Adam and I place a high value on hospitality and we really enjoy having overnight guests. We're constantly trying to sell friends, relatives, strangers on the benefits of our "free" accommodations:
- You get your very own room
- You even get your own bathroom
- We're only five minutes from the T
- We promise NOT to bother you
- We're not creepy...no really we aren't
We get a fair number of guests, but not as many as one would think for free accommodations in a pretty great location. Maybe we're selling it a little too hard or maybe we're weird and creepy and no one has the heart to tell us. We'll never know!
Recently, I went on a trip to Nashville with my friend Zara's family where we stayed in a vacation rental. It was very nice in a nondescript Restoration Hardware style. While I'd rather have more color and personality in my own home, I realized that for a vacation or a hotel or a guest room, I'd prefer neutral clean colors because it's way more peaceful. When I got back home, I was chagrinned at the state of our guest room. Our guest room was objectively comfortable in the basic sense, but it had devolved over the years as a place to store random crap in the closet, unused frames under the bed, a riot of mismatched sheets in the bureau and a collection of discarded furniture. It was comfortable enough, but I thought we could do better with a few updates.
First I decluttered the entire room and removed old furniture, old lamps, frames, sheets to beds we no longer owned, etc. It's amazing how much stuff exploded out of the nooks and crannies of this room. Then we added a few improvements thanks to our friend Zave who patiently spent two evenings at our house this week helping me put everything up. Thanks also to Zristen who lent us Zave while she watched their two adorably rambunctious kids.
The goal was to create more space, add more light, neutralize the colors and add more functionality to the room without adding too much clutter.
Headboard:
I've wanted to buy a headboard for this room for years, but couldn't figure out how to move one into our home. Either we'd have to haul it over the 2nd floor balcony and hope it made it up the stairs to the 3rd floor or I could move in tiny pieces of wood and build one on the third floor in the room. It always ended with me throwing my hands up and giving up.
Judging from the photo above you're probably thinking, "hmmm, looks like a headboard, what gives?" It's faux, it's a decal, it basically a giant sticker. A faux headboard decal comes in a poster tube, it's relatively inexpensive and certainly reversible. The
Olivia Headboard from Blik comes in two giant pieces and it's a two man two hour job to get it applied correctly. Zave is a perfectionist and therefore the right person for the job. Like Zave said, "it's better to spend the time to get it right." Ain't that the truth because it looks pretty great.
Now a faux headboard is a little "out there" for Adam so he rightfully questioned the rationale:
Adam: Why a headboard?
plasticann: [indignantly] Well, it's not comfortable for our guests to lean against a wall. It's better to have a headboard.
Adam: Ummm, if it's a decal headboard, won't they STILL be leaning against a wall?
plasticann: [long pause] Harumphhh! Yes, but it looks better!!!
Lights:
The room only had overhead flood lights so it was rather dim at night. Plus, you have to turn off the lights at the door and then carefully shuffle back to bed in the dark. I wanted to add lighting to each side of the bed, but I didn't want to hire an electrician. I found this
double sconce from Pottery Barn Teen that simply plugged in. Two lights, fully adjustable, easy peasy. On a related note, I did have to enter my age when I bought this sconce from PBTeen and verify that I was actually over the age of 13.
Nightstand / Writing Desk:
Our guest room had no nightstands. There were surfaces one could use to perch a phone or a pair of glasses, but nothing that resembled a nightstand. plasticmom also mentioned that our guest room had no desk. No where to put a computer, write a note, put stuff on, etc. Adding two nightstands and a desk all while keeping it "spacious" and "uncluttered" seem like a tall order so I had to be a little creative. I bought two metal
wall mounted fold down desks like the ones you see on boats, doctor's offices and factory floors. We hung them at around 29 inches high for the table surface so it functions as a combination nightstand/desk that's just big enough for a laptop. I stuck a power strip on the side of one desk to keep it off the floor. Since the desk is metal, it's also magnetic.
Bonus improvements:
- Blackout shades so people can actually sleep past 6am now
- Luggage rack so you don't have to put your stuff on the floor
- Brand new white sheets
- ...and I hung some antlers to top it off...paper antlers of course.
Our first guest arrives tomorrow night. I'll have to send him a
NPS survey to get some feedback.
