The Guest Room
Hello, welcome! I am so happy you are here today. We are moving to the decorating phase of the upstairs this week. Last week I showed the entire first floor color, fabric and furniture placement "at a glance" and in the most recent post I took a look at the decor plan for all of the spaces in the basement.
Today we are going to start with what was labeled "Bedroom Two" in both the tour of the house and the upstairs renovation post. This bedroom is empty most of the time because it is (was?) our older daughter's bedroom and she no longer lives at home. I was visiting her this past weekend and she asked me what I was planning to change in her room after the renovation and I said "it's going to become the guest room." I do not think she particularly liked that answer! The bedroom's primary function will always be her room, it will just have a joint purpose now and will be decorated as such.
A few overall comments on the upstairs before I get into the specifics of this bedroom. Our bedrooms are sad right now. We all need new mattresses and new linens (except for my younger daughter, her linens were purchased for the Holland house). Last night when my son was going to bed he said "hey Mom, there is a huge hole in my bottom sheet". I already knew this because I saw it when I last washed those sheets, I still used it though. Sad. The good thing about this is that we can start with more of a blank slate in the decorating of three of the four bedrooms. Not sad. I also plan to have wood floors in all of the bedrooms in this house and in our last house we had wall to wall carpeting in all of the bedrooms so new area rugs are part of the new decorating scheme as well.
Last general note, I love a well made bed. Hospital corners. Sheets and blankets without wrinkles. A lot of pillows. My formula is a matching fitted sheet and top sheet. The top sheet folded over the blanket and all tucked in. A down comforter or some type of coverlet folded at the end of the bed, potentially with a throw blanket on top. I like European pillows to line the back of the bed and two sleeping pillows for each space in the bed, one slightly firm, one (sink your head into) down and at least one decorative pillow. The folded top sheet above the blanket should be visible at the edge of the end of the pillow line.
Too much? It is for my fellow bed makers in this house! On to the guest bedroom. The starting off point for this room is a mirror frame. After my brothers and I had all graduated college our father was relocated to Hartford, Connecticut for work. My parents purchased a large brick Georgian home. It was larger than they wanted/needed, it was the only house on the market that they really liked though and the price was right. The house was gorgeous. It had three full stories and my mom got to decorating every one of them as a project right after they moved in. As part of that effort, she purchased my guest room inspiration mirror and could never find a place for it. She gave me the mirror after trying it all over the house because she could no longer return it to the store where she bought it. I have used the mirror in the powder room of almost every house I have ever lived in and have never loved the way it looks in my houses either. I have always wanted to use the mirror for sentimental reasons. Like my mom before me I have yet to find the perfect spot for it though. That is about to change! Below is a close up of the mirror frame. It is gold-er, maroon-er, and pinker than the colors that I tend to use decorating my house.
Here is the existing furniture I have to work with:
The twin beds were in my bedroom growing up. They are old. They came with the Little House at The Farm when my parents bought it and were moved to our house in Maryland as my beds when my younger brother out grew his crib and took my bed. The beds have a distinctive creak that instantly brings me back to my childhood and I have always wanted to use them in my own house. Currently only one of these beds is in use. My son has used it as his bed ever since he outgrew his crib.
The wicker table was purchased when we lived in Baltimore and for most of its life with us was the bedside table between a different set of twin beds (white iron) that were first in my older daughter's bedroom and then in my younger daughter's room.
The mirror is "The Mirror".
The chair, which rocks, was purchased from Crate and Barrel for the living room in our Chevy Chase house. I saw that same chair in a house magazine soon after we bought it and the magazine/home owner labeled it as a vintage chair. I wrote to the magazine and said I have the same chair and that I just bought it at Crate and Barrel. They never wrote me back. To this day, I still do not know why I did that. It does make me sometimes question sources though.
The mahogany chest has been in my son's room ever since he was an infant. I believe I have told the story before that we purchased it from the attic of a home that was for sale that we were looking at to buy in Grosse Pointe and left only with the chest.
Now, the inspiration board for the room based on the colors of "The Mirror":
In our Grosse Pointe house, my younger daughter wanted her room to be redone to change it from what it was like when it was her older sister's room and she wanted it painted pink. Pink is not normally a color I would consider for walls. She wanted a bubble gum pink which was a hard no. I was able to compromise with her though and we settled on the the Farrow & Ball color Pink Ground. Much to my surprise I ended up loving it! After I saw it on the walls I wanted to paint our whole house the same color. My dad came to visit soon after the room was painted and I asked him, "Dad, don't you love it?!". His answer was "no". Gotta love honesty.
Here is that room from our Grosse Pointe House:
The pale pink color will provide the perfect back drop for the mirror. The chair is already "scheduled" to be reupholstered with the Schumacher fabric in the mood board. Originally the intent was to put the chair in the master bedroom, although with John's office in there, there is not as much room in the sitting area as expected. That means I will need to bring blue and white into the guest room which is not a problem for me!
My plan is:
Sisal rug as the main area rug for the room
Smaller vintage rug layered on top of sisal with blue and pink tones to tie the room together
White sheets, blankets and sleeping pillowcases
Muted pinks, reds and blues for the duvet cover or coverlet and decorative pillows
Fabric drapes in similar muted tones with roll up rattan blinds beneath them
The mahogany chest with "The Mirror" above it
The rocking chair in the corner for a comfy spot to sit
As I have always gravitated toward bedrooms with twin beds, I wanted to share with you some of the images from my inspiration binder and one from my Instagram feed. We will start with one of my all time favorite bedrooms, I wish I had these twins beds! The duvet covers, decorative pillows and rugs have the vibe I want in my older daughter's/guest bedroom.
Some more....
Lastly, here is a picture of a bedroom I cut out of a magazine because of the similarity to my beds:
Now, time for the finishing touch, the floor plan with furniture placement!
That is one bedroom down! In the next post I will walk you through what I am planning for my son's room - you already know one thing - he will not have the same bed he uses now! Thank you for visiting today.
See you next time,
Kerry
