Lisa’s Guest-Room Makeover: Day One

Meet Lisa.

Ain’t she pretty? She’s been one of my best friends for many years. We worked together at my first job and have stayed good friends since then. She was matron of honor in our wedding and everything. And I really like having her for a friend. Mostly because she’s awesome, but partly because she allows me to wreak havoc on her house upon occasion. FOR FUN. So, when we chatted on the phone a few weeks ago and she asked if I wanted to come over and play around with her spare room, I responded with an excited “uh, yeeeeeaaahhhh.”. I mean, obviously. As a primo DIY dork, that’s totally my idea of a good time.

So, a few weeks ago I met Lisa and her equally awesome mom, Nancy, at Lisa’s place.

We assessed the space….

She wanted the room to serve the dual purpose of guest room and music room. After discussing it, we decided to go a little backwards by working out a good layout, buying some bedding and getting the room set up first, than painting the walls another weekend. This way, the room would be immediately useable to sleep guests (as opposed to painting and having nothing for guests to use on the bed along with an inconvenient layout). We plan to go back and paint the walls a deep grey as well as finish some other remaining projects, so consider this post to be the first in a series as we get ‘er done.

Lisa wanted many of the furniture pieces in the spare room to be used in other rooms, so we got to it. We moved the large hutch to the dining area and the desk along with shelving units and a bunch of other stuff upstairs…

That’s right. We rocked the socks off that furniture-moving business.

Then, we cleaned some, which lead to this attractive shot…

…which lead to my Family Guy impression: “I need more lemon Pledge“.

Once we were through, we relocated the bed beneath the larger window and the beast of a piano to the same wall (which weighed a TON, FYI)… Lisa did most of it. Respect. Nancy did a good amount as well. And, I mean, I tried to push it, but it felt like I was just pretending because nothing happened each time I heaved (Let it be known, I was not pretending. Swear.).

Then, we broke for lunch. Which was delicious. And shopping (Equally delicious).

We hit up Ross, Marshalls and Target and snagged some pretty sweet deals along with a bunch of stuff. Bedding, pillows, blankets, curtains, curtain rods, rug. Oh yes, it was a successful day for sure. Then, we headed back to Lisa’s to try it all on for size.

The bedding….

Which we love! We were originally looking for a simple white comforter on which to add colorful pillows, but when we came up empty-handed with the size we needed, Lisa spotted this beaut. The black and white damask print was perfect. Graphic, yet neutral at the same time. And for $39.99 at Ross, it was a steal. Lisa opted for turquoise accents to go with it, so we found the textured pillow at Target and the throw blanket at Marshalls.

I hung the curtains wider than the window and high enough so they just grazed the floor to allow in as much natural light as possible and give the windows more presence.

I removed the finials from the curtain rods in the corner to allow the rods to extend all the way over. This way, the curtains would appear connected. (And a special shout out goes to Lisa’s dad for driving over with a power drill for those more stubborn screws. You’re a trooper, Dean!)

So, here’s where we left off on the bedroom side after Day One….

Oh, yes. Here’s the before again so you don’t have to scroll up…

And across from the bed is a dresser that was moved from Lisa’s room…

And the before…

And here’s the music side of the room….

And the before…

Our original plan was to hang the instruments on the wall above the piano, but since we didn’t have the goods to accomplish that task this visit, Nancy suggested just setting them up there. And we did. And we really liked it. The artwork on top of the piano was previously stored in the room, and we stuck it up there pre-shopping, before we knew what bedding we’d find. We left it because it looks cool with the instruments, but obviously, its not in tune (har har!) with the more romantic, textural vibe of the bedroom side. As Lisa said, it seems like two different rooms. The painting may or may not stay depending on how the rest of the process goes. Once we paint the walls and finish accessorizing, we’ll decide if we can marry the painting with the remainder of the room. If not, Lisa said she’s perfectly fine with moving it out.

Our “to do” list…

1. Paint the walls a deep grey
2. Iron the curtains and certain bedding pieces (we figured it’d all get displaced whenever we paint anyways, so we’ll get our iron on then)
3. Revamp this piano bench…

4. Makeover this ceiling fan…