Cheap Decorating Tips for a Guest Bedroom Revamp

Posted on Feb 3, 2012 in Featured, Get That Look | 8 comments

At the risk of

sounding like I’m living in the past, I’m going to reference the 2011 holiday season again…but ONLY because I have so much to share with you that I haven’t yet had a chance to post :)

As you may know, I was busy making some changes on-the-cheap to my mother in law’s guest bedroom (stay tuned for a tutorial next week on the painted dresser in the space). Originally, my mother in law wanted to create a relaxing, soothing and inviting guest bedroom. She wanted to incorporate a light blue colour, and after having a silver-grey broadloom installed, she decided to paint the walls powder blue and get a matching blue comforter. I had to break the bad news to her…the room was TOO BLUE! And powder blue to boot…a favourite colour of geriatric and infant bedrooms. Yikes.

The key to creating a colour scheme is balance, especially when it comes to small spaces and a limited budget. In this case, the amount of blue in the space was overkill:

BEFORE: The Too-Blue bedroom

BEFORE: More blue blue blue...and not enough furniture.

Luckily for me, my mother in law is a fabulous “client”…she is not overly committed or attached to her furniture or wall colours, which makes it easy to make changes to her spaces. Even though she had JUST finished painting the guest room (powder blue…), we all agreed that the wall colour needed to make more of a statement. The blue walls were making the room look dated and they were causing the silver grey carpet to look blue as well. It was like a blue box. Too much blue, not enough contrast and even less drama.

AFTER: A peaceful oasis with hints of blue.

Despite the tight budget and timeline, the room underwent quite the transformation. Here’s what we changed:

• Painted the walls a fresh, soothing, warm grey to balance out the cool blue.
• Painted the dated pine dresser (tutorial posted next week!).
• Bought matching nightstands to create symmetry and balance out the furniture. We used 2 VALLVIK three-drawer chests from IKEA on either side of the bed. I like it when bedroom furniture pieces are different, as opposed to the “matchy-matchy” look that results from buying bedroom sets. Mis-matched furniture pieces provide a more customized look.
• Bought two IKEA ALANG table lamps in a white shade for the nightstands.
• Bought a black and white herringbone toss cushion for the bed.
• Placed a black wicker occasional chair from the basement in the new room.
• Swapped the boring builder-standard light for a cute matte black iron chandelier.
• Hung fabulous art made by Jeff Campagna from THIS POST.
• Styled the room with a couple of contemporary accessories and a few personal touches.
• Switched the small circle mirror for a larger buffed pewter mirror from another room.

AFTER: Symmetrical night stands help create a more polished look and add some visual balance.

AFTER: An up-cycled and repainted old dresser is now a fabulous feature piece.

AFTER: An iron chandelier from Home Depot Canada adds drama.

AFTER: Typography pop art with a heavy gold frame adds flare to the space.

AFTER: A combination of pretty accessories finish the space.

AFTER: Personal touches make the space special, like this photograph of my mother in law's mother and a friend sitting on the porch steps.

AFTER: A new look!