Guest Bedroom Makeover

A few weeks ago, we had some friends stay with us for the weekend.  Upon my cleaning frenzy to get ready for them the day before, I was cleaning the guest bedroom and was overcome with the urge to decorate it (I would say re-decorate it but this room had never been decorated).  Plus these friends have visited us several times and I was feeling guilty about their lack of accommodations during the previous stays.  Something had to be done. 

This room was constantly becoming our junk room.  We'd clear it out, only to start another project and fill it back up again.  Also, it doesn't help that this room has the largest closet in the house.  Bryan's small wardrobe barely fits in our master bedrooms closet so this is where I keep my clothes.  And by that, I mean that often times I do laundry and will put away Bryan's clothes (because we sleep in there ya know) and then put my clothes on the guest bed.  So instead of using the larger closet, the bed was my closet.  Not good!  I knew that a little bit of prettiness would go a long way in keeping this room ready for guests at all times.

And since this was spur of the moment decorating (it took two hours from start to finish the night before our guests were due to arrive), I had to pull the room together using what was lying around the house (no time to go shopping!).

This was what the room looked like shortly after we moved in.  We purchased the bed off of Craigslist (it was part of a set--the dresser and chest are currently in our master bedroom) and it came with a pair of lamps (one of which you can see in the picture below).  

Also note the before picture of our floor--afters coming soon!

Eventually, I got around to painting the room (using the same paint that was used for our living room, dining room, hallway and kitchen--five gallon buckets go far!) and re-arranging the furniture.  And, ummm, the picture below is the only picture I have after that effort.  This was taken during during our mini bathroom makeover (the closet in this room is the access to the plumbing for the bathroom, so it was emptied--I won't say how long it stayed like this).

While the room didn't look quite this bad when I was cleaning up for our friends visit, it wasn't much better! :)

So, I shopped my house and this is what I ended up with.

I love the different views reflected from the mirror.

To make my guests extra comfortable, I tried to think set up the room to meet all of their needs.  This includes:
*a pair of nightstands and lamps (so important! there is nothing worse than having to get out of bed to turn out the lights, plus it's nice to provide a place to set a water glass, eye glasses, books, cell phones, etc)
*magazines for those who like to read before shutting out the lights
*a vanity or in our case a mirror with shelf below it for setting down makeup and hair products (if you only have one bathroom, it is even more important to include!).  I hung the mirror and shelf on the wall that I did because it contains an electrical outlet so guests can plug in a hair dryer.
*towels (I like to provide each guest with two bath towels, one wash cloth and one hand towel)
*a basket of trial size hair and bath products (I will be adding tooth brushes and tooth paste to the basket before our next over night guests arrive)
*a fan (we keep a simple box fan in the closet and let our guests know where it is in case they need it)--this is for those guests who get hot at night or need a little white noise.

I would also like to add a charging station to this room soon.  With everybody having cell phones, it'll be nice to have a dedicated spot for their electronics.

Oh, and since this was a no money spent makeover, I thought it would be fun to break down the cost of the items in the room (because I realized after looking around how it was a collection of mostly free and cheap items).

dresser: FREE; hand me down
orange vase on dresser: $3; Pier One clearance
basket with fake grass: FREE; from the DIY shoot
artwork above dresser: FREE;  from Bryan's Grandmother's house
green nightstand: $4; hand me down updated with spray paint
basket on shelf: FREE; gift basket
blue nightstand: FREE; hand me down updated with paint leftover from the bathroom
lamps: FREE; from the DIY shoot
small orange vase (on nightstand and shelf below mirror): $1 each; Pier One clearance
green candle holder: $1; Bath and Body works after Christmas clearance
fake hydrangea in vases: FREE; DIY shoot
bed: $75; Craigslist
comforter: $15; Target clearance
art above bed: $40; a headboard initially made for the office futon that I decided not to use after making it
mirror: $10; Marshall's (updated with leftover bathroom paint)
shelf: $8; Macy's (purchased many years ago)
small table below shelf: $5; Craigslist
basket on table holding towels: free; gift basket
curtain: $10; Target
curtain rod: $15; Target
mini blinds: FREE (oh, but I would have changed it if I could!)

Total room cost: $188

Not too shabby for a room that has a cohesive look and came together by accident!