The Evolution of the Guest Room

Hello again!

Can you believe summer is over? School starts for us in just a few days, and I've been a busy bee flying around, trying to finish up my projects. The main one that I was determined to have completed by September 1st, is our new Guest bedroom. I ended my last post with a picture to whet your appetite:

Our home has four bedrooms upstairs. As it currently stands, we have a Master bedroom, a Girls' bedroom, a Boys' bedroom, and now this Guest bedroom. 

In my ten years of being a homeowner and homemaker, I've never had a Guest room in my home to offer to friends and family... until now. I am very excited to have this room! 

This room has changed quite a bit in the years we've lived here... and that's the theme of today's post! 

Come with me...

I'd like to take you on a walk down memory lane...

This is the same room:

Can you believe it?! 

When we bought our home, every room was either wallpapered or painted in very dark colors. This room was both! Lucky us! Haha... 

We didn't use this room for the first couple of years that we lived here, so it became sort of a storage room:

But when my Nola was a baby, I became inspired to create for her a beautiful, feminine bedroom. It was going to take time... and hard work... because I had no choice but to start here:

I had to start with the removal of the wallpaper.

It was painfully tedious!

If you look close you can see that a baby chair is in here:

That's because Nola would sit in here while Roman and I peeled wallpaper during the day...

And Micah took the night shifts:

Renovating this house has caused me to become an Accidental Wallpaper Removal Expert. (What do you mean that's not a thing?! That's one of my many official titles!!! Sheesh!)

Yes indeed, I know just what to do... The right products to buy, and the right technique. I'm not good at many things, but of all of the worthless things to be good at in life, mine is wallpaper removal... ***eye roll***

I have girlfriends who tend large and beautiful gardens... Sew homemade dresses for their daughters... And I'm over here like... I see your gardens and homemade dresses, and I raise you...

Wallpaper Removal!

Try not to be jealous ;)

But, after about a week or two, things start looking up:

You'll notice Micah's floor sander. As I've mentioned on this blog before, he refinishes every floor in the rooms we re-do. One room at a time has been our mode of operation. See the difference it makes:

Whenever we reach this point in a room re-do, I always get antsy to start decorating and moving the room forward. But there's still a few more things to do. For example, Micah has put up crown moulding in each room we've re-done. Here's a "during" shot:

Since this was going to be Nola's bedroom, we got the idea to build a daybed for her out of old pallet boards and an antique door that we found in our basement. Micah built it...

And I decorated it. This was her room "after":

We hung a chandelier... I made a ruffled lampshade... A birch branch from our yard hung above her bed with dangling paper birds...

I poured my heart into this room. 

Vintage vignettes...

And my childhood dollhouse, are only just a few of the details that I madly loved about this room:

But when our second daughter was born, we decided to move our rooms around. We gave the girls' one of the bigger bedrooms to share, and this room became Caleb's. 

I would love to show you the girls' room right here, but I must stay on task! (That'll be for a future post:)

For the last several years, this room was Caleb's. I snapped this picture of it after he moved out:

SO... All of this has led to the opportunity to create a Guest room! And since this post is titled, The Evolution of the Guest room, it may be fun to see these photos altogether...

Ready?...

The Evolution of the Guest Room:

And Finally...

Ta-to-the-Da!

Whew! This room has been through a lot! 

I'm going to end it here for today, but check back with me soon. I'd like to write about more of the details next time.

Take care my sweet friends...

xo,

~ Courtney ~