Guest Room Makeover: From Peachy to Peaceful
I really love DIY projects, and this post, Guest Room Makeover: From Peachy to Peaceful, is the first in a series that will feature my mid-pandemic upstairs transformation.
I wanted to choose soothing, peaceful colors with a sense of cohesion, but I didn’t want to paint all of the rooms the same color. I brought home multiple paint swatches and small samples of paint colors. Once I chose what I liked, I painted each of them onto a piece of watercolor paper to make sure they played well together, and I really liked the combination.
The colors above are the wall colors I chose for my four upstairs bedrooms. I created this grid with online screenshots of each color and my Collagable app (free version). The paint I used for the room featured in this post is Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. I absolutely love this color. It is a lovely green/blue/gray. The trim is Westhighland White by Sherwin Williams, which I highly recommend. It is a clean, ‘not too white’ shade of white and it has been a gorgeous complement to any wall color I’ve painted. Though all of the rooms in my house are not painted the same color, all of my trim is painted exclusively with Westhighland White.
The room was a peachy pink, and actually pretty, but my daughter and I painted it in 2005 and I was ready for an update. So the transformation begins…
There is a built-in bookcase in this room. I covered the inside of it with fabric years ago, and set up an “apartment” for a tiny cloth mouse named Maddox for my grandsons on the second shelf. It is obviously ransacked in this photo, most likely by one of the aforementioned grandsons.
I pulled the fabric off and painted the back of the bookcase with the wall color, which turned out quite nicely. I repainted the bookcase itself with the trim paint and added new pulls. Actually, my husband added them. I just picked them out. And just so you don’t worry, Maddox and friends moved down the hall to a swanky new apartment in the boys’ room. Their room will be featured in an upcoming post.
The dresser and chest of drawers were antiques from my husband’s family. I love their design, but never liked the color.
We had new carpet installed throughout the upstairs and it is a grayish color. That made me like the furniture color even less. So, with great joy, I decided to paint the furniture.
I have used Rust-oleum Chalk Paint on several pieces of furniture and I have been very happy with it. I only used white on previous projects, but this time I decided to be adventurous and try the Aged Gray. The paint goes on smoothly and usually takes about 3 coats.
It turned out beautifully, but I felt that there was not enough color contrast between the furniture and the wall.
So, I found charcoal gray glaze and rubbed it on sparingly with a cotton cloth. I was very happy with the results. I would share the name of the glaze, but I used it all and can’t remember it. Sorry about that. The Rust-oleum brand makes one that would probably be as good or better than what I used. If you are interested, you can find it on Amazon here. Home Depot may have it as well.
I found these pulls at Home Depot and liked their simplicity, but I thought they were too dark for the furniture. To remedy that, I dry brushed them with some of the gray chalk paint. If these knobs were going to be used often, I would have also sprayed a clear varnish on them to keep the chalk paint from being rubbed off.
I covered the bench with a pretty gray velvet.
Not long after my furniture makeover, this popped up on IG. Interesting color choice. Intriguing price. I felt validated. Plus, I knew this effect could be achieved on an existing piece of furniture for less than $100. Now you do. too.
There is a nice view of our back yard from this room. And our frogs will “sing” you to sleep in the summertime. That alone is worth the price of admission.
I repainted the bathroom walls, trim. and cabinets. The bathroom wall was a deep turquoise that didn’t match the newly painted bedroom walls, so I painted them with Kraft Paper by Sherwin Williams. It’s a very nice neutral. I got the bathmats and shower curtain at Target. My husband replaced the vanity light and the toilet. He also added a wood frame around the mirror and I painted it with the trim paint.
I found a very pretty set of curtains at Home Goods. They were 84″ long, so I cut them in half and was able to make curtains for both the bathroom window and the small window in the bedroom.
This was what the bedroom looked like, circa 2007.
And this is it now. I just love it. So peaceful and happy.
I wanted to add some fun colors to the room, so I chose a comforter with that was bright and cheerful. I got this one at Target, but you can also find it for less on Amazon here. The wingback chair in this photo is one of a pair that I have in this room. They were my mom’s, and I’ve always liked them and I think they look great with the comforter.
This iron bed is an antique that my mother-in-law bought for my daughter years ago. I added a couple of coats of flat white spray paint to it to freshen it up. I was not allowed (by my daughter) to paint the cedar chest, which was my dad’s.
I am so happy with how this room turned out. I hope this guest room makeover will bring you some DIY inspiration!
