Guest Bedroom Concept

We always offer people to stay the night or for family to come visit for the weekend, but I never really paid attention to what I was offering them... a bed in a room.

I'm embarrassed to even show you what we were offering our guests that stayed overnight.  It was literally a bed in a room.  No extra furniture, no window treatments, no TV...absolutely nothing.

I've always wanted to make the guest room a retreat and relaxing place to stay or even nice, quiet room for Greg or I to read in.  In school in my design classes we were told to have concepts behind all our designs, so I first reviewed a couple rooms that I really liked on the internet to decide what direction that I wanted to go.  I have pictures of those rooms below that I found on HGTV's website under their designer portfolio page for contemporary bedrooms.

I love this headboard, but I think I may steal it for my room one day.  I also like the pop of color with the pillows and accessories against the neutral background.

A few weeks ago, this bedroom was the winner with the bright green walls.  I think I thought about my guests a little more and thought that they may not have the same taste as me, so I should stick to a color for the walls that doesn't have so much energy if I want it to be relaxing.  What I also took away from this room was the black and white pictures against the wall that I always think looks very nice and neat.

This headboard shape is in a lot of rooms and adds a lot with the nail studded border on it, which is a must-have in my next room.

I love the color of this accent wall, and I like the idea of having an accent wall.

 I like the wall color again, the lamp shades, and neutral furniture pieces.

Two nightstands are a must, because I wish our bedroom had two.  I also like the look of lamps on both nightstands.

So, what I took away from all of these rooms was the following:

• Accent walls
• Different shaped padded headboard, with nail studded border
• 2 nightstands and lamps
• Black and white photos
• Comfortable pillows

To summarize, the concept for the room is going to be "a traveling retreat".  I'm going to fit in some black and white photos of places that Greg and I have travelled to so far, and I have also thought of an idea to encorporate a map somehow.  I have an idea in my head that I will see if I can pull off and make it look like it fits in the room.

Greg and I did some bargain shopping raiding neighbor's garage sales and we found some pieces to work with.

2 nighstands that I am going to paint and replace the hardware. $15 for both.

2 lamps that I can spray paint and buy new shades. $4 each. 3 drawer dresser that I am going to replace the hardware. $20.

MDF board for $15 at Home Depot and I am going to use Greg's old memory foam to make a padded headboard.

So, I've started the work on the nightstands already.  I need to find some fabric to use on the headboard.  I think I'm going to reuse the bedspread and maybe get a new bedskirt that has some cleaner lines.  We are still undecided on the paint color.  I keep bringing home some blues, but we shall see.

Until next time.... Keep dreaming!