Guest Bedroom & Office Room Reveal

For the past 9 weeks, I’ve been working on renovating our guest bedroom, one DIY project at a time. This makeover was inspired by the One Room Challenge that Linda over at Calling it Home hosts every spring and fall. While the challenge technically takes place over the course of 6 weeks, I’m so excited to show the final room now, a little over 9 weeks from starting this transformation.

I’m affectionately calling this my 50 shades of gray guest bedroom… can you see it?

The main reason that I chose to focus on this room before some of the other rooms in our home came down to function. Our home has slowly ran out of rooms with each addition to our family, but the need for a guest bedroom remained. We don’t live near family and I think it is extremely important to have a nice room for any guest that you invite into your home. I had the idea to convert the under utilized closet into a permanent office space that I could use daily when we weren’t hosting.

I chose to use the Elfa system when creating this office space because of the tremendous versatility this system offers. I used a mix of 12″ shelves, accessory pieces, and 20″ shelves in the Birch Decor line that are designed specifically for desk spaces.

One of my favorite things about this room is the artwork. The artwork above the bed is a download from Jenny’s Print Shop that I cropped and printed as a landscape canvas. The frame was a DIY floating frame that you can read about here. The simple black and white abstract was designed by my beautiful and talented friend Rachel. She just launched an etsy shop and trust me when I say you will see big things from her! I had it printed as a 16″ square and mounted it with a simple acrylic frame.
(use code “makingprettyspaces” for $10 off any digital print.)

artwork | frame

Walking into this room everyday reminds me how much of an impact trim and molding can have in a space. It was tempting to just do one wall as a statement, but I am so happy about taking the extra time and effort to take this simple board and batten treatment around the entire room.

The bed is really the star of the show. I am naturally drawn to black, white and gray – but I’ve been trying to add in more warmth through creams, wood and natural fabrics. This bed is a pretty shade of oatmeal linen that I’m confident will last through many decor changes in the years to come. I found most of my bedding on Amazon with the exception of a few items. I’ve been using these simple white Brooklinen sheets on every bed in our home and am obsessed with how they feel. The lumbar pillow from Juniper Studio was a worthy splurge that gives the bed a finished look without being too fussy.

I found these black nightstands at Ikea and couldn’t resist the $70 price tag. I elevated the simple black drawers with a beautiful pull from Rejuvenation and the I love the final result.

nightstand | vase | pull | clock

Window treatments are another details that I know can sometimes get overlooked. I needed a blackout option since it is a bedroom but wanted a stylish upgrade from the basic white celluar shades that lived in here before. It took 2 rounds of 15 samples, but Select Blinds came through with the prettiest blue/gray roman shade. It has a sophisticated tweed texture and I couldn’t be happier with how it ties the room together.