Red-Headed Stepchild; AKA My Guest Room

Guest rooms are one of my absolute favorite rooms to design & decorate. What better space in which to pump up the drama and take bigger risks than this, often lonely, corner of my second floor? If I make a hideous design decision here, no worries- it’s a relatively easy part of the house to avoid. Just shut the door and pretend it doesn’t exist – which in a nutshell describes my past approach to this sad sack of a room.


That is until a couple of weeks before visitors are due to arrive and then I begin a frenzied, desperate and frankly pathetic rush through other rooms, pilfering enough niceties to make it somewhat inviting in there. Try as I might to convince myself, in my heart I know better: last minute clippings from the backyard haphazardly shoved into a mason jar do NOT equal luxury.

Well, no more treating my guest room as an afterthought my friends. After nearly 5 years in this house it is finally time to tackle a room that has been largely neglected by my designer eyes and DIY-hungry hands. Instead of a room filled with a mish-mash of random leftovers from the combining of our two, broke-ass, single-people households, I’ve decided to put some actual creative energy towards making this guest room an insanely gorgeous place for our guests (AKA B’s mom & dad and drunken dinner guests) to stay.

It’ll be a slow transformation, over the course of the next several months as my frustratingly tight budget allows. Bleh. Such a filthy and depressing word – “budget”. So far all I’ve decided on is the design concept (Modern Moroccan) and color palette (cerulean, persimmon & chocolate brown with punches of white).  My next post will be the concept & color boards, what fun!

The 3-drawer, particle-board-chic nightstand from my first apartment will be replaced; as will the TV stand from the boyfriend's first place. The issue of whether to keep or sell the giant, room-dominating TV itself will be settled between the two of us like gentlemen …in the streets…at noon…with pistols blazing.

I’ll be making an upholstered headboard, (tufted if I dare!), stenciling a dramatic pattern on the headboard wall, creating some new art and hopefully, hopefully I’ll figure out just how in the hell I can afford this beauty:

It’s so delicious and I’ve been lusting after it for years! -Photo from VivaTerra.com

So ambitious! I can’t wait to get started!

First up is the stencil design for my headboard wall. I’m thinking something like this pattern seen on Centsational Girl.

Come back often to check out my progress along with helpful tutorials for the DIY projects that will go into creating my Modern Moroccan masterpiece of guest room! When all is said and done I just might consider taking reservations – I’ve gotta pay for that damned chandelier somehow!