Guest Room Dresser Update

Nope, this isn’t a weight-loss post. The “scale” I’m talking about is a tiny bookshelf that we shoved into the guest room just days before my mom arrived a few months ago. It was one of those too-small-for-the-space pieces that worked because we already had it, but it always looked undersized in the room.

We also forgot to update you about a little furniture shuffle that followed after we received a dresser from John’s dad for our bedroom. The dresser we gained meant our old IKEA Malm — the one we bought five years ago when we moved from NYC to Richmond — was moved into the guest room. The Malm replaced that tiny bookshelf and immediately improved the room’s scale and function.

The Malm isn’t perfect — it has a slightly wonky drawer and a few scratches if you look closely — but it gives guests a proper spot to unpack and store clothing. Mostly we’re happy with it because it was free and fit the space well enough. Someday we’d love to find a wider, solid-wood thrifted dresser that will stand up to decades of use, but for now this works fine.

For a while the top of the dresser looked a little bare. Last week I dug through our storage room — the future playroom and potential second kids’ bedroom — and found the large mirror we scored at a garage sale for $5. It had been wrapped in bubble wrap since our last move and was leaning in a corner. The mirror has traveled with us through different rooms: it used to sit above this dresser in our old guest room and then moved to our old sunroom when the guest room became our office. It’s slightly oversized for the Malm, with about an inch of overhang on each side, but we like the look and it feels familiar.

Child safety is important to us. Clara never uses this room unsupervised — we keep the door closed — and we tested the dresser by slamming the door and giving it a few tugs to make sure it doesn’t tip. It stayed put, but if we ever use the room more frequently with Clara around, we’ll anchor the dresser to the wall like we should. Safety first, even when we’re feeling casual about décor.

Of course, the dresser needed a little styling for guests. I added a small stack of magazines and a book called The United Cakes Of America because who doesn’t enjoy flipping through photos of incredible iced creations? There’s also our piggy bank — for some reason that always ends up on the guest-room dresser, just like in our last house — where we drop spare change. It’s a small, silly detail, but it makes the space feel lived-in and welcoming.

I love that the dresser provides functional storage for guests and a place for us to stash extras like spare shampoo or towels in the top drawer. It changes the room from a stopgap space into something genuinely useful when someone stays over.

Because we inherited the new bedroom dresser from John’s parents when they sold their house, all these guest-room updates were essentially free. There’s a particular satisfaction in making small improvements without spending money — rearranging what you already own can transform a space more than you’d expect.

Have you ever swapped furniture between rooms to solve scale issues or to refresh a space? Found a perfect curbside or dumpster treasure that saved you a trip to the store? I love those stories. Even if your perfect find hasn’t happened yet, swapping and styling what you already own can get you a long way toward a room that’s both pretty and practical.