something like that
We got the first coat of paint on the wall in the Guest Bedroom! It looks awesome….its amazing what a great coat of coloured paint can do for a room when you are used to living in a stark white home.
One more coat to go…we stumbled across a slight issue with one of the walls. I had to dig out a crack where the brilliant minds who built this place patched two pieces of drywall together with chewing gum…or putty or something. Its patched and drying so we need to wait for that to be complete before we can toss up the second coat.
Why yes, thank you Valspar…don’t mind if i do.
Every day, Valspar is giving out 1,000 free paint samples – starting at 9am CST. But these aren’t just any paint samples, these are some of the cutest little paint samples you have ever seen.
The sample (almost 8 fl. oz!) comes with a mini paint tray and roller. Uh..i may have squeed slightly when i opened it. Ridiculousness. Is there anything that comes in a mini size that isn’t cute? I mean i know [redacted] may disagree with that statement…but come on!
So, I ordered a sample of yellow that I was looking at for the Guest Bedroom…and while the dried patches of paint aren’t exactly the shade i wanted, the $5 off coupon included with the sample kit will definitely be used towards a purchase of the right color
So, i will now show a very brief glimpse of the reason why we are currently keeping the door to the guest room shut (you can kind of see the yellow paint sample on the walls – its a little too cold for my liking…i want more of a yellow/light orange color on the walls)
And to the left, the results of an Ikea shopping trip (with free lunch!). Last weekend, Ikea was offering a free lunch with any homegoods purchase over $100. You order, pay, eat (hopefully in that order) and then hand in your receipt at the checkout to have the amount deducted from your total. You know what they say…never look a swedish meatball in the mouth. And i didn’t. But a plateful sure saw mine.
That right there is a bed, mattress and side tables. There’s also some artwork in the back, that needs framing and some cork for a pinboard project i have in the works. I was planning on just leaving it all there until our guests arrive and they can assemble themselves. I figured there was no better way to get family in the DIY spirit!
Taking bookings now…anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Okay, fine. Not really. This weekend the littleb boards a plane to head to TX to spend some time with his mom, brother and sisters, so the Weeb and i planned to get the Guest Room painted on Sunday. This way we are not subjecting him to any yucky paint fumes and we don’t have to stop painting every 5 minutes to go and watch the FUNNIEST youtube video EVAR.
So hopefully this time next week the room will at least be painted….and there will still be a pile of furniture waiting to be assembled
I’m pulling together various ideas that I love, to work on creating a warm inviting guest bedroom, without spending a whole ton of money. I know that our biggest investments for the room will be the bed frame and the mattress, both of which I already have in mind (thank you Ikea!)…its just a matter of taking a trip to buy them and either pick them up (if i can borrow a bigger car) or arrange delivery.
Engan Bed – Ikea
My other goals are to slap a coat of paint on the walls and perhaps even add some artwork. We have a ton of prints that need to be hung on the walls, so this is not necessarily something that has to be bought, more so something that can be done once the rest of the room comes together.
I have the paint color picked out already – we use C2 paints primarily at work, i know they are more expensive, but the quality is fabulous and they cover extremely well. After doing this for over 8 years I just go with what i know
And perhaps a little bit of this:
When it came to bedside tables, I will admit to falling in love with this look:
For some reason, the idea of having little step ladders as bedside tables really tickles my funny bone (that may be one of the reasons my mother still refers to me as Tinkerbell). In my mind i would stain them as opposed to painting so they look a little more contemporary and less country-ish…but i would like to get the bed in the room first before i make that decision.
The quilt that i am currently attempting to work on (Botany quilt) is destined for that room too, but i have no idea if i am being overly ambitious to think that i will have it done in a few months, or if it will take me another year to figure it all out. I am just going to keep moving forward and hope for the best
So there we have it…..a little bit of a brain dump on my current mishmash of ideas for the Guest Bedroom. The first step is still to clean out everything that is currently in there, but I am going to make a start on that this weekend by listing some of the stuff we no longer want, on Freecycle. I will try and remember to take some before-photos
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