With the new office usable, we can now shift our attention to the back bedroom, formerly known as the 4th bedroom/home office. We’re using this space to create a guest room that will also serve as a work from home space and a crafting space.
If you’re new to my page, let me catch you up to speed. Earlier this year, we decided to convert our formal living room space into a dedicated home office for my husband. Previously, he was working from home in our 4th bedroom. Now that he’s moved into his home office, we can make this guest room work for our family.
UPDATE: This room was completed in 2016! Read through to the bottom of the post for links to the update posts!
Guest Room Before Photos
Let’s take a look at the guest room space as we currently use it.
Well that is embarrassing. Wow is that room ugly. Yikes. And that closet? It makes me twitch.
This room is where Doug works and the kids watch TV downstairs. When we moved in, the space was used as a place to put all of the things we didn’t know where to put.
Not anymore!
The Inspiration for the Guest Room
My vision for this guest room is to make it a space for me. I want an inspiring, feminine, and modern space where I can blog, sew, pay bills, budget, scrapbook and more. With the baby coming, we also need it to be a place where Doug can sleep for a few months while the baby gets into a sleeping-through-the-night routine. He does have to work, after all, even if it is from the house. Maybe, it will be a space for me to sleep in the weeks before the baby comes! A whole bed to myself! What a treat!
Here are some images I’ve pinned to get started on the guest room design:
Source: View Along The Way
Image Source: Style Your Senses
Source: Decor Pad
And here is my mood board for the space including some items that I already own (except the headboard, I don’t have that).
The Plan for the Guest Room
The plan for the guest room right now is to remove all of the built ins that are currently in the room, repair the walls, texture, and paint with Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy. We also will be priming & painting all of the trim in the room Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White. Then, Doug is going to give the ceiling a fresh coat of bright white paint, then install 4 LED recessed can lights & a new crisp white ceiling fan.
I know removing custom built ins is controversial, but let me make my case. The built ins have long been an eyesore for me. First, they are the honey-oak that I loathe and detest (so is all of the trim in this room). Second, they are small. The shelves are only 11″ deep, so my 12×12 scrapbooks hang off the edge. Third, the desk is super small. It’s just not a great use of space. Plus, I think they are on the wrong wall. When you walk in this room, your eye is drawn to the window with the creek view. In my opinion, you should play that up, not compete against it, and the built ins make the window appear small. So the built ins are going. Adios!
The Guest Room – New Built Ins
I bought 2 30″ IKEA cabinets when we bought the office cabinets a few weeks ago, and one will be going on each side of the guest room window. The plan for now is to just get those installed & build/stain 2×10 countertops, similar to what we’re doing in the office.
Then, later this summer, I’m going to build some custom white shelving that goes all the way up and over the window, and connects with the cabinet on the other side. I want the shelves to go all the way to the ceiling and be capped off with crown molding that we’ll add to the rest of the room. This will be where I keep all of my crafting supplies, scrapbooks, and more. It will be a ton of storage.
My parents are giving us their Full Sized Tempurpedic guest bed, but we’ll have to find a base for it. I’ve been scouring Craigslist for one at a reasonable price, but we can always just pick up a memory foam mattress base at IKEA if we have to. I want to do a white upholstered headboard, and I may try to DIY an upholstered headboard this summer. Or I may just suck it up and buy one. We’ll have to see how I feel when the baby comes. I hate spending a ton of money on something I could do myself for $100 or less.
The Guest Room Decor
Meanwhile, I haven’t been able to resist checking out HomeGoods every chance I get for fun decor items for this guest room makeover. I found all of this cute storage stuff on Saturday’s trip, and it was less than $100! I’ve already put some of it in the closet to organize gift wrapping & shipping supplies. The rest will go in the cabinets to store crafting supplies.
I cannot wait to get organized. This room has been the bane of my existence for a while now. It was jam-packed full of stuff that was hard to get to. Hopefully now it will be a space where I want to come instead of one that I actively avoid.
The plan is to get this room done fairly quickly, or at least done for now fairly quickly. I’m sure once its done for now, I’m going to want to get started on those shelves, but I’m really going to try to force myself to wait on those. It all depends on how much I can get done with 3 kids and how much extra cash we have in the House Projects Fund. I’m really feeling the need to put some colorful Sharpies, Scissors, and Washi Tape in Matching Jars…
Guest Room Update
We completed this Guest Room/Craft Room Remodel in 2017. Make sure you check out all of the posts so you don’t miss a detail!
- Guest Room Demo, Repair & Paint
- DIY an upholstered headboard
- Window Casing, Window Treatments & Guest Room Progress
- Guest Room DIY Built In Plans
- DIY Built In Construction
- Guest Room DIY Built In Wall Complete
Do you have a multi-purpose room that you have redone to fit your family’s needs? What was it? What did you do? How did you fit all of the various activities needed into one room? Tell us about it in the comments!
Check out all of the Stacy’s Savings Total Home Makeover posts here!
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