Vacancy

As I am sure I mentioned before, our guest room has also been completed in my absence from blogging. I think that the end result, while pretty minimalistic for the time being, is quite beautiful. It is also a bit of a departure from our usual style.

While preparing to tackle this project I thought for a long and hard time about what direction I wanted to go. The main thing was that I wanted it to be clean and comfortable for our guests and I also wanted it to feel cozy and relaxing. Our typical style is not exactly cozy and relaxing looking since we tend to lean towards bright or cool colors and more modern-type design. We just needed to be creative.
It took us (me) a really long time to settle on a color to paint the walls because I really wanted to let the bedding dictate the style. I didn't want to find a color I loved and then never be able to find bedding for it. That would suck. On one of our many, many trips to Target we found a bedding set (complete with decorative pillows!) that we both really liked. I pored over my hundreds of paint swatches I chose a few colors to get samples of. Turns out all of them were terrible. At least at this point we had a direction and were able to choose new colors based on what we didn't like about the previous choices. I picked two more and off to Lowe's again. Since I always check the "oops section" I also found a 50 cent no name paint sample in a similar shade of yellow and grabbed that as well.
I slapped all of the samples up on the wall and sure enough, we decided on the sample with no name. Surely it could be color matched just fine. We took it in to Lowe's, where the paint guy probably dreads seeing me, and handed over the sample to get matched. I came back about 20 minutes later and see the paint guy shaking his head and muttering. Things must not have been going well for him. I wandered back to where Glenn was in the plumbing section and waited for him to finish up before going back to the paint area. When we returned to the paint section the guy set our gallon on the counter with an exasperated look and told us that it took him three tries to get the color close enough. It wasn't exact, but I liked it and I wasn't about to make him do it again so I thanked him and we were off. Then the walls got painted.
A while back we made a visit to JC Penney and purchase a mattress set at an AMAZING deal. Seriously, we saved almost twice what we paid because the mattress was being discontinued. We got the mattress set delivered only to find out that the box spring would not fit up the stairs. We decided our best option was just to refuse delivery of the box spring, get our money back, and find a different option. The mattress was just fine though. Since there is this hilariously cheesy looking place that we pass by quite often called The Mattress Ranch we decided to give it a shot and see what they recommended. Lucky for us they had a couple of cool guys working who were more interested in being honest with us than trying to sell us something more expensive. They showed us a bed frame that basically had a box spring built in and it was very cheap and compact enough to fit in our car. Deal! Little did we know that it would take about 2-3 hours between the two of us to set it up.
The next step was a headboard. The wall that the bed is up against is actually sloped so we had a fairly tight space to work within. It couldn't be any taller than 47" which ruled out a lot of headboards that I really liked. On top of that, everything was just so expensive! I wanted to keep this room budget-friendly - after all we were working on a complete bathroom renovation at the same time - so it was time to think outside of the box. On one of our countless trips to Lowe's Glenn mentioned using a piece of fencing as a headboard. I was definitely intrigued. The particular piece we looked at also happens to be similar to my dream fencing for the outside. The horizontal/semi-irregular spacing of the slats made it interesting looking but simple. A pass with the sander and a coat of stain and poly in one and we were golden! Glenn installed the headboard to the frame because I am a weenie.
As for finishing touches to the room it's still pretty simple at this point. The main goal was just to make it comfortable and functional for the time being. We added an inexpensive rug to the end of the bed that we bought at IKEA to keep things cozy.
We bought my favorite sheets from Target (organic cotton in a beautiful shimmery gold color - so soft).
We installed a more attractive roman shade to cover the hideous blinds for now.
I also added a couple of hooks inside the closet that actually allow hangers to fit inside that tiny space!

I still have a lot more that I would like to do in this room to really personalize it and give it some character, but that is all for another day after we have completed other things that are a little higher on our priority list. But for now, I love the room and I think it looks beautiful. In case anyone is looking, there is an availability for guests right now! :o)