Home Tour: B&A Guest Bedroom and Library!
3 Materials
$40
4 Days
Medium
My new guest bedroom and library! A lot has been going on around here at Grandma’s house. Lots of changes. With the divorce final and so many hard days behind me, my cousin said, “I know you’ll be fine because you’re Stubborn and Busy.” We’ve decided that that’s going to be on my tombstone, “Here lies Tarah who was stubborn and busy.” And we have all agreed that my two grandmas would be very proud as they too, were VERY stubborn and busy women. So, on to the first of the big changes that I’ve been working on: here is my BRAND NEW guest bedroom and library!
(Here is the before the renovation photo of the screened-in porch that this room used to be!)
My initial plan was to create a rental suite in the basement so that’s what I’m working on it becoming. Of course, first thing’s first, it can no longer be my wood workshop! SO all of my tools and wood (and the universe knows what else) had to come out of there and find a new home somewhere else. I have two extra bedrooms on the main floor of my house, one of them I was using as My Office, the other was a guest bedroom so, one of the very first things I did was move my desk and computer into my entry so, that meant, I now have two unused rooms in my house! I just knew my old guest bedroom would make a great workshop for me because it had a HUGE closet and then I figured: why can’t my old office become a guest bedroom and library? I got to work!
I gave all of my old guest bedroom furniture a makeover because I just HATED the green and black on the end table, the bed and the desk. It was time to reclaim not only my spaces but my furniture too. With some light gray paint, and some decals I purchased really inexpensively on Amazon, they all transformed into country girl style.
Meanwhile, with the furniture all made over I tackled moving a few things around in my old office, leaving the shelves and all of my books. With the end table and bed in the room I still had a place for my grandma’s old rocking chair that I refinished years ago. And the desk fit just fine at the end of the bed along with a little stool I built earlier this year.
This room is an absolute stunner, the old house siding I painted white, the vaulted ceiling, the ancient painted wood floor that I painted over (the color is called Sooty Lashes by Valspar) and, of course, the real statement piece: that glorious stained glass window. The only problem was that it is, in fact, a window that looks right on in to my living room. So, I needed to come up with something to give my guests some kind of privacy so I made some really easy curtains by folding some sheers I had in half and clipping them up.
And I gave that old bed a ruffle with a no-sew bed skirt made out of drop cloths. I found that home pillow and the practically matching lamp shade at Walmart and I gave that old lamp I bought a makeover too. The last project you guys saw to FINALLY complete this room, was a gorgeous 100 year old door that I refinished because, ya know, its kinda important for a guest bedroom to have a door lol
Of all the rooms in this house I do believe that both my mom and aunt speak of this one with more fondness then any other place here of their childhoods. You see this used to be a screened in porch before I enclosed it and when they were girls they got to spend their summers sleeping out here! I can only imagine the sound of rain, summer breezes, crickets and the incredible smell of dew in the mornings. Interestingly enough, this bed is almost in the exact place their old bed sat. So, I gave them an open invitation to, of course, come and stay any time! And, when its SO hot in the summers upstairs in my master bedroom, I might just sleep down here too!
Though I did not intend to make a teenage girls room it does feel that way a bit to me lol but it certainly shouldn’t be surprising. Right down to the curtains that came from my childhood bedroom that I hung up over the closet, all the books from my childhood, all the prints on the walls and every little important thing I have ever held on to, its all in this room. There is little here that doesn’t really mean something to me. Even the license plates I used on the lamp were my first license plates off my first car! This is truly my keepsake room. (I even have a stash of model horses in the closet lol)
With the divorce final I have been doing a lot of things to reclaim my home but I was worried about this one… I thought I might really grieve the loss of my office but every time I come in here now my heart is glad. This feels like it is finally how it was meant to be. Why did I create this space? Why did I feel the need to get this done as quick as I could? Why on earth was I painting this bed not three days after my divorce? I think I needed to make a space that was just mine, a place that held no memory of one very trying relationship that lasted far too long, a sweet little corner made of PEACE.
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Did you divide the porch when making it into a bedroom? The space looks smaller than the picture of the room when it was the porch.