FOCAL POINT STYLING: guest room

During the past two weeks, I've been purging closets and storage areas, making donations to local thrift establishments and sending donations to New Jersey Sandy Survivors. With the spaces being cleared, it made it easier to get the house holiday ready. Last year at this time, we were just getting settled from moving from Florida. This year, we'll actually be having a guest: Jeff's mom is flying in tonite from Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with us. Using items I already had plus some pieces I've collected from thrift this year, I was able to convert the last room in a rental home into a guest space for under $450. Mixing in wood pieces and collected baskets added texture plus helped warm the otherwise grey + black + white space. I created another gallery wall with photos I captured in Florida & framed. Because most pieces were already on hand (minus the sleep sofa), the space was done in a day. What helped a lot was the existing neutral foundation of gray walls and the beige carpet.

Here's the breakdown:

Pieces I already had: reused and shifted from house:
- Charcoal Ikea panels (96" $20 2011)
- Black Wicker Chair ($60 thrifted in FL 2010)
- Various Shells collected from FL & San Diego (2007-2012)
- Framed Photos: I shot 5 of 7, two are prints (had since 2005)
- Bamboo Ceramic Lamp (Read: My $1 Lamp Find 2010)
- Square lampshade (had from 2005)
- White Throw ($10 Homegoods 2009)
- Pair of geometric print pillows ($18 Homegoods 2011)
- Pair of ZGallerie Euro pillows ($30 2011) with grey linen C&B covers ($20 2008)
- Large Sunglasses Print (had since 1986 - picked up frame at Ikea 2011)

Finishing Touches (mostly from local AZ thrift)
- Wood & Brass Trunk ($10 Goodwill Chandler)
- Wicker stool ($6 Goodwill ReDesign Store Scottsdale)
- Wicker planter turned to side table ($3 Thrift Treasures Chandler)
- Wicker Urn ($12 Salvation Army Scottsdale)
- Wood & Brass Bar Cart ($5 Goodwill Mesa)
- 4 Round Baskets (3 on wall + 1 as top on urn) ($2ea various Goodwill's in Chandler
- Bowl Basket ($3)
- 2 Mexican Blankets ($3 ea Goodwill)
- Window panel Rod ($12 Ross)

One Big Purchase: Black Armless Microfiber Sleep Sofa $149 found at a store here called Garden Ridge. The store just opened in July and it's like a Home Depot for decorators. (More about them in another post!) Jeff had a rewards card he was able to put towards purchasing sleep pillows and a full sheet set, which fit perfectly into the trunk for storage, without taking up any extra space in a closet. The trunk is light enough to push to the side when the sofa is open to sleep. And I kept the space by the window cleared of furniture, for our guest (Jeff's mom) to be able to put her luggage.

In the guest bathroom, I cleared the vanity for guest toiletries and a stack of cleaned guest towels. The medicine cabinet turned unto a great little space to put collected hotel toiletries to use. I also repurposed some glass candle holders to hold q-tips, cotton balls and a few smaller bottles. The holders were the free ones you get when you buy mini candles at Bath & Body Works.

Downstairs space Before:

Rooms transformed into a Indoor Garden Room (read more: here), a Guest Bath Room (read more: here) , and now the adjacent Guest Room. So even though we're living in the desert, our guests and us still have a seaside-like spaces to retreat to...

SEE: Indoor Garden Room

SEE: Guest Bath Room

Guest Room

Hope this helps inspire you and shows that it need not take much to pull together a guest space or a small space on a small budget - with a little shift and shopping thrift!

Thanks for stopping by!

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".