Our Guest Bedroom Makeover Reveal
A boring guest bedroom gets a luxe, vintage chic makeover using thrifty projects, budget finds, and simple decorating tricks to maximize style and space.
The idea for this guest bedroom makeover all started in February back when we had a big family reunion at our house and about 10 cousins ended up crashing on our living room floor as an impromptu slumber party.
Walking through our downstairs the next morning I thought to myself, “We desperately need a guest room.” 8 months later, we officially have one! Ha!
If you want to follow this makeover journey from the beginning, you can see it all here:
- 3 Furniture Layouts for a Small Bedroom
- Guest Bedroom Makeover Mood Board Plan
- The Best Paint Colors for Gray Trim
- Gray Trim Paint Update
- Vintage Writing Desk Makeover
- The Best Budget Luxury-Feel Mattress
- DIY Pressed Flower Art
- How to Restore Worn Cane Furniture
Originally, Robert had this spare bedroom set up as a makeshift home office, but considering he hardly ever used it, it made sense to make real use of this space.
Now it looks like this!!!
(Some affiliate links are provided in this post. Full disclosure here.)
Our first inclination was to haul a bed in here and call it done for now until we could rip up the old carpet to refinish the hardwood floors underneath like we did in the nursery.
(We’re holding off since that fumey/dusty project requires that we vacate the house for several days, plus that isn’t in the budget juuuust yet.)
Then, somehow that just-haul-a-bed-in-here plan turned into… well… an actual plan… like it always does. The usual domino effect of if-you-give-a-decorator-an-empty-room. 😉
I can’t get over how much bigger it looks and feels in here! Seriously, I never would have guessed a queen bed would actually fit in here, let alone that it would actually make the room feel larger. Win/win.
Once I saw this massive piece of art, I instantly knew I wanted this entire space to revolve around it.
And somehow the deep green tones in the art led me to these deep green velvet curtains.
It seems totally appropriate that the curtains remind me of Scarlett O’Hara (or Carol Burnette… whichever way you want to look at them).
Since my mother-in-law sometimes works from our house, we found this secondhand desk and $17 Goodwill chair to fix up in this corner.
And we got this area rug from Unique Loom to tie in the art and help cover up the old carpet.
We’re fans of fans in bedrooms, so it was important to us to incorporate the Hepburn fan from Hunter Fan Co so that our guests could have some climate control.
We researched lots and lots of mattresses to account for the comfort factor too and ended up with this super budget-friendly mattress as the winner. We slept on it overnight to make sure it would pass the test, and it is SO comfy that it rivals our high-end luxury one in our master bedroom.
We ended up moving this full-length mirror from our master bedroom into here as well to help bounce some light around in making the space feel even larger and have a convenient dressing spot for guests.
As some inexpensive art, I put a few leaves in these frames. Yay more green!
And I pulled in all of the bedding from good ol’ Walmart.
Honestly, I love this room more than our own master bedroom right now.
It’s making me eager to refresh the master next. Or maybe we’ll just sleep in here and make our guests sleep in our room because this one is way fancy.
If you want to know about any of the colors or sources we used, you can find them all here:
- Wall color: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee
- Trim color: Benjamin Moore Winter Gates
- Vintage Style Art
- Cane Bed (secondhand – this one is similar)
- Rug
- Ceiling Fan
- Secretary Desk (secondhand – this one is similar)
- Rattan Desk Chair (secondhand – this one is similar)
- Green Velvet Curtains
- White Bedside Tables
- Brass Lamps
- Full Length Mirror
- Square Black Matted Frames
- White Skirted Bedding Set
- White Knit Throw Pillows
- White Lumber Pillow
- Gray Throw Blanket
- Large Gray Vase (similar)
- Faux Flower Stems
- Brass Leaf Tray
Now that everything is set up, I plan to add in a few amenities to have ready for when guests drop in. Or ya know… 10 cousins. That’s usually how it goes at our house. 😉
If you want to save this post for later, you can pin it here:
Lauren, I just tho’t of something else. I really like the rug that you used over the carpet. I didn’t see a source for it in the list. Where did you find it?
Very beautiful, Lauren. I especially like the way you curtained the whole wall be behind the bed with those gorgeous green velvet drapes. Talk about cozy-making! The other remarkable thing that you did was use that huge piece of art and the very large mirror in that small room. And it works. I would never have thought to do that. Just goes to show that when you think big you get astounding results!
All in all, a great success!
Fabulous room, and I agree it looks larger than it did before. It’s amazing how sometimes using a few pieces of large scale furniture look better than trying to find little pieces to fit a smaller room.
I have one question – can the curtains be shut over the window in case the guests need to be able to darken the room? Maybe for privacy and keep out morning light?
Again, beautiful room!
Beautiful room! As always, a great job!
Your guest room is a model of beauty and comfort! Probably sounds odd but I was reminded of a tour I took of Malabar Farm. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married in this home. I can picture it in it’s day as being as gorgeous as yours.
I love this one. Your style is fabulous! Thank you for sharing.
I’ve been thinking of getting a large rug to cover some ugly carpet in our playroom. I haven’t because they can move. So you have any suggestions to keep it in place?