Guest Room Makeover - Phase I

Now that we'll soon have a little person who needs a room to call his or her own, we've finally started the makeover we've been thinking about for a long time. Our guest room has been in shambles since we moved in. No excuses - just lots of indecision mixed with some laziness.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo of the room overall. This doozy of a shot is from the doorway. Since moving in two and half years ago, this room changes appearance depending on what we are currently storing in it. Most often, on the bed one can find a pile of my clean laundry waiting to be folded. Based on this photo, here's what we'd like to change no matter who is living in this room:

1. The wobbly and outdated ceiling fan has got to go - we'd like to add a fun punch of color with a repurposed chandelier.
2. The room needs a cohesive feel with new bedding, art and window treatments - long overdue.
3. Above all, the two tone wall color and Winnie the Pooh wallpaper border must change.

Photo taken by standing in front of the window.

The dreaded Pooh paper.....

And now that we're focused on this room as a child's room, not much has changed from our original vision. We were always going to incorporate pops of yellow and we continue to have yellow in our plan. We've settled on soft gray walls and have taken a maiden trip to the hardware store to pick up some swatches.

We started with quite a pile and ended with two - the one on the left is Matt's favorite and the one on the right is mine. Admittedly there's not much difference and even that subtlety is hardly noticeable in photographs. Our plan is to take these two to the store and have them color-matched to a low VOC paint with less fume-action. We'll take their advice about how these two will turn out on the wall.

Other than paint, we're airing out our new (old) dresser! We found it at Itchy's Flea Market when we stopped by on a whim. Not expecting to find anything at all that day, we were so excited to find exactly what we had in mind for a dresser/storage/changing table piece of furniture! It's from the 1950's and is made of solid wood. It has dovetailed joints and all of the hardware is sturdy and in great condition. The mirror that attaches to the back is totally secure and in great shape. And the price.....it was the best we've seen! Like any old piece of furniture, it has a "flea-market-ish" smell. So we're airing out the drawers and plan to use some vinegar/baking soda/Murphy's Oil soap to aid our efforts soon.

The mirror is unattached and leaning against the mattress and platform from our guest bed - now homeless.

We still have up our old brown, light blocking grommet curtains, but we've purchased some material for some new window treatments that should really brighten up the room. More on that after they are finished.

After examining the curtain rod, we decided to leave up these dull but functional rods because they provide us with the opportunity to hang a light blocking panel behind my handmade curtains later if we need to.

There you have it. Phase one. Room still in shambles - actually it's worse. But instead of being in a perpetual lazy state of "ugly but functional," it's on its way to being what we hope will be a pretty darn cute/functional child's room :-)