Use What You Have Guest Room Makeover, Part II

Look at me all posting part two (part one is here) of the guestroom makeover just like I said I would! Whoohoo!

I left off with this photo of the curtains I made and the tree branch curtain rod. It also exemplifies nicely my mad Craigslisting skills. Ever since I made the slipcovers for my couch I've been wanting to try making one for a wing back chair. Except I didn't have a wing back chair. But it only took a couple of days checking my local craigslist to find this one for thirty dollars. Unfortunately I haven't made a slip for it yet, but I did make a little throw pillow with fabric left over from the curtains.

 I also found this wardrobe on Craigslist for free. Yes friends, if you are as obsessed with furniture as I am you can do a quick check for what is free in your neighborhood and then race to try and pick it up before anyone else. You will usually lose, but sometimes you will win.

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 Isn't this beautiful? And, magical. I was so proud when each of my children independently and unprompted tried to climb in and told me they were going to Narnia. 

The hinges were a bit wonky but again my handy hubby came to my rescue and fixed it up for me. 

The area rug you see is the one I used to have in my family room before I got all gung ho and bought a big one for in there. You are right, it needs to be shampooed. 

I'm pretty sentimental about this bed. The crocheted coverlet was made by my Grammy Tietz many years ago but I never had a bed that was safe from kids and pets to put it on until now. I would just pull it out of my hope chest every once in awhile and admire it and whisper, "we'll be together one day."

Can you even imagine doing all that? Me neither.

At the end of the bed I have a quilt folded up that I will love forever because it used to be on my beautiful sister, Lani's bed. She passed away in January and I like to go and lay my head on the quilt and miss her to myself.

And if that isn't sentimental enough for you I also brought in this cart that the previous owners of our home left in the storage room and put the bunnies that my sweet friend, Paige, knitted for me on it.

I think she should charge people big bucks for these cuties. Not me, obviously, but other people. They are so dang adorable!

Our internet router comes in through this room so I tried to disguise it a bit with stuff but I still need to work on that.

I'm letting you see it anyway because I like you and I think you won't judge me. Working with what you have means sometimes things aren't perfect, but I'm okay with that.

My Use What You Have Guest Bedroom Makeover, Part I

This summer has just zoomed by and been full of lots of fun things that I hope to write about, but one thing I really don't want to skip is my guest bedroom makeover. This little room started out as a bedroom for Jonathan, even though it doesn't have a closet, and then served as a sort of catch all for our workout equipment and not in use furniture when he moved downstairs. We also made excellent use of it as a place to stash mess whenever someone is coming over where we could close the door and pretend I am a good housekeeper.

As usual, I get so excited to start a project that I forget to take before pictures. Here are some I snapped while I was prepping to paint.

Lovely, no? I had taken the first step and painted the bed here. If you're interested I used homemade chalk paint and Annie Sloan clear wax on it. 

The thing I like most about this little makeover is that I did it using a lot of what I already had and getting the "new to me" items on the cheap. Okay, you caught me, that's what I like about all my projects. I love the challenge of making a room better using more creativity than money, although I like money too.

I've often wondered how people with unlimited budgets decorate. Making a decision when the world is your oyster seems almost impossible to me; I always start with the things I already have and take my inspiration from there. Recently I realized that if money were no object I would have to actually give myself a limitation by first choosing a really special or unique inspiration item that everything else would have to work around.

I decided to sort of apply that principle here when I painted the bed we've had for over 15 years and used for several kids a bright green. I basically can't get enough of that color but I knew when I did it that everything else I did in the room would have to get in line and work with the green. 

 I also love this room because I got to go full steam ahead country cottage shabby chic farmhouse primitive-whatever you like to call it-in there.

Following the decorating order of operations, I painted the walls white and got to work sewing some simple curtains. I wanted a gingham pattern because it says farmhouse to me but I specifically chose this one because it was on clearance for $1.99 a yard. Can I get a high five for that? Custom curtains for less than twenty bucks-seriously-can't beat that. Although I am being loose and generous with the term "custom." I just cut rectangles and hemmed the edges, no lining or anything.

I showed Marc some pictures of branches as curtain rods, like this one

Via

 and my handy hubby got right to work.

I'll probably pull those leaves off soon, but I really liked how they looked when we first put it up.

Okay, I'm actually running out of time tonight, because people always think they should get dinner, so I'm going to finish this up with a part two, hopefully tomorrow.

I hope you like it. 

You can see the rest of this room redo here.

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