Updating & Decorating the Guest Room

You may remember, a few years ago, I got a wild hair and decided I was going to finally tackle the guest bedroom.

That basically consisted of re-locating the old dresser that my mom kindly re-finished for me in college, cleaning out all of the old clothes that had been tossed in there during the move...

I fixed up an old bed I got at a thrift store...

and painted the walls and closet a pail pink color.

My parents also put an outlet in this previously OUTLET FREE room (seriously old houses, what the?)

Then I basically took a couple of pictures, shut the door and forgot about it.

Now, three years later, I've decided to throw a little bit more love its way.

Why?

Well, when we first moved in five years ago, we were mostly just concerned with getting paint on the walls and making the house look like it hadn't been vacant for several years. That resulted in a lot of rooms just getting the very basic treatment and now that I have a spare moment, I figured I should try to make them feel a little more filled out.


Also, we're going to start renting it out on Airbnb : ) so, there's that. 

So far, here's what I've done and what I'm planning to do: 

I got this small bedside table from a thrift store for $10 the other day. 

It's in need of a little work and a little cleaning up but I really don't want to paint over the lovely, little details. 

I got that little bedside caraffe a few months ago at a D.A.V. thrift store as well. The planter is from the ol' Hobby Lobby clearance aisle ($5) and the coasters are from T.J. Maxx ($3)

The lamp was actually something that my parents got me in high school when we were decorating my room!

I might replace it because the light is kind of bright and flourescent-y but only if I find something I love and it's so cheap it's basically free.

On to the bed frame. I like the metal one and I put a lot of work into fixing it up but I'm having trouble picking out a comforter or duvet cover that goes with it : /
I'd appreciate any links or advice you can throw my way.

I've been tossing around the idea of replacing it with this wooden one I got last year at a thrift store.

If you remember, it has this neat engraving on the back from the young man who made it in shop class in 1940!

My reasoning is two-fold. 

Fold one: it's real neat and it's a shame that it just sits in our sunroom

Fold two: The wood color is pretty and warm and I think it would look nice with these curtains I got the other day...

They were HALF OFF ($30 for two panels) and they are extra long - 96"! 

I got a couple yards of this pom pom trim with because I really like the colors and I thought it would pick up the pink on the walls a little.

I'm not sure if I want to get more and use it as a tie back or if I just want to trim a pillow with it.

Back to the bed for a second - the wood frame has a big split in one of the pieces that holds the mattress so that's one thing that's deterring me from using it. Since we want to get some visitors in this room ASAP, I would really rather just get a nice, new comforter/sheets that look good with the black bed.

The light fixture in this room is pretty old (maybe original?) and it's cute but I don't know if it's cute enough to not replace. Thoughts?

There's also the terrible, awful situation with the old radiator pipes : /

We removed the radiators a few years ago when we were fixing this room up the first time because space was a premium oh, and they also didn't work. Unfortunately, the pipes that are sticking up are real toe bangers and they need to be pulled up, sawed off and dropped back into the floor. This is number one on the list of things to do.

My mom and I are also going to try and wire another outlet for this room so that we can plug the window unit AC in without having to run an ugly extension cord to the outlet behind the bed.

I'd also like to find a tall, wooden dresser to put in the corner next to the big window but I'm coming up surprisingly empty on my thrift store trips : (

So, let's see what's left on the guest room list for now:

- Remove radiator pipes and plug holes in some fashion
- Add another outlet
- Find comforter/duvet cover that looks good with the bed frame
- Clean up scratches on bedside table
- Find tall, narrow dresser for corner
- Maybe do something about that postage stamp sized painting above the bed?

I'll let you guys know how things progress!

Until then,

Keep Smiling!