New paint!

This happened a while ago, but my house got some new paint! The guest room and hallway/stairwell, which were in terrible shape and feature an ugly cottage cheese texture, finally got the new look they were promised.

The hallway is a little warmer and sleeker, and all of the stains are covered!

Sleeping over... in my own guest room

You know how first time parents are really nervous about parenting? They get super anxious about who holds the baby and leave way too many emergency phone numbers on the fridge. I think I'm the same way about hosting house guests. I want to make sure everything's ready!

This is my first time setting up a guest room, so I read up on some of the essentials online. I ignored a lot of the advice (use only white linens, leave a variety of new magazines out, build a guest bathroom, have a new bathrobe for each guest) and followed one that seemed important: sleep in your own guest room.

So I did, and this is what I learned!

• the rug sheds like you wouldn't believe
• the door squeaks loudly when it closes
• the room gets really hot with the door shut
• it needs a mirror
• a clock would be helpful
• electrical outlets need to be easy to find
• there are way too many pillows for the bed
• there isn't a convenient place for a suitcase
• the built-in light is awkward and too bright at night
• the room feels empty with white walls and white ceiling

I made a cute landing spot complete with color-coordinated books (thanks, Jane!) and an art print I finally framed as part of Apartment Therapy's January Cure. 

I moved the bed to more attractive (and accessible) spot. 

(See the awkwardness before.)

Look! Cute lighting! This room is pretty heavy on the blacks and grays, so I'm trying to pull in as many natural elements as possible. I chose lamps that are easy to turn on and off in bed and don't take up much table space. And I added power strips under the end tables on each side, for easy charging.

A basket in the closet catches extra pillows, and now there's a mirror on the back of the door.

Didn't this turn out beautifully? I just guessed on the frame, knowing that I wanted a natural look to offset the black and white. The proportions worked out perfectly! I spray painted the background that came with the frame and attached my print with double-sided tape (yes, originally meant for windows). I like that this is the focal point of the room when you're in bed. 

Still to come: gray walls, a suitcase table in the closet, and more house guests! 

New paint coming soon!

I have the best landlords. Really. Every year they re-invest the profit into the house, through storm windows or new furnaces or patched plaster.

I'm getting new paint.
I know it's silly compared to a new furnace, but my furnace is in great shape and the walls upstairs are not. They look like they stopped coming clean several decades ago. Remember that horrible texture?

The guest room is coming along, but I would like to have a darker color on the wall. That, and I have no patience to scrub all the stains off. I'm going with Behr's "Squirrel", which looks even better on the wall.

I love how it turned out in this room from Design Sponge:

Building a guest room

This weekend my family stayed with me for the longest time yet. It was a great chance to test out the guest room! (And assemble some of it, with their help.)

The plan for the guest room started with some pillows I had made a year ago:

I originally made them for a guys' living room, so I tried to incorporate masculine elements like black leather and tie-fighter shapes.

Yeah, still my style more than theirs. I was really proud of the way I worked both dark blue and black into the same designs. These pillows became the color palette for the guest room.