I fell in love with our home because of its 1929 features: original windows, stained glass, exposed brick. But the guest room had none of that; it was just a beige box. I wanted our guest room to be special and have some color and architectural detail, too. So, check out our guest room: before and after.
By adding color, trim, and furnishings that fit the space, I transformed our guest room into one of my favorite rooms in the house!
As I explained in this post about how I was thinking about designing this room, our guest room was a tall, long, beige room.
The bed took up most of the room, and there was just nothing interesting about this room.
I found this picture in a magazine and decided it would be my inspiration:
I love the trim at the top of the wall, and it looks like the trim on the outside of our Tudor-style bungalow home. I wanted a bit more color, though.
I came up with this:
I changed a few things from this sketch in my final design. For one thing, I built a daybed out of old doors, rather than using a quilt hung on the wall as a headboard.
I decided to use bolder colors than the “lilac” noted in the drawing. I love bold, bright colors, so I went with Brilliant Blue by Benjamin Moore on the accent wall and “New Life” DecoArt chalky finish paint on the daybed. I kept the remaining walls the same color.
First, I hung the trim. I used pine 1x4s, cut to size with my RYOBI miter saw. I made sure that the vertical trim was evenly spaced on the wall and I used a square to draw and hang the angled trim. I nailed the trim to the wall with my RYOBI cordless nailer.
Then I painted the trim. First, I filled the nail holes, then primed the wood. Then I painted it semi-gloss Ultra White by Behr.
Once the trim dried, I taped off the trim. I confess that I usually don’t tape before painting a wall but, because the wall color was so bright, I didn’t want to get it on the white trim and then have to fix it.
The wall took two coats of Benjamin Moore’s Brilliant Blue.

Wet Paint!
Once the paint dried, I removed the tape and the room was ready for furniture.
I wanted the room to be a comfortable retreat for guests. I added lots of pillows to the daybed:
I even made custom pillows from plain green IKEA pillows. I just used some fabric glue to embellish the pillows with bright blue ribbon.
I added a desk that we have had for a while, but didn’t know where to put it, with some reading materials.
My favorite piece in the room is this vintage “Vacationlands” map.
I bought it from a woman who found a box of maps in her mother’s attic. I bought two maps for $25 and had them framed at Caroline Budd Picture Framing in Atlanta. I thought the vacation theme was perfect for the guest room.
The other side of the guest room is Dear Husband’s music room.
Now that the daybed is in the corner – rather than the bed being in the middle of the room – there’s plenty of room for the music room and space for guests.
But if it’s time for the guests to leave, we have this:
I love our new guest room. I hope our guests love it, too!

Not the best picture, but I thought it’d be cool to take a panoramic picture with my iPhone! Not too bad!
For the post on how to build a daybed from old doors, click HERE. The daybed was featured in This Old House Magazine HERE! (Eeeeeeek!)
For a tour of the rest of our home, click HERE.
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I love this project; the way you’ve used color in this room is just phenomenal!
Thank you, Brittany!!
What an awesome transformation Karen!! I love the blue and molding. Stunning… and that kelly green. Perfect pair. Thanks for sharing at The Creative Circle. Hope to see you this week. 😉
Thank you, Kathy!
Holy cow do I love that day bed made out of old doors! Such a creative idea and now it feels so cozy! Love it! Thanks for linking up at The Creative Circle!
Thank you so much!!
Great job! One question; why didn’t you put a matching footboard? That would really make it look like a daybed, and it would cover the raw end of the backboard and the brace. Then pile on the pillows along the back! 😉
Hi Maggie! Thank you! I didn’t put a footboard on it because the door into the room is right at the foot of the bed. So, someone walking into the room would almost walk right into it – or at least it would be right there. It would also make the room look smaller. I thought that, if I had put the bed along the wall with the window, I would have put a footboard on it with the pillows all around. As for the raw end of the backboard, it’s funny – I thought about painting it, too, but then I thought it was fun to leave it to show its former life as a big ol’ door! 🙂