When we bought our house the above room was the previous owners little girl’s room… in the 1970s. Everything had to go in this room – especially the air conditioning duct running up the corner wall. This bedroom, for now, is our guest bedroom, and I think you’ll be amazed at how it turned out.
This was a complete and total renovation project that started with removing the wall paper, radiators, and matted down carpet.
I actually kind of think this room was really stylish when it was renovated 40 years ago. It just had really started to become run down.
We gutted all of the upstairs exterior walls so we could insulate them. To save a little, we kept all the plaster on the interior walls and patched them. Our drywall guy did such a great job marrying the two that I forget the interior walls are plaster until I hang a picture.
If you look closely in the top photo you will see we had some major holes to fix in the wood floor before we restored it. (The top left corner has a piece of foam stuck in it so we would be reminded not to step there and fall through.)
One hole was from the air duct. The other, who knows, but we patched them both with remnants of old wood floor our neighbor had pulled out of his old home. All the houses in our neighborhood have the same type of wood floor.
We installed new windows. Before the window install, we gently took off the 100 year old (already painted) wood work and labeled it. We restored every piece of trim, repainted it, and put it back up exactly where it was before.
I actually find myself meandering up to the room on the weekends for my Sunday nap. The curtains are from Ikea fabric (I think it’s now discontinued), and they are lined with blackout liner. I sewed them into curtains and then added black pom pom trim from Amazon.
You might recognize my DIY carpet tile rug from this Curbly post. The bed was an upholstered headboard I did years ago. I simply recovered the box frame with the same fabric and added legs. The light fixture is from Lowes.
The photo is an engineer print of a stock photo of white flowers. One day, an actual piece of art might replace this photo. Finding art can take time so while we look, the engineer print was an inexpensive way to add something interesting for now.
The sconces are inexpensive lamp shade sconces that I spray painted black. I switched out the lamp shade with vintage glass shades that I found at our local archetectural salvage store.
Our guest bathroom is small, so I wanted there to be a place for our guests to get ready other than the bathroom. A bedside table desk was the solution because the room is so small. It also helped to hide the plumbing access panel on this wall. The table is actually an old lack coffee table top from Ikea that I have had for years, and these “mid-centuryish” table legs from Menards.
This little guy might be my favorite thrift store find yet.
We do not have ceiling fans in the room. I love vintage fans and think they work move air better than newer versions, but they are not necessarily safe in the kid area.
Meet our family hippo my son has named “Hank. Hank is the first thing you see when you come to the top of our stairs. He is often decked out in festive accessories for different seasons and holidays. Sometimes he might have something to say via sticky note.
This is one of my favorite rooms in our house. Maybe because it’s one of the only ones we’ve fully finished!
Want more makeovers? I few months ago I shared my little boy’s room makeover. I started reading Curbly when I stumbled onto the Curbly house living room makeover, so stumble over there yourself if you want to see another Curbly before and after.
Very nice! Clean, light, cheerful! Just perfect!
@troutay Thank you very much!
Great makeover! What paint color did you use on the walls?
@Kat Thank you first of all. I used Benjamin Moore Gray Owl. I will say that in a room with less light a tint of green comes out in it a little and it feels a little darker. If you have lots of light it is the perfect light gray in my opinion…not too blue not to beige.