Our guest room has been used as a storage space for the past six months. A friend who moved back to England gave me furniture and decor, as did a neighbor who moved out of state. Thank you so much to both families for the lovely items! Both friend and neighbor had mentioned they had items they wouldn’t be taking with them in their move. My brother and his wife had a big house they were renovating and needed furniture, so I stored the furniture and decor in our guest room. I also stalked Facebook buy, sell, trade groups for specific items they needed in their home. My brother paid for the items, I was simply the shopper and decorator for them while my brother and his wife worked hard on their home renovations. They couldn’t even think about decor because they were literally spending all their waking hours (outside of his job) on home projects.
And then…. Covid hit. Their renovations took longer because of Covid and then we couldn’t visit them because of stay-at-home orders. And so, our guest room was piled with boxes and extra furniture for months on end.
In June we were finally able to go visit and see their newly renovated home! I was so happy with the results and they are thrilled with their new home. Their hard work paid off! And I was excited to bring them all the decor and furniture from my guest room. It actually took 2 trips because everything couldn’t fit in one 8×12 Uhaul trailer. Therefore, it took 2 five hour trips to Sugarland (Houston area) from Southlake (Dallas/Fort Worth area) to bring them everything. It was great visiting them twice! I brought my kids and they got to play with their cousins twice during the month of June. My husband Justin (yes both my husband and my brother have the same name) couldn’t go with us, because he had to work. It was so nice to visit my brother and his family, especially since my kids couldn’t attend summer camps as usual because of Covid.
Here are the links to articles I wrote about my brother’s house projects and decorating their new home:
https://livingjoydaily.com/2020/06/10/home-renovations-at-my-brothers-new-home/
https://livingjoydaily.com/2020/07/03/decorating-at-my-brother-justins-part-2/
I didn’t take before photos of our guest room because it was basically a storage room for the past six months. Before that, it was a basic guest room and we had used the furniture from our master bedroom in Florida for that space. The furniture was a Tommy Bahamas look. I gave that set to my brother, as I wanted to turn the space into a combined guest room and office space for me, and my existing office furniture did not match the Tommy Bahamas look. My office furniture is two desks and a cabinet that are Asian/Chinese Chinoiserie.
I had searched for months for a new bedroom set and couldn’t find anything that looked great with my existing furniture….until the day before I was headed to Houston the second time. Someone was selling a very high end king bedroom set that was solid wood. I picked up the Uhaul (which was going to be used for the second delivery of furniture to my brother) and went to buy and pick up the set of bedroom furniture I had found. I was thrilled to finally find the perfect set for this room. It is amazing how God times things just right. I had searched for months and found nothing, and I looked at dozens upon dozens of stores’ inventory online. The day I am finally cleaning out the rest of the furniture to take to my brother is the same day I find a new set to buy. God times things so perfectly!
I wanted a long dresser in that room for the back wall, so that I could place a very large original painting above it. The Paris painting was a find I purchased several years ago in Canton, Texas at a First Monday Antique store. I actually wrote an article about First Monday and my shopping trip with friends- https://livingjoydaily.com/2015/10/05/shopping-first-monday/ . I fell in love with the painting then and I still love it now. I wanted it to be a focal point in my new office space. The remaining decor, such as the blue and white porcelain and another original painting of a European scene came from antique stores. If you are ever in the Grapevine, Texas area and you like browsing antiques I highly recommend visiting the Grapevine Antique Market. It is located less than a mile from Southlake. They have over 100 vendors and booths filled with everything from valuable antiques, to vintage records, to vintage jewelry, and so much more. https://www.grapevineantiquemarket.com/. There is a cute cafe inside this antique market as well. It is a great destination and you can literally spend hours inside and not see everything. Don’t miss out on the upstairs booths too. I almost missed them and that is where I found the second European original for my guest room/office space. Such a great find and it perfectly matched the blue and white bedspread I had ordered online.
The bedroom is almost complete. I purchased a new light fixture for the room. It is a fan with a chandelier. It will be installed soon. There was nothing wrong with the existing fan, but I really wanted this new fixture so I splurged and bought it. I can feel a little less guilty since I can give the existing fan to my brother for his home.
I am also going to hire an electrician to remove the sconces behind the bed. The room is actually wired to be a theater. The previous homeowners also used this space as a large bedroom for their son. It is a big space and would be a waste as a theater. We need a guest room and I also need an office space. My office furniture had previously been in the master bedroom, but now I get a dedicated space rather than a corner.
I love this room now! I can also leave the French doors leading to this bedroom open now. It was stacked with boxes previously so the doors remained closed. It is nice to have them open now, as this room is off the kitchen area and it opens up the entire space to have the double doors open. I like the view into this room from the kitchen now too.
Thank you to my husband Justin for allowing me to run with this decorating project and make it exactly as I wanted in my mind. I am so happy to have a space to work and write and to also have a guest room that is now a lovely space too.
