Guest Room Before and After

Our guest room when we moved in:

It had never been painted, so that was one of the first things we did. We picked Valspar’s “Coastal Villa” which is a pretty, neutral grayish brown.
I also hung up this tapestry which I love love love. It was a wedding gift and I think it’s just perfect. Reminds me of a Jane Austen novel 🙂

The tapestry was my inspiration to decorate this room in a garden theme. A shady, relaxing garden. Ahh yes (even though while it’s cold and snowy outside, shady doesn’t sound very good!)
I needed a side table so I got this cute little guy from Wally world

Next I needed a lamp for the side table. I wanted something that looked garden-y, kind of like a lamp post or a lantern or something. I found lots of pictures like these that I really loved:

It took a lot of searching to find it, and it was a bit of a splurge, but it was the closest thing to what I wanted. (I even looked into making my own with a lamp kit.)
Then, I needed a little more furniture. This was one of my grandma’s cedar chests and I thought it would look perfect in this room!!! (And my mom was happy to not be storing it anymore.) Plus it would provide some much-needed storage of blankets etc, and a place for guests to set their things.

Here it is with a bit of accessorizing. I already had the glass vase and I filled it with alternating pine cones (I heart pine cones!) from our yard and some green moss I got from the craft store. The books came from the bookshelf and I had my eye on that little metal sundial at Hobby Lobby until it went on 50% sale. 🙂

Plus, look what I found inside the chest! I think it’s so cool….

If it’s still too fuzzy, here’s what it says:

“Dear Friend:
If the world were at peace this tag would be a small envelope…and in it would be your own personal key to your Lane Cedar Chest.
But today there are vital uses for the metals we would use for keys and locks. You’ll note that your Lane Cedar Chest has a handsome VICTORY catch in place of the metal lock we used to use. It has been designed so that after Victory is won, a regular lock can be easily installed.
Please don’t order a lock now. Wait until the war is won, THEN for a small charge you may have a real Lane patented lock…and the key we couldn’t send you now. TO OPEN – PUSH BUTTON
Yours for Victory, Lane Cedar Chests”

It makes me misty every time I read it! I love how much patriotism and pride come through this little note. Awesome. After framing it and playing with some new accessories, here’s the new cedar chest:

The white tin  and candle holder are both from Goodwill ($1 each) and I just put the same gray ribbon on the tin. I already had the frame I put the Lane note in as well as the cranberry picks.
Did I mention I accidentally walked into the “50% off the whole store” sale at Goodwill? HOLEY COW I’ve never seen so many people in there. We were all bumpin’ bums and carts, but it was worth it.

Finally, I really wanted to do something unusual and kind of “fairy tale” with the walls. I’ve had this image in my mind for a long time of the glowing, scrolly looking words from the scene in the Lord of the Rings movie where they’re standing at the door to the Mines of Moria. And I thought if I could figure out how to do something like that in the guest room, it would be totally fun and different. Inspiration is everywhere I guess! It took me forever and a day to find the right kind of paint for what I wanted to do, but here is the end result! (And I used a big scroll stencil from HL.)

So from most angles, you don’t notice anything other than a plain painted wall:

But then as you start to move around the room a little bit, the light catches and you start to see something reflecting!

This is the exact same picture as above, but this time with a flash. Fun, huh? It’s prettier at night when it’s much more subtle and you only see bits of the stencil at a time. Unfortunately, I can’t capture the effect with a camera….sorry…
And the final result!

There are three other projects I have in mind for this room: a headboard, some sort of mirror for over the cedar chest, and two pieces of wall art (oh, and one piece of “ceiling art”!). Hopefully I’ll get to those soon 🙂

Update!  The headboard is done, and so is one piece of wall art.