yikes! last week, m21 was honored to find out an intern from the nearby belgian consulate would be staying with us for 3 months, but our guest room was hardly ready for
any guest, let alone a long term one- it was basically empty, not even a bed, so we had to start from scratch to furnish it. to make the whole situation even trickier, m21 found out on
monday that he was having a guest who was arriving on
thursday, leaving us only 72 hours to transform our extra bedroom from drearily empty to fully furnished fabulousness! plus, m21 had to try to make it as chic as possible- don't want anyone reporting back that american decorators aren't as good as those from the continent!
the entry vestibule of our guest room, accessorized with items pulled from other areas of the atelier. we didn't repaint this tiny anteroom, as the blue-gray matches the hall that leads into into it. you might be thinking that a bowl of fruit is an odd accessory for a bedroom, but m21 likes to make sure guests from different timezones have water as well as something to nibble on, should they they wake up jet-lagged at 4 in the morning; that way they don't have to stumble downstairs and rummage through a strange kitchen to stop their tummies from rumbling...
needless to say in addition to the time constraint, budget was also an issue in our guestroom transformation. in the past, our trusty aerobed is where we've consigned our guests (hey, if you are staying here for free, you can hardly complain, right?) but an aerobed is hardly suitable for an extended stay, so we knew we'd have to lay out several hundred bucks for a bed from ikea; which in turn, meant that all the other furnishings had to be
cheap, cheap, cheap. (did we mention they should be
cheap?) so armed with little more then sweat and fairy dust, m21 set out to furnish his guest room on a budget
and a deadline!
our starting point for the project was paint, and you've heard this next bit of advice from a million sources, but m21 is going to repeat it again:
when decorating, paint provides the the biggest impact for the least amount of money. normally when conceptualizing a room, m21 likes to start with a piece of furniture for his inspiration; every designer is approaches conceptualization differently- some start with a fabric or wallpaper, or art or a treasured accessory; our old boss
always started with a rug, and we once attended a lecture once where a very prominent decorator said she started with nature, a leaf or a stone found on the property (which we thought was odd- most "big" job sites are nothing but dirt in the planning stages so who'd want to start with that?), but anyway, you get the idea, and in a fairly radical departure for us, instead of starting with a piece of furniture, we started this time with
paint (heck- we didn't have any idea of what furniture we'd end up with anyway!)
the room was stark white with one blue-gray wall to tie it to the entry vestibule. since maison21 is NOT a fan of an accent wall and has never been sure why he painted it that way to begin with, the gray had to go! (shown here primered over). we also knew that white walls were probably not the best choice so we would need to repaint; the room will be sparsely furnished, and while white walls look great with a minimalist look if the pieces are all of museum quality, but with our planned mix of thrift store and ikea, they would probably just make it all look junky and cold... :-)we also started off in a way we'd NEVER recommend for others- rather than testing out swatches on the wall to see how they will look in the space and react with the light (truly, the
only way to find the right color), we just purchased a gallon straight from a tiny swatch in our fan deck, and went for it. to make things worse, it was a color we've never used before, so we were really taking a chance! but sometimes rules are made to be broken in these types of unusual situations; plus we are confident enough in our mad decoratin' skillz that we
knew whatever color we picked, we could work with it, or even
around it, if necessary.
when we paint, we roll on our wall color almost to the corners, then freehand the edges- tape is for sissies! just kidding we use tape all the time, but when dealing with the ceiling, it really is easier to freehand a straight line- just use a 1-2 inch angled brush, fully loaded with paint, and go! make sure the brush is of very good quality though, or fahgeddaboutit- use tape in that case.
we choose benjamin moore #1183 camelback, hoping for a classic masculine camel color as backdrop for our guest, but what we got when we put it up on the walls was more toffee then camel- almost
too dark- but what the heck, the room is sunny enough to handle dark walls, and in a happy accident kind of way, we even liked it better then what we had originally envisioned (not that we really had a choice at this point with only 48 hours until our guest arrived- we were living with it, no matter what!) oh and btw, in the interest of saving time, we sprung for the premium one coat coverage base- which was total BS- it took us 3 coats to cover, same as always, when painting a saturated color over white! next time we'll save the bucks and use the cheap base.
while we were waiting for the paint to dry between coats, we then hit the local thrift stores to see what we could rustle up for furniture! at our first stop, we picked up a big art glass floor vase (with some flowering branches, a floor vase is a great way of taking up space in a sparsely furnished room), and at our second stop, we picked up a pair of battered black 70's campaign-style chests, as well as a black and white ceramic lamp, and thus our theme was set- black and white was the order of the day! it would be pretty against our toffee walls (we hoped). we also picked up a vintage painting for $25 bucks- the colors were all wrong, but we could fix that with a coat of the same white paint we were using for the trim of the room. then off to ikea for a bed and mattress, and in the interest of saving money, instead of springing for an ikea platform bed to sit the mattress on, instead we purchased a box spring and a $19.99 black box spring cover with which to disguise it. not a perfect solution, but cute enough, and far cheaper then buying an ikea bed we didn't really want anyway!
we had a fantasy about refinishing these chests, but 72 hours is not enough time for that kind of decorating perfection, so we just cleaned them, then touched up the chips with a sharpie (it's a trick we learned from an professional antiques restorer, so it's not such a half-assed solution as it sounds). m21 finds that people get scared of the battered and damaged, but once you put a bunch of stuff on and around the less then perfect piece, the little scuffs and dents are never even noticed...last, once we got everything all pulled together, we thought our black, white and camel (ok-
toffee) scheme was a actually a little bland; not even the fresh flowers we had added provided enough pops of color... (
tip- flowers *always* class up a joint; even a budget makeover gets a 'lifestyle" lift from them!) so we typed "rug" into craiglist to see if we could find something-
anything- with a spot of color to help out. thank goodness we found a vintage danish rya rug located not so terribly far away. it had a lovely gradation of blue tones, which would work perfectly with our walls, and was the perfect size for our oddly shaped room. it was also a splurge on our budget, but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and buy the pretty, ya know? and talk about last minute- we literally purchased and spread it out with minutes to spare before our guest arrived! like our chests, rug wasn't in perfect condition, but it was clean and colorful, and since the bed would be covering a big chunk of it, it really didn't need to be flawless...
so are you ready for the reveal?
before:
and after:
not so bad we think, and the best part is our guest
really likes it!
the painting in photo you may recognize, as we painted and posted about it last year; art glass floor vase we bought specifically for the room and filled it with papyrus snipped from our front yard; the chic vintage white chair we borrowed from a friend who had it tucked away in their garage; and the table we made with our own two hands when we took a woodworking class way back in the 90's- it's been stored in a closet for years, as it doesn't really go with our decor anymore, but we can't just get rid of it since we nearly lost a finger while making it! (not really, but we did discover while taking the class that table saws terrify us, so it easily *could* have happened... ;-)
nightstand ain't so bad cleaned up, is it? told ya so! same for rug! vintage ceramic lamp is topped with a black and silver target lampshade we bought about a dozen of while they were on clearance, many, many years ago; our stock is just about gone now, but talk about a well spent $3.99 (each). they sure are versatile!
the vintage painting was an ugly still life- we painted the whole thing black, including frame, then applied thin artist's tape for the lines and coated the canvas portion with the same white house paint (pratt and lambert "designer white") we used on the trim- all done on the floor of the bedroom while we were painting the walls- talk about multitasking! the duvet and pillows, we again picked up at our beloved target while they were on clearance a few years back (we purchased new white sheets and towels for our guest at target too; we think the thomas o'brien towels are surprisingly good quality for the price, and guests should always have plenty of clean white towels). on the nightstand are a stack of books, as well as a scented candle- m21 thinks reading material and a scented candle are musts in a guest room, in addition to the fluffy white towels and fresh flowers. we also like to provide a robe (pilfered from past vacation spots) for our guests to lounge in, because who has room in their luggage to pack a robe? but they sure are nice to have at your destination...
well, now y'all know why m21 was rather light in his posting last week- hard to type while holding a paint brush! whaddya think of our makeover? would y'all be brave enough to paint and redecorate 72 hours before a guest arrives? is maison21 a crazy fool for even attempting it?