Be Our Guest

This is the time of year when everyone wants to be in Florida! The grandkids and family will be coming down to see you and escape the last chilly days of their northern abodes. Will you be ready? Have you always wanted to freshen the guest room but never knew how? Did you always think the challenge was too big? Guest rooms are easy to refresh and you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Let’s take a peek into two guest rooms that had a little lift just in time for spring and its breakers, somewhere in the heart of The Villages.

• Guest bedroom one
The furniture in the first bedroom looked a little dated because the finish was ashy pinky oak from the early nineties. The picture above the bed is faded and very under scale for the wall. All of this can be fixed by changing the focus. We see so much of the furniture in the before picture because everything around it looks is small.

• Wall Color
We decided not to paint in room 1. The current wall color was a nice light shade that would work with the new look of the space. We did not want to spend money on repainting.

• Art
The change in the room will start with the art. The homeowner was having company and wanted a light ocean feel with a touch of Tommy Bahama.
We chose an island picture that captured palm trees blue water and bright summer sky. We hung that picture over the bed to enhance and expand the focal point.

• New Lamps
We added blue lattice work lamps to anchor the picture and add more color. These lamps are 33” high. These are much better bedside lamps than the short lamps that were in the before picture.

• Bedding
We purchase the Tommy Bahama bedding from a local retailer as the new bedding. We placed a white washable cotton coverlet as the first layer of bedding. We added three Euro pillows (large square pillow) to line the back of the headboard and add a strong pop of color. We placed the Tommy Bahama queen shams in front of the Euro pillows and buttoned up the look with a decorative crab pillow. At the foot of the bed we folded the Tommy Bahama coverlet into a long bed scarf and laid it at the end of the bed. This provided a pop of print and color at the end of the bed, visually tying the whole thing together. We also changed the bed skirt to white.

• Complete look
The bedroom looks fresh and new without wasting time and money.

• Bedroom number two
This homeowner wanted to use the furniture that he had while adding a seaside cottage feeling.

• Paint
We repainted this room in Rain-washed 6211. This is a neutral blue that is relaxing but adds some color to the space.

• Art
Nothing says seaside cottage like a skiff! We placed a large picture over the bed of a skiff on the shore surrounded by seagrass. I love the antique nature of the picture and the statement that it makes in the space. The homeowner had a collection of marker floats that I thought would look great if we hung them on the wall. We hung them from their leftover cords and they pull the colors from the skiff painting around the space. We hung a basket full of heather on the angled wall that looks very cottagey and colorful.

• Bedding
A white bed skirt allowed the starfish coverlet to shine and we placed three small pillows on the coverlet to make the bed looked finished.

• Lamps
We left the original lamps in the space because they seemed to work well. Altogether we were able to refresh the space with very little investment. The space looks inviting and is a reflection of the homeowner’s request.

P.S. –Attention, club presidents! I give free decorating programs! It is lots of fun and very informative. Call and schedule your club today or call Ruth your full service decorator at 352-804-2056.