this time at home has meant work on the house + doing all sorts of things to make it ours. the next item on my list (that fit with a budget-friendly fix): the spare bedroom. or, as we call it in this house = the cave.

the cave is the absolute best place in this whole house to sleep. it’s in the basement, which means it’s darker than most rooms and it’s always cool. it’s quiet. it’s the place that the mr. and i retreat to when we are exhausted. it’s also the place that my sister literally made a reservation at (pre-pandemic) for a “mommy’s weekend away.”

a lot of the decor and colors in the house were earth tones…lots of yellowish browns, which are just not my jam. i love clean, bright, and light. and i cannot even tell you how much different this room feels now with its new coat of paint, new light fixture, and new curtains!

so, here’s the design deets for y’all!

• the bed + furniture: this was all straight from the spare bedroom in our old house. it’s the ikea malm line. someday we might replace it, but for now, it’s a great bed and it has a fabulous mattress on it. (i mean, when family are making reservations at your house…) i do still have a goal to add some brushed gold pulls to the drawers, but i’m still searching for just the right ones!

• bedding: i love, love, love bedding. i love feeling like i’m sleeping in a giant, fluffy nest of blankets and pillows. this bed has a pillowtop mattress, with sheets, a comforter, and a duvet. oh, and don’t forget the fluffy pillows! the bedding is kind of a hodge podge: sheets are from tj maxx, comforter is kate spade, and the duvet cover is from ikea (and, is one of my absolute favorite finds ever!)

• curtains: these are light pink velvet with tassels (and light blocking!) from target. want a funny story about the window treatments? make sure to read all the way to the bottom!

• light fixture: here’s where we did a little more diy! we found the fixture a year+ ago from menards, and we actually bought it to replace the ceiling fan in our sunroom. guess where it sat for a year+? in a box. in the laundry room. it comes only in a black finish, so i decided with a little white paint, it would be *perfect* in the updated guest bedroom! so, between the husband and i, we got it painted (and let me tell you, with all of those individual little metal pieces, it was *not* easy!) but i love it so much and love how much bright light it throws out in that room!

• new paint: i’m usually a die-hard pittsburgh paints fan (grand distinction from menards!), but we happened to be at lowes for some other stuff, and i tracked down the color i wanted and went with the valspar. all in all, it’s not a bad paint. it coated well, and required the usual two coats. yes, it’s pink (that was what my husband said when he walked in the room!) no, i don’t normally do pink, but i liked it for this room!

the room is all ready for our guests (or, for anyone else in our house who needs to sleep somewhere else!) it’s cozy and bright and modern, and i officially have all the drive to keep making more changes in the house!

 

 

 

p.s. want to see what happened with the window treatments? so, there was a valance in this room. i went to take it down, thinking the valance bar was on brackets that i’d slide the bar off of, and then remove the brackets from the wall. i took the left side of the bar off the bracket, took the right side off, expecting the bar to come down…nope. the center of the metal bar was *nailed to the wall*. (not sure whyyy?) so, then we had to pry it out of the wall. 😜 i said a lot of words (not great ones), there was some sweat, i think i broke a nail, and i got to use a pretty big hammer. the mr. then stepped in to finish prying it out of the wall, thank goodness.