before & after: the guest room.

i love our home.

above is what it looked like
on our first christmas here, 2004.

isn't it amazing? i honestly hope to live here
the rest of my many thousands of days.

on the outside, it still looks much like this today,
except for our big, beautiful oak tree,
which is even bigger & more beautiful now.

but during the past year & a half or so,
i've begun to change it on the inside.

at 44, my decor style is finally developing
beyond a random gathering of items i like.

inspired by fellow bloggers diy heroes
john & sherry over at young house love,
i began making small changes here & there
to simply give some spaces & our home overall
a more complete & connected look & feel.

i'm not explaining this too well,
so here's hoping the photos tell the story a little better.

our guest room is our only downstairs bedroom,
& serves as our resident indoor storage facility
[counting the garage as our resident outdoor storage facility].

during much of the year, stuff just gets piled up in there —
stuff for craft, home & homework projects,
stuff from the last celebration, stuff for the next celebration,
all manner of photos & the stuff with which to organize them,
stuff en route to other destinations, both known & unknown . . .

i'm sure you understand. many homes & families,
i've discovered, have such an unintended way station.

anyway, our guest room gets cleaned up only under duress,
i.e., whenever an overnight guest visit is imminent.

like just before christmas, for example.

so just before christmas 2010,
i not only cleaned up our guest room,
but also reworked some of its key decor elements
in order to make it lighter, brighter & just plain happier.

ok, so here are the rather humiliating befores . . .

the view as you enter [clutter much?]:

the bed, head-on:

panning to the right, my photo wrangling project table + rather random bookcase:

directly right of the entry, the open door to the closet in the back
with a clutter-collecting tea tray in the front
[& our curious canine daisy investigating on the left]:

here, i am realizing i should have stepped into the room

& snapped a few shots from the bed side of the room

to provide a view of the closet/tea tray/entry side of the room.

sorry — i'm new to this whole before & after thing. sue me.

ok, so here are the greatly improved afters . . . 

again, the entry view:

the bed with new linens, plus new curtains & a temporary bookbox nightstand:

the photo table, tidied up & a little top space cleared:

the bookcase, tidied & cleared, but still rather random:

the tea tray, tidied & cleared, + more carpet, less canine:

a "before" angle i neglected — the real nightstand: 

it's so much better, but there's still so much work to be done in here.

mostly, i want to clear more clutter &
improve the storage so most of it is hidden.
& i want to work on the wall art,
so it's more thoughtful, more engaging & more complete.

so while there will likely be a b&a: the guest room 2 — the sequel,
i'm happy with the beginning i've created . . .

from this:

to this:

how about you? what fun room makeovers have you done lately?