Ch-Ch-Changes

The office/guest room quickly became a home of all the furniture we had that didn’t quite fit anywhere else. Not to mention, we had two fulfill two functions in the small space, my full time office and a functional guest room for out of town guests. After making a few changes to the room seen here, things were looking up. I no longer felt trapped in a claustrophobic box for 8+ hours a day during the week and was a little less embarrassed to have guests.

Office Nook

Last weekend, I finally tackled a few more projects to bring more cohesion to the room. After coming to the conclusion of a house color palette, I was ready to turn the black hole of furniture into something that made sense. 

The first project was a tall six drawer dresser that was actually from my childhood bedroom. I originally danced with the idea of painting the dresser a mustard yellow color to match an accent pillow, but decided a crisp white would be best for the long run. I grabbed the gallon of Valspar Honeymilk that I had on hand from my dining room chairs and got to work.

The puppykids wanted to help

Stop judging me for those pink snowmen sheets. Jeez.

After a few passes with sand paper (100 grit,) two coats of primer (Kilz is the very best,) and three coats of Honeymilk the dresser was finished. However, after putting the original handles back on, I knew I needed to find this baby some new accessories.

Enter my first experience with Hobby Lobby and its knobs and polls aisle. HEAVEN. Honestly, it took me a good 30 minutes to pick six pulls, and even then I couldn’t decide, so I came home with 10 mismatched knobs and tried a bunch of different combinations before settling with these 3 beauts.

Obsessed with this royal blue ceramic flower knob

These give off the best disco ball-esque shimmer.

I am so glad I was able to upgrade a piece of my childhood into a great piece. I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner, it was so simple and way over-do for a change! At the same time of this makeover, I did upgrade my eye sore of a metal filing cabinet as well. I can’t wait to share it with you soon!

Before

After

After Close-Up

Do you have a piece of furniture from your childhood bedroom or family house in your current home? Did you leave it as is or give it a face-lift? Even better, what are your favorite memories of your childhood bedroom?

* Any thoughts on my new picture effects? I want to keep all the photos consistent with colors & a watermark and currently I am loving this 60's effect! Let me know what you think!

Home Office & Guest Room: In Progress

Once I finished the dining room chairs, I was ready to turn my loving attention to the guest room/office. I have changed and rearranged this room at least 4 times since we moved-in a year and a half ago, but I was never quite happy with it. When a tiny room has to do double duty as a functional guest room and a full time home office, it can get a bit cramped.

This was already the third revision of the space. The room started with only one desk (the wooden writing desk you see in the right back corner) but I was in desperate need for more work space. When my dad told me his school was giving away extra donated office furniture, including filing cabinets and desks, I had him grab me both. 

 

While it was practical and worked for a bit, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic with all the large furniture, so it was time for yet another change.

We grabbed this corner desk from Ikea for under $70, moved both the other desks into the basement (the metal office desk is now a work table in the garage) and did a little switch-a-roo with the remaining items to create the newest set-up.

 

I centered the bed under the window (Can I tell you how much I HATE when windows are not centered or balanced in a room? Arg!) to create a day bed feel and framed the windows with some salvaged shutters. I’m still undecided about whether or not to re-paint the shutters or leave the weathered, distressed look. Thoughts? 

The chair in the corner is the perfect spot for guests to charge their phones, place a glass of water, etc. and it doesn’t take up much space.

The corner desk allows me to have more of a nook set-up and provides ample space for the desktop and writing space, without taking up a large chunk of the room. I have plans to upgrade all the white organization boxes (can you spot a sample?) and even to paint the metal filing cabinet, currently hidden under a small table cloth.

How sweet are the babies? O-M-G

Other plans for the room include hanging artwork, creating more tissue paper pom poms for over the bed, and painting the tall dresser (that I have had since I was a baby) which adds great storage for guests. As you can see from the to-do list, this room is far from finished but I am more than happy with the progress.

Anyone have any big plans for the weekend? I will be tackling projects around the house and trying to squeeze in some quality time with the hubs and puppykids because we all know how quickly Monday morning rolls around.