Before & After: Guest Bedroom/Home Office Makeover

Since the room is small, we get the most usable floor space if we have the bed pushed into the corner. Though that's not really typical of a queen bed, I thought it could be cool if we made it seem kind of like a queen daybed, so we made our own wraparound built-in headboard. I was inspired by two separate ideas from Emily Henderson's blog - Emily Bowser's wraparound velvet headboard for the style, and Brady Tolbert's headboard for the color. I actually purchased the same fabric that Brady used and I love it so much in person. To create the headboard panels, we made wooden frames rather than using plywood and it made the headboard pretty light and easy to hang. It's just resting on nails and tucked behind the boxspring so that it doesn't move. The platform bed frame I purchased ten years ago when I graduated from college and moved into my first apartment. It's nothing special, but it does the job and I'm glad we've kept it all these years. The simplicity of it really allows the wraparound headboard to shine.

When gathering the other decor items and textiles for the room, I went with a combination of bigger stores, small businesses, and DIYs. To save on floor space, we built a little nightstand shelf with a pretty narrow profile so that I don't bump into it while working. I also knitted the magenta blanket at the foot of the bed, which sent me on a journey of knitting nearly ten blankets over the fall and winter. I hadn't knitted much in a long time, and it felt very good to create something that prevented me from staring at my phone. Above the bed is a wire sculpture I found on Etsy - there are a few different framed prints in the room, so for above the bed I wanted something a little more sculptural. I painted a pink square behind it to make it pop, and it's one of my favorite things in the space.

We're still using the IKEA Malm dressers, which work great for us. They work perfectly with the drawer dividers that I love, so we can make full use of the dresser space for Nick's folded clothes. In this corner we also hung a beautiful print called Lift from Juniper Print Shop, added a brass lamp, essential oil diffuser, some magazines (for future guests to read), and plants that enjoy this room's natural light. In the closet, we built out a system for Nick's hanging clothes, along with space to keep our hampers. We installed bifold doors that we added the trim boxes to, using the same technique that we've used so many times now - you can see the tutorial here.

For my desk, I wanted to recreate this easy desk idea from Paper & Stitch using the IKEA Ivar cabinet. We only had enough space to use one cabinet, so the other end of the desktop is attached to the wall with support brackets. I really love the clean lines of the deks, and it's nice to keep my computer tower and wires hidden in the cabinet. We cut out space in the back of the cabinet to thread the wires through, which provides some room for air to flow and prevent the tower from overheating. We also added a vent on the side for added air flow, just in case. We also use the cabinet to house our personal MacBooks, pens/pencils, envelopes, and all other desk supplies we seem to accumulate.

Above the desk we added a shelf to house some art and decor, as well as a flip clock that I bought early in the pandemic and really love. Luckily this room gets pretty nice light, so we hung a fern in the corner by the window and it's grown so much over the past year. On my desk we also have some small lemon trees that were gifted from my mom, and our pride and joy - our monstera. I can't wait to see how big it gets in years to come! Behind the monstera is another Juniper Print Shop print because you'll find Juniper everywhere in our house (sadly this print is no longer available.)

I've been working from this room about six months now and it's truly been a blessing to have a dedicated space to work during the pandemic. I'm also glad that it's given us a reason to utilize this space more than we would have. Our house is probably pretty small to many people (~1,200 sqft), but honestly doesn't feel that small to us, especially when there are rooms that we're not really using that much, like this guest room. It feels good to take full advantage of this space in our house and it's made our home feel just a little bigger in a time when I'm not seeing much outside these four walls. Can't wait for the day we can have some vaccinated guests make use of it too!

Here are the sources for everything (but if I missed something, please let me know):

Wall Paint (BEHR Ultra Pure White) - Home Depot

Bifold Closet Doors - Lowe's (Trim DIY)

Hampers - Goodee

Hand Print (Lift) - Juniper Print Shop

Gold lamp - Target

Dresser Tray - West Elm

Essential Oil Diffuser - Target

Window Shades - Home Depot

Wire lady art - SmithyShop (Etsy)

Desk cabinet - IKEA

Desktop - Lowe's

Desk chair - Poly & Bark (no longer available, similar here)

Triangle shelf brackets - Danish Design Store

Flip clock - Ecovibe (no longer available)

Full-length mirror - IKEA

Ceiling light fixture - Illuminate Vintage

Thanks for reading!

Sarah & Nick