room makeover

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.

I’m hoping for a chance to dance in the rain this winter

I’m ready. I’m ready to dance in the rain. Truly.

Room with a view: succulents line the fence

Boomdee arrives midday tomorrow. Her room is ready. Crazy fun times lie ahead.

I’m a fool for home redecorating and makeovers. For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed the “before and after” transformations offered up in magazines, home design shows and even in my neighborhood. Then I joined the blogging world and found an even bigger neighborhood. Oh my goodness. I’m having so much fun.

What’s even more inspiring is seeing transformations unfold from do-it-yourself bloggers. In most cases they have a small budget, big ideas and a can-do attitude.

I discovered Serena’s blog through Leilani’s blog via Boomdee’s blog and so it goes around here. It’s like a never-ending game of telephone where someone whispers in your ear, then you turn and whisper in someone else’s ear, and before you know it you’re trying to keep up with dozens of amazing bloggers.

Serena and Leilani inspired me to dip my toe into a ten-day room challenge of my own.

The goal: Turn my son’s teen room into a guest room by the end of September.

The motivation: Boomdee’s coming to town.

The challenge: One cranky left foot (you can read about that here) and my busy life.

The catch: Since my son’s move to the dorms is seasonal, I assured him that any changes would be temporary.

With that in mind, I’ve left the three main pieces of furniture in place. I can easily remove the decorative items and bring the room back to neutral.

I’ve been teary off and on since my son moved out. Spending time in his room is helping me connect to his youth, honoring it and letting go. I discovered forgotten treasures including photos, snippets of writing and a box of smashed pennies from family vacations. Lindy’s been keeping me company. I’m sure she’s wondering where he went.

First up, the big clean. Moving out is messy business. New items arrived for weeks, destined for the dorms: by mail a heavy box of textbooks and an extra-long mattress pad specific to dormitory beds. We picked up a desk lamp, laundry supplies, school supplies and extra socks for those busy weeks when he can’t do laundry. Here it is, piled up on moving day. It looks like cleaning my kitchen counter was a low priority that day.

My college-bound son left a pile of things he no longer wants, so I’ve been having fun passing them on through my Buy Nothing Cambrian group. One happy six-year-old is now the proud owner of a Star Wars wallet. I love that.

I sorted, cleaned and recycled my way through the room.

Mike flipped the mattress so I could vacuum the bed frame which also needed a quick repair. Once it was all back together, I added a mattress topper and covered the bed with our king-sized duvet cover.

Bed frame cleaned and repaired

The duvet cover has all the colors I wanted to feature in the room, and it’s large enough to act as a bed spread for the queen-sized bed. I found a turquoise pillow at an import shop on end-of-summer clearance. It’s the perfect color to pull together the blanket and spread.

Duvet cover and velveteen pillow

My son is a minimalist, so his walls were spare; he had a piece of artwork from middle school and a poster passed on from a friend. I rolled them up, put them in the closet and pondered ideas for quick and affordable decor. Somehow it all fell in place. Serendipity!

I decorated all three walls for about forty dollars. The packet of decals came from our local Target. They were originally destined for the long wall next to the bed, but it wasn’t large enough to fill the space. Instead Mike carefully laid it out on the wall above the desk. This is wear the bum foot became a drag. I really wanted to put up that decal, but instead sat back and [impatiently] watched while he expertly put it on the wall. It looks shiny in the photo, but in person it looks great.

Wall decal from Target

The bird print above the bed and to the right of the lamp was a happy find. While waiting out my phone repair appointment, I wandered into a little shop called Azuca. There it was: a lightweight, wood panel with this charming print and the quote We are birds of a feather.

Washi tape, wall calendar page and wooden art

Before I fully realized it, the room was taking shape. It has a sense of travel and flight, with birds figuring prominently. The colors complement my premier guest, the delightful and sophisticated Edmonton blogger nicknamed Boomdee. Little did she know that so many of her gifts would later help decorate a future guest room. Wait till you see all the treasures!

Which brings me to the third wall. I’ve been saving my gorgeous 2014 wall calendar, featuring the artwork of Katie Daisy. I love turning calendars into new treasures. After removing the coils with a pair of tin snips, I punched holes in the top of the pages and threaded them with vintage seam binding. The colors work beautifully in the room and each saying warms and uplifts. I used one of the pages as a compliment to the bird panel.