A welcoming space

My guest room updates are complete. Come on in and take a look!

The beds are sporting their new headboards as well as matching throws. These matelasse coverlets I've had for 10 years; I just keep re-using them in different ways. The throw pillows and mock balloon shades I made several years ago. I still like this fabric and wanted to re-use it, which is why I was so glad to find the new fabric for the headboards.

A note about guest beds: I like twin beds for a guest room. I have three sons, and this room is often used by their friends. Guys do not like to share a bed, I've learned. If we had a double bed in here and needed to house two guys, one would sleep on the bed and one would sleep on the floor. Twin beds make the room a bit more versatile. And the couples who visit us don't seem to mind sleeping in twin beds. They can always pretend they're on a 1950's TV show. "Good night, Ricky." "Night, Lucy."

Here's the rest of the guest room. Our guest room is, generally speaking, the last stop for furniture we've used other places. The bedside table (from Bombay Company, a store I still miss) once held a lamp beside my living room sofa. The secretary was an estate sale find many years ago. The wing-backed chair once graced my mother's living room. And the chest of drawers lived in my parents' bedroom. . . then in mine. . . then got painted white and served as a changing table in my boys' nursery. . . and now lives on in a coat of black paint. Good thing I like mixed rather than matched furniture.

The chairside table is a stack of hatboxes I found at an antique store.

One of my favorite things about our house is that it has a guest bedroom and bath en suite. The bathroom isn't large, but it's private. The black and white checked floor seemed to me to beg for some red. I love this hot-air balloon toile shower curtain. This fabric was another find at the $7.99/yard fabric store.

Click here if you'd like to read about how I made the curtain. My sewing skills are limited to straight lines, but it's amazing what you can make if you can sew a straight line!

The guest room and bath have a few French touches. I already had the French posters which hang over the beds, so I just looked for things to go with these.

I love the little prints in the bathroom. Those I found several years ago at the One Spot at Target: the prints were 4 for $1 and the frames were $1 each. The ceiling tile was from Dollar General. I found it on clearance for 50 cents. It had an ugly floral decal on it; I just spray painted several layers of black and Heirloom White and distressed it a bit. The clock was my one splurge: it was $15 at TJMaxx.

All in all, my guest suite required a bit of time but very little cash to make it a welcoming space. If any of you, my blogging friends, come to visit me, this is where you'll stay. . . and you can let me know if it's a comfortable place to be. Meanwhile, thanks for taking this little tour with me!

I'm joining

Project Parade at The DIY Show-Off

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land