Be Our Guest: Guest Bedroom Decor and Helpful Items for Their Stay
Our guest bedroom has served many purposes since we moved in. We didn't have a fourth bedroom in our old house, so right after we moved in, it became part dump zone, part "office" as we worked on navigating the "joys" of early days hybrid schooling last fall during COVID-19. Before I got organized and set up a proper workspace in our multipurpose music room, Hank and I did work and school in the guest bedroom. It wasn't until I had to "quarantine" away from our master bedroom while awaiting COVID test results last fall and slept on an air mattress in there that I kicked our guest bedroom furnishing and decor into overdrive. Here's where things started in this room.
The sage green walls were pretty pleasant compared to some of the bright yellow and orange in our kitchen, four season room and the living room (see this early blog post for all those before photos! It's still so crazy to look back on how much progress we've made!) This room also has double closets, which Zach and I divvied up since we sadly lost closet space in our master bedroom with this move. The fan is the little sister version of the one we replaced in our master, so the scale is much better for the room. Windows have honeycomb blinds - in sage!
The bones were really pretty good in here so when I decided to turn it into a dedicated guest bedroom, it didn't take long at all to get it pulled together.
Paint
While the sage was nice, it wasn't going to match any of our existing decor, so I knew I wanted to lighten it up. One of my all-time favorite wall colors (that I painted on almost all the walls old house) is Mocha Light from Behr. It's just a great light neutral greige that seems to work in most spaces and is pretty calming.
Abbey helped me paint this room in her favorite painting attire. Ha!
I figure if I'm ever going to get a painting buddy in this house, I better let the kids help me and learn - no matter what they're wearing or how messy it gets. This is one of the biggest stretches of my control-freak-tendencies that I put myself through! She lasted a solid 20 minutes but got somewhat of a first coat on a little bit of wall. Girl power!
Window Treatments
Since this room isn't used much, I wanted to get it set up and decorated with as much as I could that we already owned. I'm leaving the honeycomb blinds alone in here for now (gasp!! I know!! the self control!!) but I added an inexpensive curtain rod and set of sheer curtains to give the window a little more of a soft, finished look. I had this set of curtains tucked away from the move. They have a bit of texture to them which is pretty. The rod is a little lower that I typically like, but the length of the curtains dictated the height and for the guest bedroom, I'm cool with it.
Bed and Bedding
After a night or two of quarantine air mattress sleeping, I ordered the fastest bed I could find on Amazon and a mattress-in-a box. Those things are incredible how they come vacuum packed and unroll. I'd love to see the process getting them into that shape. Amazingly, the mattress is pretty comfortable for being quick and cheap. I've slept on it so I know my guests can make it through a few nights! You don't want your guest room TOO comfortable... KIDDING!
I love the black metal bed frame - it's simple, didn't take too long to assemble, and should work with about any bedding we have. I bought a queen bed in here - nice for two guests, but I still had quite a bit of bedding from the queen bed that is in Hank's room when it used to be ours, so I knew I wouldn't have to buy much else for bedding either. The quilt set was one I bought years ago and I think it was meant to be paired with a black metal bed! I was doing it all wrong before!
Decor and Helpful Items for Guests
Again, being the guest bedroom, I didn't want to spend too much time and energy in here, but wanted to make sure I added some guest-friendly elements. Decor is simple, but mainly functional. The wreaths above the bed were a repurpose from when I did some staging to sell the old house. I also had purchased the pretty window pane mirror for the living room early on and decided it wasn't working in there, but fits great here. Picked up a side table and lamp too.
What's the wifi password? How many times do guests ask you that in your house? Since we don't have a TV in here, I wanted to make it easy for guests to access our wifi if needed for their devices. I found this cute customizable PDF printable on Etsy where I have our router name and password (photoshopped out of course to show you, but you get the gist!) Great part is, I can always reprint if we change the password. Paired with a cute matted frame, a printed piece of paper looks great!
Along with the wifi, I'm always searching for plug-ins near the bed. And why doesn't everything that needs charging come with an actual outlet piece anymore? Having a USB charging port for guests is a cheap and easy way to make it easy on them if they forgot their plug in. This one has two which is great for near a bedside table. I've got an extra cord tucked in the table just in case they forgot that too. I try to keep the knick knack decor to a minimum so it's actually a functional space for placing things nearby.
Since Zach and I have used up every inch of closet space in this house, I also added an over-the-door hook system on the back of one of the closets for an easy access place to hang coats, bags, hanging clothes or even towels.
And having a full-length mirror available is great for getting ready. The over-the-door mirror is a great space saver too. While this could be in your guest bath, it is nice to have in the bedroom instead just in case the bathroom is also being used and you're trying to get multiple (extra) people ready at once.
We also put the rocking chair that we used in both kids' nurseries in here and an extra dresser that used to be in our old master closet (we really did have the ultimate closet before somehow!) We're leaving the fan alone in here too since it's not so big, and is lighter color. It works, it's functional.
For a quick, and relatively cheap fix-up, we've got a finished, and functional, guest bedroom! I also have a variety of extra toiletries and necessities in the guest bath in case they're needed, but we'll touch on that room another day.
Need a fix-up? Here's what we used:
Shur-Line Paint Edger Pro and 2 Pads - my favorite secret weapon for painting along ceilings and around trim
Purdy 14” Mini Roller System - Pair with some extra back-up rollers
Shop-able Furniture and Decor:
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