redecorating

Though I continue to fuss with the yellow room, the final pieces are in place. When my older son moved out, I redecorated, with the goal of creating an eclectic and relaxing guest room. You can read more about that in my post Decorating the Yellow Room.

The small desk I ordered for the room fits in style and size beautifully. I store gift bags and ribbons in this room, so the desk is a handy place to stage gifts.

If you’re a regular reader, you may remember that the lovely Ficus met its fate, a short-lived and expensive mistake. I moved it to a brighter location to no avail. It’s now part of the composting pile.

In its place, I moved the postage stamp table I created with my Dad’s collection and bought an affordable plant that gets by with low light to sit on top.

Peace Lilies prefer moderate to low light, and who doesn’t like a plant with the word “peace” in its name? The plant can have “mild toxicity” to cats if ingested which I read today, but neither of our kitties show any interest in our houseplants, preferring instead to roll in or imbibe the plentiful garden nepeta known as catnip.

Two more small additions include a pair of green shams for the bed and the embroidery hoop art I made for the garden bench. A couple of readers shared concerns about the longevity of the pieces if I hung them outdoors, so they now reside above the bed.

This project has been a lot of fun. Now I’m a woman in search of another empty room. Any takers?

What projects are you up to?

In case you missed yesterday’s post, you can catch up here.

I’ve been turning my teenage son’s bedroom into a guest room over the past ten days. He’s away at college and Boomdee is coming to town.

Boomdee’s needs are simple: coffee, toast, and a sea of aqua. I’m pretty sure she’ll love this room since she unwittingly helped decorate it. If you’re a regular around here, you’ll recognize several small touches as well. It’s a bit of a bloggers hall of fame.

Without further ado, here’s the reveal.

Completed Guest Room

Guest Room Alternate View

Touches of green, blue and pink worked well with the existing yellow walls. It’s a cheerful room. William Morris says “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” I share this advice with my clients and try to live it day-to-day. As I pulled items from different rooms it all came together seamlessly.

The benefit of an adjustable closet system is that it’s easily reconfigured when needs change. Growing up, the boys needed shelves to store games, books and toys. To covert the closet for guests, I simply removed the shelves and reinstalled a hanging bar. The back of the closet needs a bit of TLC but I didn’t have time to paint. Instead I papered the damaged wall with a roll of gift wrap.

Closet: Shelves removed exposing damaged wall

Transformed closet

This simple solution, though cheap, proved to be more challenging. The narrow opening of the closet and the cramped quarters inside made it a challenge. I used 3M spray adhesive and regret it. It’s too sticky to use on thin paper and made re-positioning nearly impossible. We used one roll for the top 80%, and an entire second roll just trying to align the pattern for the bottom 20%. Lessons learned. That said, I like the way it turned out. I just don’t think I’ll do it again.

Blogger Hall of Fame

The spirit of blogging touches almost every room in our home. It was fun bringing all my treasures together in one room. Here’s the line up:

A: Photo album of our blogging trip to DC (Life on the Bike)
B: Dear Opl by Shelley Sackier
C: Play In the Garden by Sarah O’Neil and The Good Life, also by Sarah O’Neil (Sarah the Gardener)
D: Vintage mannequin a gift from Marlene at In Search of It All
E: Craft it Forward heart pin from Diane at Garden Sunshine
F: Boomdee, Boomdee, Boomdee
G: Postcards of Pauline King’s original art (The Contented Crafter)
H: Postcard from Julia at Defeat Despair
I: Crafting goodness from Petals at Boomdeeadda
J: Creatively clever doodle art calendar by Robin Gott of The Forsyth Sagas

Before and After view from the window

gurest room facing door view before and after

Before and after view from the closet

Guest room closet details

A bit of vintage

One of the many things we have in common is our love of vintage. I picked up a handful of vintage air mail envelopes from my friend Donna’s Greenhouse Supply booth at Antique Row. I wonder if Boomdee will write a letter and send it back in time?

Shopping bag decor: whimsical decorating for a song

I picked up a couple of aqua gift bags, then added photos and ephemera. The postcard is a gift from Julia at Defeat Despair. It’s a collage of photos from our blogging get-together earlier this year in DC.

How could I resist? An aqua trash can in the shape of a petal.

An aqua-colored, petal shaped trash can. Be still my heart. The chess board does a great job hiding old phone lines that one day must go.

Customized train case, a birthday gift from Boomdee.

The little bird is actually a pen, nesting in a small ceramic bowl a classroom art project from my youngest son.

Ikea bench covered with a charming tea towel, also a gift from Boomdee.

Another Boomdee Treasure: I covered this worn IKEA bench with a bird motif tea towel, then tacked the corners to keep it in place.

I trimmed these IKEA lamp shades with postage stamp Washi tape from my stash. The stamps work well with the travel motif.

Foot warmer

Never mind that the heat wave continues. The mornings are cool so a gal needs a place to warm her toes as she slips out of the bed to rustle up some coffee and toast.

I added Washi tape to the top and bottom of the lamp shade. The bird quote is a page from the same calendar used for the bunting/banner

You guessed it: another gift from Boomdee.

The perfect nightstand.

I found this table at an import store for under $90. It’s lightweight, easily movable and slides over the top of the bed, the perfect table for this cramped space.