FOCAL POINT STYLING: Getting Guest & Thanksgiving Ready

Over the weekend, I spent some time starting to winterize our home as well as plan my Thanksgiving table. Sadly, it won't be filled with 16 or more friends and family, but we will have one more guest here vs. last year: Jeff's mom is flying into town on Tuesday evening to spend Thanksgiving with us. I had also asked my mom to fly in, but she can't because of her work schedule. We picked up most of our Thanksgiving groceries (and bird!) Saturday, minus just a few last minute items to pick up next week. I gave the oven a test run this weekend with some chocolate chip cookies for Jeff. Since temps have (finally) dropped here in Arizona, this was a great way to help warm the house!

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And now that the closets have been sorted for donations and summer clothes have been exchanged for winter, it's also time to pull together the last space in this house: a guest room. To get more use out of the space other than just a guest room, we opted for futon-type sofa: The armless sleeper sofa. While out Friday afternoon, I found a (new to me & area) store called Garden Ridge, and they had two styles & colors to choose from. We had looked at similar styles at stores and online at Target, but with the shorter time frame + extra shipping charges, shopping local was the way to go. The sleeper came in micro-suede or faux leather: We opted for the softer micro suede. I wish it had been offered in off white, but tan or black were the options to choose from. Since the room is already a pale blue-grey with existing tan rug, I went for the black. It's very similar to my inspiration photo I spotted in the small space issue of House & Home.

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Lord knows, I already have plenty of pillows, and I also have plenty of framed black & white photos I've captured & framed. Since upstairs will primarily be winterized with holiday, winter woods and Ansel Adams images, I'm going to use my B&W beach photos from the summer. The room is next to the garden room, so I'm going to link the two spaces together with a few collected seaside mementos. I already had framed a quad of 4 coastal images in the first floor entry, so now the lower level will have a coastal retreat vibe - a nice little get-a-way from this desert. No pics yet, bot the framed images have been collected and leaning against the wall, to go up today.

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Later when it warms up a bit (low 40's this morning! I'm heading outside to paint! (YAY!) In our FL living room, I had a wall, mostly of collected mirrors. They were mainly silver, with touches of gold, but this year, I'm painting them ALL gold to hang on our charcoal grey wall behind the sofa for holiday. I don't want to do the white tree this year: I'd like to go more naturals & greens with white. Since Jeff's mom will be here next week, I'd like to get a head start this week on some holiday prep like removing the black I layered in for Fall, switch out the layered woven rugs for the heavier white shag, and add more panels & sheers to windows to keep the cold out. I'll already have the mirrors up, and I'm thinking I'll probably pack up the orange leaves of fall for some fresh cuttings from our neighborhood to mix with my branches. For the table, I'll use my thrifted white dinnerware I've collected: I truly love the idea of using layered white dishes: it gives a clean palette and lets the abundance of food be the star at Thanksgiving. On the stoop: I may remove the orange leaves and I'd like to paint the orange pumpkins white and use them to spell "thanks".