Update: We brought in a few of the items on our to-do list below and it changed everything! Well, not everything, but a few pieces came out (the brown blanket is history, at least in this room) and a few things moved around. Gotta love those last-minute tweaks. Check out the whole reveal here.
Here’s what the room looks like right now (these photos were taken an hour before we uploaded them):
This is definitely an improvement compared to the spartan setup from Monday…
…but there’s still more to do and several items aren’t in their final spots. Here’s what we’ve completed so far:
- Removed clutter (donated items via Habitat for Humanity ReStore and relocated things to the playroom)
- Bought a mattress, box spring and an inexpensive bed frame
- Dressed the bed with bedding we already owned
- Added shower curtain and bathroom essentials (towels, new toilet seat, etc.)
- Painted the room
- Hung curtains
And here’s our outstanding to-do list:
- Hang something above the bed to balance the window (most likely a large round mirror to soften the angles)
- Add a nightstand and table lamp
- Style the empty bookcase between the bathroom and bedroom doors (we’ll eventually swap it for a dresser to increase storage)
- Wash and hem the curtains
We tried numerous layouts—diagonal bed placement, the bed on the other window wall, centered on the back wall, etc.—and settled on the configuration shown because it felt the most balanced, especially once the green headboard and our old yellow Pottery Barn rug were in place. The headboard was a DIY project and the rug will be replaced with a larger size in the future.
The off-center rug placement at the foot of the bed wasn’t intuitive, but the colors tied everything together. Bringing in two slipper chairs (previously in the living room) and squishing them together like a loveseat helped make the arrangement feel intentional and balanced. Once we add a night table to the left of the bed, the layout will read even better. Above the headboard we plan to hang a round mirror to introduce some curves into a room filled with rectangles and squares.
We added a $10 white bedskirt from Target to coordinate with bedding we already had from the old guest room. The brown-and-white blanket is from Bed Bath & Beyond, the white comforter is from Ikea, printed pillowcases are Pottery Barn, the yellow pinwheel pillow is from Target, and the long blue pillow came from TJ Maxx. The bedding isn’t finalized—we mixed what we had and liked the playful result. We may tweak it again once the last to-dos are done.
Psst—some bedding items have already been swapped out. See this post for how the room looked when guests arrived.
The curtains are from Ikea—two panels for $39 total, which works out to about $19 each for extra-long 95″ panels. I prefer hanging curtains high to make standard ceilings feel taller, so the 95″ length was ideal. They still need washing and hemming, and we plan to add crown molding above them later.
We even swapped the basic brass closet pull for a small lime green-yellow knob we found at Hobby Lobby for $1.25, pairing it with oil-rubbed bronze hardware to match the curtain rods. The curtain rods themselves are budget-friendly Target finds at $9.99 each.
Before I finish the last few tasks and rearrange things for the hundredth time, here’s what the room looked like just eight days ago:
What a transformation—definitely a big improvement in just a few days.