New Year, New Room Refresh – Week 1

It’s week one of the New Year, New Room challenge, and I’m excited to be whipping our guest room into shape over the next month along with these lovely ladies!

I think we all at some point have that room in the house where things just aren’t really working, and for whatever reason you just can’t get things to a place where you’re satisfied with them. That’s been the guest room for me basically since we moved in. It didn’t seem like it needed a lot and so I didn’t give it a lot of attention. There was a point in the spring where I had it in order for a short time. You can catch up on that here: 1) Inspiration for a Bold Blue Bedroom 2) Trial and Errors in the Guest Bedroom 3) Guest Room Update: Paint Reveal

Then a couple of things happened. First, I fell out of the love with the “all pattern all the time” thing I had going on in there. Secondly, we finished the master bedroom and started living upstairs, whereas we’d been using the guest bedroom for our own room for 10 months. With us went a bunch of our stuff, and with the room already looking kind of empty I found myself shopping the room regularly for stuff to use elsewhere in the house.

All of that leads us to the sad state in which you find the guest room today.

As you can see, I clearly made no attempt to make this look nicer for you or for the benefit of the picture, but neither did I intentionally make it look worse. This is simply how I’ve been living–with a table lamp on the floor for no real reason and a bed adorned with pillows that have no covers.

On the upside, Jellybeans is digging it. A few days ago I couldn’t find her in any of her normal spots and eventually tracked her down right where she is in this picture. Just a dog chilling out on a wool next to one of the hottest vents in the house. The door was closed and she was effectively trapped, but why would she ever want to leave?

Onto my plans for the room. My main goal is to keep it light and bring a greater sense of calm than I had in the previous design scheme. This means using a more limited palette with fewer high energy colors (like red and bright yellow) as well as fewer patterns.

I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but here is my main inspiration, and I am using a few of these elements in the room.

1. Double gourd lamp – I’m loving this lamp from the Lamps Plus exclusive lighting collection Color Plus. And ps, if you like browsing paint swatches, you will be in love with the Color Plus collection, too–all the lamps are available in 190 colors based on Sherwin Williams and Pantone and paint shades. I picked West Highland White, which seems a little boring on my part, maybe, but I’m thinking the curvy profile and light color do well to break up the large wall the bed is on.
2. Vintage desk – I’ve had this yellow desk for a couple years (it’s pictured here in my last house), and I’m planning on bringing it in to do double-duty as a side table and hopefully make the room a little bit more functional day-to-day.
3. Emerald throw – I fell in love with this Rose Uniacke-designed room in the Copy Cat Chic Instagram feed and was able to get a green throw like the one pictured on clearance a Pottery Barn. You guys know how I love green. And clearance. I’m planning to use white bedding as well.
4. Land of Infinity art print – I have wanted this photograph by Debra Butler for Minted for ages and ages, and I don’t want to pick favorites, but this *might* be the thing I’m most excited about for this room. My husband grew up in the middle of nowhere with cattle in his backyard, and even though it was not in the West, and he claims that has nothing to do with why he likes this picture, it has a lot to do with why I like this picture.

I’m also hoping to do some other improvements to the room, like replacing the baseboards and maybe painting the upper half of the wall white (above where that random piece of painter’s tape is in the before picture. But realistically I’m filing those in the “maybe” category, since we are still working pretty intently on the hallway right now.

That’s all for me this week, so please check out the other participants! I’m personally super excited to see what everyone has planned.

New Year, New Room Refresh Challenge Participants:

Casa Watkins

Shabby Grace Blog

Domicile 37

Pretty Practical Home

Up To Date Interiors

A Designer At Home

Iris Nacole

Vintage Romance Style

This Is Our Bliss

Seeking Lavender Lane

Many, many thanks to our New Year, New Room Refresh Challenge sponsors.