Guest Bedroom Essentials

As I mentioned yesterday it's been a process this past weekend and couple of days to make the guest bedroom look better. My original motivation was to make it a peaceful spot for AJ to pay bills and use as his office but I really want to make it a place that will be better suited for guests as well. I found a neat list from House Beautiful about guest bedroom essentials and I wanted to show you how I added these, as well as a couple of my own ideas, to our room.

You know how you are right about to go to bed and realize you are either dying of thirst or hunger but you don't want to go downstairs? Make life easier on your guests and provide them a little snack and a pitcher of water.

House Beautiful mentioned an alarm clock was important, but I thought this little clock from Pottery Barn that I've had for years was far more classy, and plus, most people have alarm clocks on their phones now anyways.

Make sure you have a basket of towels and washcloths for your guests! This was good for me to assemble because I'm always scrambling last minute to make sure I have enough clean!

Fresh flowers make anyone feel welcome... unless they are allergic to them.

Don't put ragweed into your bedroom. :)

Leave a few things out for them to read... I always have decorating magazines on hand and then have a great magazine, NorthShore, outlining some of the best things to do in the area.

Room darkening curtains... these are definitely a step up from the sheer curtains that I just took off the windows the other day.

Have an extra blanket on the bed.

Especially if your husband isn't a fan of turning the heat above 50 degrees during winter nights.

(Yes, this is true for us and our miserable guests. :))

Add a luggage rack or a bench to your guest bedroom so guests have a place to put their luggage. If you don't have a luggage rack make sure you have a chair where they can place their bag(s).

Have extra hangers and hooks for guests to store things they don't want to get wrinkled.

The hooks on the back of the door also work well for a place to put their wet towels.

Leave paper and pens out for guests.

There always seems to be some random list you need to make for yourself.

Am I missing anything? What do you make sure to put in your guest's room?

If the answer is "chocolate on their pillow" consider me your next guest. :)

UPDATE (items blog readers have suggested):

Hair Dryer / Flat Iron

Charging station for electronics

Travel sized goodies (shampoo, etc)

Come back tomorrow for Wednesday Loves: Guest Bedroom Edition!

Makeover Monday: My Wild Side

So, this isn't a typical Makeover Monday where I paint a piece of furniture and call it a day. This is an evolving makeover, but the biggest change happened this weekend...

I was in Home Goods with my mom and Drew on Friday and spotted a couple of things that would be just right to give a pop to the guest room (goodness knows that room needed some help!). I came home and immediately said to AJ: 'I found the perfect thing for the guest room.' So he told me to sell something to make the money for it. :) Don't you know that I ran straight down to our basement and found things I could post on Craigslist immediately?

Just take a guess what I'm going to be talking about after looking at these few inspiration photos...

Traditional Bedroom design by New York Interior Designer Tiffany Eastman Interiors, LLC

Traditional Kids design by Kansas City Interior Designer McCroskey Interiors

Traditional Bedroom design by New York Interior Designer Tiffany Eastman Interiors, LLC

Yes, zebra. I saw these two zebra shower curtains and knew I could make some fun curtain panels for the guest bedroom out of them. But, having never used animal prints (or even being the slightest bit edgy in decorating) I was a little nervous... I didn't want my vision of a tranquil room turning into a boudoir because I wanted to try and be a little more daring...

I got a couple of hits on my Craigslist items almost immediately (whooo!) and sold the pair of console tables that were in my living room and bought the shower curtains last night, and put the additional money in the bank.

So, why these inspiration photos when I already know what I want and own it? Because I wanted to collect a few photos to reassure myself zebra can be put into a classy and traditional room. I mean, hello, could you get more traditional than the first room? The zebra rug just adds such a fun, and unexpected pop. Here is my curtain up close and personal.

Want to see what it looks like in the room? I am so happy I took the risk and tried something that was a little out of my comfort zone. This weekend I have been rearranging, decluttering and generally sorting out the guest room so that it is a practical space for AJ to pay bills and also for others to come and stay with us.

This rod that I'm using for the curtain bar was leftover from another project and I'm reusing it here until we can hang up the brushed silver ones I purchased at Job Lot today for $4 (yes, $4 curtain rods, not the sturdiest things but pretty good looking for that cheap).

I know they aren't hung the recommended height above the top of the window to have it be "high and wide" but they were too short to do that, so unless I find the right fabric to make a color block panel at the bottom they will stay at this height.

The same day I found the zebra curtains I found this at Home Goods... AJ is going to use it as part of his system for paid and unpaid bills.

You know what I especially loved? The blue-ish color with the curtains, the blue and brown looked great to me and I loved how the coral helped make the room feel like a restful beachy escape.

AJ took Drew on a run and to the playground yesterday so I could do my decorating thing. Best. Gift. Ever. I made the curtain panels (just like I did in our room out of shower curtains) and then painted the parts of the red linoleum floor that was peeking out after switching around the room.

I found a square of fabric at Joann Fabrics recently for $2, it was one of their high end fabrics that you order and it was the sample. I bought this fabric piece and the one on the other chair, stuffed them and used a plain piece of fabric to make the back of the pillow.

This morning I went to Home Depot and got a tester size color-matched to Restoration Hardware's Eucalyptus and painted over the areas that were a slightly different color (do you remember seeing those on the wall?). Notice I haven't finished doing that to the floor above. :)

The best part of this whole makeover is that AJ loves it and that was my motivation for it... to make a peaceful room for AJ to use as an office / bill-paying station when we don't have guests. Mission accomplished. :)

Tell me, what you taken a risk lately and been thrilled with it?

Or has your risk been a total flop?

Join me tomorrow for a photo tour as we walk through the guest room and add the essential items for a welcoming stay and then on Wednesday as I talk about additional things I'd like to add to this room to make it more practical and beautiful.

To My 15 Year-Old Self

I was inspired by Sarah's blog to think about if my 15 year-old self would have been happy with how I turned out at 30... and the resounding answer is yes. I am going to refer to my 15 year-old self as "she" from now on, and yes, I am embarrassed to admit that that is yours truly at right about 15 on the right. My cheeks obviously had bad eyesight, that's why I needed glasses so big. :)

Don't judge me.

• She would have been surprised that I didn't get married right out of college (I always thought I would because that is how my parents did it).

Right before we brought him home from the hospital.

• She would be surprised that I had my first baby so much later than my mom did (she had me when she was 24, I had just turned 29 when I had Drew).
• She'd be surprised that it was so hard for me to adjust to being a mother, after all, I played "house" all the time when I was little and had a zillion baby dolls. :)
• She wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised that I still wake up early to be productive without distractions.

Riding the slowest, mangiest donkey in Santorini, Greece.

• I don't think my 15 year old self was really thinking about traveling abroad, but I've done it some (to England, Ireland, Wales, Greece and even Turkey for a morning).
• She would love that I'm still doing event planning, even though I never had my own business in Boston. (At 15 I was just starting to love event planning, at that point I think I still wanted to be an interior decorator.)
• She would be surprised that we have flipped a house and own rental properties.... probably because she had never heard of anything like flipping.
• After getting over the surprise that I didn't get married right out of college, she wouldn't be surprised that I lived with Kim (my sister) for a few years until tying the knot.
• She'd tell me I was an idiot for a few of the relationship choices I've made.
• She'd love that I blog about decorating because even then that was interesting to me, even though "blog" would have been an alien word then.

AJ and Drew at Bradley Palmer's Sprinkler Park.

• She would have loved AJ. Danielle and I drew up our dream guys, probably around the time we were 15, and somehow at that age I had the sense to draw in the important things, the character things you find in a hubby. AJ has those traits.
• And lastly, she wouldn't be the slightly bit surprised that I could drink hot chocolate all day long (and yes, only in the winter). :)

Plaster, Sand and Paint

It's usually the little finish details that get put off and put off that make the biggest difference... at least to us. Sometimes we just dread the detail work at the end of the project because it doesn't feel as gratifying as say, rolling on a new color of paint. But, after AJ told me he was going to have a nervous breakdown because of this house, and the endless amount of projects, I decided to do what I could in the master to make it look, and be, more finished since he has done oh... say 99% of the work renovating the room.

Take a look at this photo from when we first put our curtains up:

What seems different to you now, besides new windows and new pillows?

We still need to do the second coat on the ceiling, as you can see I used a glossy white instead of the flat white AJ had used on the rest of the ceiling.

Now take a look at this side of the room, from when we hung the pink photos:

Check out the new plastering and painting job now... the curtains aren't back up because AJ is making that crazy looking blue box a live outlet, but doesn't that last little bit of paint around the edges make such a difference?

It feels so good to just have that tiny little bit of painting and plastering done... now onto the closet, which you'll see in one of the photos above and this area above the pink photos:

Just thought I'd show you what's on my nightstand today...

Some issues of House Beautiful I have to go through and a CS Lewis daily devotional... he is pretty great at making heady stuff down to earth.

And of course, my little $1 treat that I picked up while grocery shopping that I munch on while Drew slept and I cleaned our room and took photos. :)

Marble Thoughts and Other Options

I've had people ask us a lot about our counters... they are Bianca Carrara marble and it was what I had pined after for years... basically every photo I cut out of a magazine had these featured. We decided to go with them after finding out that we could get a stain blocker applied by the company we ordered from that would make it nearly stain free (unless we left red wine on it over night or something like that). They weren't cheap... it was the big splurge in our kitchen.

So, was it worth it and would we do it again, you ask...

I adore the look of it still, but no, I wouldn't do it again... especially with a little guy who throws his food and eats (sometimes) directly off the counter. Even though we clean up every time after he eats we still have a mark by where his high chair attached to the island and he ate meal after meal.

Here's why I wouldn't do it again: there are alternative options out now that we didn't have when we bought the counters. I've outlined some of my faves below.

I'm throwing in this photo just for kicks so you can see the work we are doing on our kitchen ceiling. It has to look worse before it can look better, right?

Here is a close-up so you can get a feel for what the fabulous veining actually looks like.

Another problem that we read about pre-marble purchase was that it scratches easily. That's very true and basically sends AJ into a nervous breakdown whenever Drew starts banging on the countertop with some kitchen utensil we forgot was in close proximity to him. :)

The company that did the stain blocking for us gave us this cleaner (there is a monthly sealer that we need to use as well). Honestly, we haven't been religious about using the cleaner because I use an all natural non-toxic cleaner (Green Works by Clorox) on it daily. Maybe that is why Drew's area stained the way it did, I'm not sure.

We know we can always get it re-honed before we sell so it doesn't look dirty in certain spots so we aren't too worried but... we still probably wouldn't do it again so here are some good look-alike options:

Okay, other fabulous options:

I will definitely consider these for our next kitchen

A Quartz countertop

 shown here Cambria's Torquay (but Silestone has good options as well)

Pictured is the gorgeous kitchen from 7th House on the Left. They described it as "non-porous, heat resistant and low maintenance". My kind of counter...

Bianco Miramar Granite

I am having a hard time finding someone that retails this granite but it sure looks gorgeous...

I found this photo from Interior Canvas.

Corian

Pictured is Cirrus White Corian

(photo is smaller because it's out of focus if I enlarge it)

Formica

So maybe your budget isn't huge but you still want the look of marble... no worries, Formica has you covered with their Calcutta Marble.

I would love to do this in a rental to make it look more high end.

Enough about countertops... I want to show you how cute Drew looked in his little Colgate sweatshirt my mother-in-law sent him, and yes, he is wearing PJ shorts still and insisted on rain boots. :)

Okay, last thing I'm going to show off being signing off to go design a baby shower invite for my sister's BFF. This week I decided to use all new recipes so I'd get out of my dinner rut... here is what I made last night. Two portobello burgers with grilled peaches, guacamole and sprouts. I would have changed the marinade to have less ginger / soy  but I loved it otherwise.

Hope you are having a great night!

Beachy Tablescape

Happy Monday, Friends-

Drew and I just came back from Russell Orchards, it's this great orchard, mini farm and bakery two towns over from us. He doesn't understand that I'm the mama-razzi and need photos of him at all times... :) I don't ever want to forget a look, an expression or miss how excited he gets when he sees a tractor or a dog... I try to balance being totally there with him and still getting those photos so AJ and I can remember him at that exact moment... but I'm not always an expert at that balance, I'm definitely still learning!

One last photo of our time in Ipswich before I jump into a fun tablescape... this was on our ride home, I loved the natural look of the field with the hay bales in the tractor:

Remember how after our trip to Hamilton, NY in June I posted about this fabulous store, Swank, that I'm in love with? Well, here's how great the owners are... they sent me these dishes that I oogled in the store! While running the other day I brainstormed about beachy tablescapes, with these plates as the starting point. Sometimes torturous runs are easier when I think about fun things...

The plates as I saw them in Swank. Now that I'm looking at the photo again I also have the bird at the bottom right of the photo. :)

I wanted something beachy without being too quintessentially beachy... and then I remembered these great chains that have fallen off of anchors at Tuck's Point. When it's low tide they are just exposed and laying on the sand not attached to anything. Some are only a foot long but others, like the one I snagged the other day, are at least three feet long. Here is my tablescape with that inspiration...

Please pardon the giant sheet of drywall in the background... our dining room table is currently in the living room while we are in the midst of our kitchen ceiling makeover. The drywall sheets are already painted with three coats of paint and are ready to be hung. Hallelujah!

Aren't these dishes great? I thought that the hydrangea would add the simple feminine touch to the table and the chain would be textural and rustic.

Here is a close up of the chain that I took home... it's pretty rusty but it has some character.

Now, some up close and personal shots of the plates that were the catalyst to this post!

Don't you just love this color and pattern? I don't think I could ever do wallpaper or something large with a pattern this busy but I love it on these plates (they are a Cynthia Rowley design).

Remember how I mentioned from this post about the hydrangeas my mom so graciously let me take from her bush? Well, I shamelessly went back for more. Drew and I were at my parents' for longer than I expected because he just loves playing with them, the only way we could get him to stop crying hysterically was to give him chocolate. Yes, he is my child, chocolate does solve most problems. :)

Tell me, have you done any fun tablescapes or events lately?

Or used anything unexpected in your decorating?