Guest Bedroom Makeover

With our wedding in July and family and friends staying with us for the occasion, I figured it was time I finally give our guest room a little love. I hadn’t touched it since I moved in the house, so there was nothing cute about it. It was a bed in a room and that’s it. Not the most welcoming space, to say the least. 

With it being our guest room, I didn’t want to spend a ton since it really only gets used a few times a year. Today, I’m going to show you how we decorated the space and gave it some life. It doesn’t have to take much to dress up a bedroom and make it look stylish and grown up. 

The Design Plans

Our guest room is in the lower level of our split level home, where the style is a little more rustic and outdoorsy compared to the upstairs half of our house (where the living room and kitchen are.) I knew I wanted to keep the guest room outdoorsy with a modern cabin vibe to tie into the rest of the basement.

Usually when designing a room I have a jumping off piece or something in the room that’s my inspiration. For the guest room, my main inspiration piece was the classic Pendleton Glacier National Park blanket with yellow, blue, green and red stripes. The blanket has the perfect vintage modern rustic feel with the color scheme I was going for. Unfortunately, the wool Pendleton blanket is spendy and I wasn’t willing to make that investment, but I found a similar Pendleton blanket with the same colored stripes for $30! I used this blanket as my inspiration as I picked out all the other pieces for the room. 

For the overall design, I envisioned light birch wood, matte black accents with a touch of brass, fun art with a vintage fishing vibe (Jordon is a big outdoorsman), and cozy textiles to warm it up and add texture.

Repurposing Furniture 

For furniture, I had an old iron bed frame that was my grandpa’s (he and his brothers slept in it when they were kids!) and my mom gave me an old dresser she had in her house growing up. The iron bed frame was rusting, so we give it a few coats of black spray paint and it completely elevated the looked. Looks good as new! For the dresser, I give it a fresh coat of white paint and swapped out the knobs for matte black hardware. I love how each piece turned out, and it’s even better I didn’t have to buy new!

Jordon already had the wood bench, so the only furniture I still needed to get for the space were two night stands to go on each side of the bed and a little accent chair.

Because the bed frame is taller than the average bed frame, it was tricky to find side tables that were the proper height for the bed and didn’t feel too low. After lots of scouring online I decided a stool would probably be the only side table that’s actually tall enough. I ended up finding a pair of IKEA stools on Facebook Marketplace that were the perfect height and had the light birch wood I wanted.

To fill the nook next to the dresser, I wanted an accent chair for guests to set stuff on or to just lounge in. I found this cute rattan daisy chair from Article and it was exactly what I was looking for! The chair is actually an outdoor chair but it works so well in the space and it doesn’t look like a “cheap” flimsy outdoors piece. One of the great things about outdoor furniture is it’s typically cheaper and made of durable of materials. The chair feels so sturdy and well-made, and it’s actually really comfortable! Article is one of my favorite sources for quality, beautiful furniture and even their outdoor furniture is no exception.

Choosing Wall Art

My parents had an old wooden oar laying around their house and I decided that fit the outdoorsy cabin vibe perfectly. I had seen a few ideas on Pinterest that turned the oar into a functional piece by adding hooks and loved it. I got matte black hooks from Home Depot and attached them to the oar.

Above the oar I wanted to hang three pieces of art. I was looking for affordable vintage fishing themed art. Etsy had a huge selection, many of which were instant downloadable PDFs that cost just a few bucks! I ended up going with this vintage fishing map, this fly fishing lures print, and this oar blueprint. Each print looks great and I love how they complement each other while sticking with the red, yellow, blue, green color palette. 

Above the bed I didn’t have a whole lot of room to work with, so I decided another framed print was the best option. I found the pretty lake view print on Etsy for under $3!

On the wall parallel to the bed, I didn’t want to hang another print, so I thought hanging a basket with a little depth and texture would look nice. The basket from Article was exactly what I was looking for. When it arrived in the mail it was much bigger than I anticipated, but in a good way!

Since our guest room is in the basement with just one small window, natural light is pretty much nonexistent so adding accent lighting was a must. Even just capturing these photos was a challenge. I like wall-mounted sconces because they take up less room on the already small bedside stool surface and fill some visual wall space. The sconces were actually left over from our bedroom when the company sent us a new set because of a recall, but the original sconces we had still worked great so we were able to use the extra pair in our guest room.  

Cozy textiles

To warm up the space and make it feel cozy and inviting like a cabin should feel, I incorporated a couple luxurious textiles. The wool throw draped on the chair is SO soft and warm. Our basement gets pretty cool, so I wanted to have an extra blanket available for guests. Next, I added a sheepskin to the wood bench to soften it up and again, give it the warm rustic cozy vibe. The quality is amazing and it’s thick and incredibly soft! It really adds a nice comfy touch that the space really needed. 

So that’s our guest room makeover! I’m super happy with how well it turned out. It’s the perfect balance of modern meets rustic cabin. I think the guests loved the updated space too 🙂

Guest Room Sources:

bed frame, vintage / white bedding / sheets / plaid pillow, similar / white stripe blanket / Sconces / Woven basket hung on wall / Wool throw / Rattan chair / dresser, vintage / black house lantern / sheepskin  / Wood bench, handmade / lake view print / vintage fishing map / fly fishing lures print / oar blueprint

Thank you to Article, a favorite brand I love and trust, for partnering on this post.