Blue Cottage Style Guest Bedroom Makeover Reveal
A dark and dated guest bedroom gets a cottage style makeover with serene shades of blue using Craigslist furniture and budget-friendly finds.
What’s black and white and red all over? This guest bedroom three months ago. (See what I did there? Har har.)
Okay okay, will the reveal of this room make up for that worst-opening-of-a-post-in-the-history-of-ever? (I’m sorry. I had to.) Can we still be friends?
Thankfully, it’s not red all over anymore…
The past couple of months while Robert and I have been house listing and garage sale hosting and real estate shopping and Lowe’s makeovering, there’s been a lot of more-than-usual stress on our plate, so getting creative in this guest bedroom at my parents’ house has been the absolute best therapy for me.
When I get overwhelmed, I have to create. I have to paint a piece of furniture or style a room or plan a design or rearrange furniture. So this space in our current home-away-from home has been a peaceful retreat.
In the beginning, this was generally what I envisioned for in here:
Wanna dive into a few more before and afters? (Sorry for the icky cell phone shots before. The photography makes those afters really unfair.)
When we’re not crashing at my parents’ house mid-move, this room is used for guests fairly regularly for family who visit from out of town or friends passing through. But it’s also where Olivia spends the night when the grandparents are babysitting, so it needed some storage for her toys too.
The only problem was the space really needed all new furniture. We lucked out and were able to find almost everything on Craigslist for crazy cheap to give facelifts, and we managed to furnish the entire room for less than $600. (By the way, here are my tips for how to score great furniture deals on Craigslist.)
We picked up this little armoire on Craigslist for $40 and gave it a quick paint job that turned out perfectly for storing all of Olivia’s books and toys.
I’d found these old hats tucked in a closet that I just hung up with some Command hooks. One of them belonged to my grandfather and another one I’d bought on my and Robert’s honeymoon years ago.
We replaced the ceiling fan with a more modern one, Ocala by Hunter Fan. (Since it gets crazy hot in the summertime around here.)
And I picked up this sweet sign from Salted Words that seemed made for a guest bedroom.
The bed was a Craigslist find too that my parents scored for $110 and I gave a weathered wood finish with paint and wax.
And I bought the nightstands on a major clearance for $100 that I gave a two-toned look with more paint.
My dad found this bench in HomeGoods as a spot where guests can stash their suitcases during visits. And I commissioned an artist to paint a watercolor portrait of their house as a gift for everything they’ve done for Robert and me during our move.
I used this window seat/box all the time as a kid to store my humongous collection of Barbies, and my Barbies are still in there for Olivia to play with when she visits. (Barbie 4 eva, y’all!)
My mom made a cushion using some ticking stripe fabric, and I picked up these pillows at H&M and TJMaxx. We decided to keep the windows simple in this room and didn’t add any curtains around the existing plantation shutters.
And to replace the old too-small dresser in here, I found this one for $20 on my local Facebook buy/sell/trade group that I painted, waxed, and restained to be a French blue. It’s definitely one of my favorite furniture flips ever!
The rest of the decor in here is mainly from thrift stores and clearance aisles.
Should we have a drumroll for the budget breakdown?
Sources:
- Wall color- Behr Seagull Gray (We used some we had leftover in a can we used in the playroom.)
- Blue dresser– $44 (Facebook marketplace price + paint cost | Tutorial and makeover details here)
- Cream cabinet– $64 (Craigslist price + paint cost | Tutorial and makeover details here)
- Weathered “wood” bed– $140 (Craigslist price + paint cost | Tutorial here)
- Nightstands- $148 (Clearance price + paint cost | Tutorial here)
- Bench- $179 (HomeGoods)
- Blue print rug– $206.97 (Overstock on sale)
- Blue Euro pillows– $47.98 (Target on sale)
- Blue stripe pillow– $15.99 (Target on sale)
- Linen pillow covers– $25.98 (H&M)
- White comforter- $47.20 (Belk)
- Light blue pillow- $12.99 (TJMaxx)
- Cream macrame pillow– $19.99 (TJMaxx – similar linked)
- Ceiling fan– $199 (Hunter Fan)
- “Hospitality” sign– $165 (Salted Words on Etsy)
- Gray throw blanket- $5 (IKEA As-is section)
- Blue throw blanket– $33.95 (Pier 1 on sale)
- Window seat cushion- $17.96 (DIY)
- Custom home portrait art- $450 (Minted)
- Weathered gray picture frame– $16.14 (Target)
- Chippy white picture frame– $7.99 (HomeGoods – similar linked)
- Faux flowers- $26 (Michael’s)
- Peony vase- $25 (HomeGoods)
- Sage plant- $12 (TJ Maxx)
- Bedside lamps- $43.18 (Kirkland’s with coupon)
- Scroll lamp- $9 (thrift store)
- Hats- $0 (already owned)
- Mirror- $0 (already owned)
- White corbels- $4 (thrift store)
- Tall chicken wire bottle- $11 (Hobby Lobby on sale)
- Silver tray- $0 (already owned)
- Silver alarm clock– $7.88 (Walmart)
- Picnic basket- $6 (thrift store)
TOTAL: $1991.20
Considering we had to start 100% from scratch with new furniture, lighting, and everything, that’s not too shabby. I could have saved more by waiting for more sales and finagling the coupons, but with everything else we’ve had going on lately, I can’t beat myself up too much.
You can see all of the progress of this space from the very beginning by clicking here, here, here, here, and here with lots more sources about furniture paint colors and antiquing techniques.
I have to give mad props to my parents since they were the ones to do a lot of the dirty work like paint the walls, switch out doorknobs, install the ceiling fan, and haul furniture upstairs.
Who else is glad they don’t have to hear the words “guest bedroom makeover” for a while? Are any of y’all starting a bedroom makeover soon? Have you filled a room with nothing but thrifted furniture and it turned out even better than if you’d bought it all new from the store? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments!
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Lauren,, would it be possible to adopt you? Your parents have a beautiful guest room thanks to their wonderful daughter. I’m getting antsy waiting to see what you do with your new house.
Haha! You’re too sweet, Sue. Thank you. I’ll be sharing more about the new house in 1 more week. I’m getting antsy too!!!
Hi Sue, This is Lauren’s mom. I just wanted to point out that she’s the one who painted that wall red to begin with. Haha! She was spreading her decorating wings and finding her style. The journey with her has bee an absolute joy! So glad you appreciate her blog and yes, we are thrilled with the makeover. Now I just have to do the other one before some of our relatives who visit feel slighted by having to stay in the “ugly” room. I have to hurry because we are hosting a family reunion in July!
This is absolutely beautiful. You have so much talent. Thank you for sharing this inspiring room and all your tips and tricks.
Thanks so much, Loretta!
That watercolor of your parents’ house is too precious to be stored away in a guest bedroom! Bring it out where everyone can see it. Everything looks amazing! Your Craigslist has way better stuff than ours in Milwaukee ever does! Great job.
Maybe it’ll end up somewhere else eventually. 🙂 I agree. I want to look at it all the time. I know what you mean about Craigslist. We live in a city that’s very mobile, people are constantly moving in and out. It can be hit or miss from city to city, it seems.
It is such a beautiful room that guests may come and not want to leave!!
Maybe I just created a problem for my parents. 😉 Haha!
Not that I want you to be stressed at all, but next time you are would you please come makeover my home? LOL I have many rooms I’m trying to decorate and makeover. However, it has been a real challenge figuring out how to do so. I’d love to hear how you plan for a room makeover, and the process from start to finish! I love how you decorated the room! And the idea of the watercolor picture of their home is such a sweet gesture. How did your parents like the makeover?
Haha! Thank you, Melissa. You’re too kind. You must be reading my mind because I JUST wrote that exact post for next week about how I plan for a room makeover. Hoping it helps! Oh, and my parents loved the room. Yay!
I will keep an eye out for it! Can’t wait to read it. I am trying to work on creating an office in one room. I’ve already painted it, and added in a light fixture. But I can’t seem to figure out room layout, or much of anything else! So I can’t wait to read your post about how you do plan for a room makeover! Thank you!