Once you start painting, it's hard to stop as new paint just makes everything look so much better. We've only got a few spaces in our home now that are still wearing their old crusty paint job, the rest of the house is fresh and ready to have personality added to it. With paint cans filling the hallway and rollers everywhere, we proceeded to tackle the guest room . This room is in the front of the house and was originally a second dining room but my clever Dad enclosed it with some old blackwood doors he owned. Living back in the city I am unsure how much use the guest room will get (it's only had four sets of visitors through in the last 6 months) but since we've got the space and already owned a spare bed, it seems like just as good a use for the room. In fact husband and I spent 2 weeks in the guest room bed while we were painting our main bedroom. We ended up finishing painting the guest room about a week before Henry came along.
Recently I found out my sister in law and niece are coming to visit from overseas for 10 days so it seemed like the time to get the guest room together before they arrive. It's exciting to add special touches to a room and make it feel that little bit more homely and welcomming.
A before shot: The room was the same dark pink as the rest of the front of the house but with some cracking and necessary filling needed. The before shot was taken with the old owners belongings before we added the blackwood doors.
Even with the doors the room still fells large enough to be another bedroom and the house doesn't feel any smaller than it did previously. We removed the curtains quickly as they really weren't our taste and then had a blank (albeit pink) canvas to plan a guest room in.
If you look closely in the right corner of the picture you can see how the crown molding has fallen down a little. This meant that we needed to remove the crown molding and put it back nice and straight.
The process of replacing it involved using the original pieces and simply reattaching them in a straight line, using screws and nails to hold them in place until the gyprock had dried. Once it was dry the screws and nails could then be removed. Hopefully in the future we can use some watercolour paints in the future to fix up the marbling and get rid of the white lines left. For now though it is much better that the crown molding is straight and neat.
After this work the room received a few coats of antique white (following the usual painting process) before furniture was moved back in and a few pictures and items we had around the house were given a new home. When decorating the guest room, I used items that needed a home (and I didn't want to part with) and placed them in the room. It is really nice to have a nice, neat, clean room, always ready for use when someone pops round.
The dolls house was built by my grandfather when I was a child, the chest of drawers used to be my nannas when she was a little girl, the bed was secondhand and my Dad built the bedside cabinets (he's so clever). The blanket holder was an upcycled freebie, the Marilyn Manroe picture was purchased in on a holiday in Vietnam and the rest of the items in the room have been thrifted. As my niece is also coming to stay there is a temporary portacot and a few items for her around the room.
I plan to do a feature wall in the room as I loved having the chevron wall in our previous house and would really like to have a special interesting wall in this home. I won't be doing a chevron wall but it will be much more interesting than a plain white wall :) I also want to keep adding to this room, maybe even some more bunting, to make it more cute and special but it is a far cry from what we started out with.
With a needy newborn I just need to rest for a little before this project will happen but it's always nice to dream of future ideas.
Lisa x
