Guest Room Makeover - The Before

Wanna hear an embarrassing story about our guest bedroom? Shortly after we moved into this house (4 years ago - crazy!!) we had a house guest. In my mind it was a last minute thing, but honestly, it may of been a planned thing, I can't remember. Regardless he ended up having to go to the store to buy his own soap!! T H E  H O R R OR! I mean honestly, could I be a worst hostess? After that I made an oath to be better. The first step was obviously to stock up on the essentials and the second step was to make a cautious effort to make our guest room has comfortable as possible. Since then we have done our best with what we had to work with, but anyone at the beginning, middle or end of making your house a home knows it is a process and certain rooms/projects just tend to take priority over others for one reason or another, but it is finally time for our Guest Bedroom to get some attention.

The first step in making over this space was to remove some of the furniture. Like a lot of guest rooms this space was outfitted in furniture from times past. From my past specifically, it was from my childhood bedroom. I loved it, but the truth is guest rooms just don't need SO much furniture. We had a dresser, a chest and a nightstand in addition to the obvious bed. Guests just don't need all of that stuff. Regardless of how long a guest stays they never move stuff into the drawers, so most were completely empty or worse stuffed full of stuff we didn't even know we had. Anyone else? What is it with our human need to fill any and all spaces we have!? So, I sold most of the items in a weekend and suddenly the room was feeling a lot more open and inviting.

In a perfect world we really wanted to incorporate a king bed into this space. I know this statement is full on diva, but once you sleep in a king bed, it's so hard to go back to a queen, but sadly a king just wouldn't fit on the wall.  Then, last Friday something amazing happened -  Brent said what if we moved the bed to the window wall, so we flipped it around and....BOOM:

Not only does this orientation just feel better, but now there is plenty of room for a king bed! So I listed the bed on Facebook Marketplace it was gone by the afternoon. Now, with an empty room we were ready to add some details and get the space prepped for new finishes.

The goal was to try to elevate this space to match the adjacent guest bath that we did last year, remember that space? While I know I haven't shared the full reveal of that space yet (coming soon - promise!) it's on the fancy-ish side and I wanted the room to have the same vibe. The game plan was to add trim to each wall. We tossed around adding a chair-rail and wainscoting but ultimately decided to do a fairly simple series of rectangles on each wall using a dainty trim piece.

Like all DIY projects these days it's a family affair, so Brent and Croix got to measuring :)

All of the trim cost a little over $100 and Brent got the pieces cut and installed in a matter of hours. 

We are painting the walls white - White Dove OC-17 (same color as most walls in our house) because A. it's a good color and B. I have a ton of the paint on hand so it just made sense. I got started on painting all of the trim on Sunday but Brent ran out of trim for the last little sliver of wall and of course every Home Depot in the area was out as well, so we are hoping to get our hands on another stick or two today and finish up the painting tonight, but look how pretty it's looking so far....

If you follow me on Instagram stay tuned this weekend because we ordered a bed and I found a light on FB Marketplace all ready to be installed as soon as we can finish up this paint + trim I will be taking you through the whole process on stories!

All photos are my own. 

Cabinetry & Trim - Croix's Bath Part 4

Well folks, we have a LOT of catching up to do.

Let's start with the fact that we have cabinetry, trim and a mirror! 

You know, like REAL LIFE WORKING BATHROOM Essentials! woo!!

Shortly after my last post, we got the vanity set and boy did that make such a difference! Our cabinetry is, of course, from Bell Cabinetry & Design (the company I work for) and was designed by me for our Luxury Living Show Bath last year. It's 61" long with the sink base centered and 3-drawer bank cabinets, left and right. 

Wellllll, I guess I should say what looks like a 3-drawer cabinet on the right side. It's actually a pullout with adjustable shelves, just tricked out to look like drawers. Lucky Croix, I wonder what kinds of treasures he will store in there. :)

The cabinet color is Bruton White, CW-710 by Benjamin Moore in a satin finish, the interiors are stained walnut and the hardware is polished nickel from Top Knobs. 

Next up, we got busy getting the mirror installed. When I had originally designed the bath display for this cabinetry to sit in (the one that sat at Phipps Plaza), I had also designed a walnut mirror frame in the same finish as the inside of the cabinetry. Somewhere along the way the mirror was lost, but I still wanted that look, so we decided to try our hand at making our own. We headed to Home Depot and picked up some pine, a wood that is much cheaper than walnut, but we knew could be stained to look very similar. We also bought a plate glass mirror (also from Home Depot) in the size we were looking for - 36" x 48". 

Once home, Brent attached the mirror to the wall. He used clips that came with the mirror + Liquid Nails. Next, he used his miter saw to cut the wood to create a mirror frame. He used wood glue to hold the pieces together. After the glue dried, I sanded the frame down and it was ready for staining.

I applied one coat of stain - Varathane's Dark Walnut, but some of the areas where the wood glue had been didn't take the stain very well, so we sanded those areas again, added a little more stain and the frame was good to go!

Brent removed the little clips that were stabilizing the mirror and then used his nail gun to attach the mirror frame round the mirror.

And BOOM.....INSTANT HAPPY!

Once the mirror was set, we were ready to focus on the trim. I knew early on I wanted the trim to be something unique and cool, but was unsure of the exact direction at first. As the bath began to take shape a concept occurred to me... WOODEN BALLS! To be honest, I've been mildly obsessed with them for about a year now and have incorporated them into several of my designs, but I'd never seen wooden balls used in a trim application, and I thought it could be a fun way to add some depth, texture and fun to the space. 

We started by picking up 2" wide strips from Home Depot and I ordered 1" half round balls from here. Next, Brent cut the wooden strips and I used Liquid Nails to glue the balls to the strip. We planned for a staggered look, so before gluing, we pre-marked the boards so we could easily get the balls securely in place. While we waited for the glue to dry we got the baseboards installed. We went with a 6" high square baseboard. We pre-measured/marked the walls so the 2" strips would be mounted 9" apart on center.

Once the glue was dry Brent used his nail gun and a level to get the strips up on the wall.

My excitement grew with each strip that was installed. I could tell almost instantly I was going to love the outcome. 

We got as many installed as we could, but because we didn't have countertops in we couldn't finish the section behind the vanity, so as you can see from the photo above I started painting because I just couldn't wait and OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!

What do you think?! Pretty happy, right?

Annnnnd, this is where I'm going to leave you hanging. Countertops came next and they deserve a post all their own. Until next time....

All photos are my own.