The Guest Room (part 1)

​​I’ve never had a guest room…I mean, never.  

​When I was growing up if there was a spare room, a kid would be put in it. The only guest we ever had was my grandmother and she had to sleep on the pull-out couch in the family room when she stayed with us. No door, no privacy, and she’d wake to find a bunch of kids starting at her.

The idea of a guest room was so extravagant…so fancy.
 
But the reality is, Paul and I have plenty of room. There’s only the two of us and our house has no less than 3 extra bedrooms!
 
We've discussed making a guest room but for years we’ve been so involved in work and our client’s homes that we really haven’t paid much attention to our own home.  

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So, the empty rooms were used as storage.

The guest room before - time to get rid of the red walls & blue carpet.

​This year we made a decision: 2020 is going to be the year that we take a breath, take some days off, and make time for our own home. 
 
In addition to the master bedroom and bath in the front of the house, the second floor has 2 spare rooms and another full bath.  One room has always been the home office, and the other has always been my son Ryan’s room. 
 
Ryan moved out about 3 years ago but I was reluctant to do anything with his room because I wasn’t sure this moving out thing was going to stick. But in October he and his sweet girlfriend Jackie became engaged and they’re getting married later this year, so I’m feeling pretty confident that he's gone for good.  
 
So it’s time for a guest room!

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The Walls

​Our house is filled with color and by that I mean that every room is painted a different color – blue, green, yellow, lavender, and red.  

​What can I say, we like color.
 
But the truth is, at some point in the next couple of years we’re going to sell this house so Paul and I feel that neutral walls are in order.

We began asking friends and customers for suggestions.

It was a tough decision. Would it be a warm gray, a cool gray, would it have a hint of blue, or green. We looked at everything that was recommended to us until we finally decided on a couple of grays that we could use throughout the house. 
 
We chose Benjamin Moore's Classic Gray to brighten the downstairs rooms and hallways.  But for the bedrooms we chose a slightly warmer shade - Benjamin Moore Pale Oak (our friend Carrie’s suggestion). The trim and most ceilings would be a bright white.

With that decision made, it was on to the painting!

​The paint we chose is Benjamin Moore’s higher end Regal brand.  Paul and I are both of the belief that you get what you pay for when it comes to paint. The walls we were painting over were deep red and this paint covered that red in just two coats.  

​And before you ask, the answer is no, we did not use a primer.  

Paul painted the ceiling and walls.

I brushed the windows, baseboards and doors.

​When it comes to tackling any project, Paul and I are a well-oiled machine and since we both have our own specialties, we make a great team.  So, Paul filled and sanded the holes then rolled the walls in Pale Oak and the ceiling in white. Then I went in and brushed the trim, windows, and doors in the bright white.

The room was looking better already!

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The Floor

Much to the dismay of both of us, our home features a wide variety of colors and materials on the floors.  Tan cut pile carpet, off white Berber carpet, brown Berber carpet, ceramic tile, hardwood, laminate, it’s all too much!  

​For about a year or more we’ve been researching flooring options that would look great, be durable, and that could be something we could install ourselves. We landed on Home Depot's Lifeproof Vinyl Plank Flooing in Trail Oak. It has a lifetime warranty, it's waterproof, it looks like wide plank wood, and has a warm, mid-tone color. It was just what we were looking for.  

We chose Lifeproof vinyl plank flooring from the Home Depot in Trail Oak.

Paul is a perfectionist and since he was the designated foreman for the flooring portion of the project.  He spent days preparing.  He studied installation instructions, videos, and the manufacturer’s website until he felt thoroughly educated to begin.

​I did the cutting, Paul did the installation, and 6 hours later the floor was in and it looked even better than I had imagined. 

​I’ve done a lot of projects, but I’ve never installed flooring and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and pride.  

​We finished the flooring off with new shoe molding and did a few touchups on the paint and the room looked amazing.  

The Details

I mentioned earlier that Paul is a perfectionist but the truth is, we both are so we weren’t quite finished once the paint was on the walls and the floor was installed.  

​We also replaced the cover on the forced air vent, installed new door guides for the sliding closet doors, replaced the old yellowed plastic grips on the closet doors with bright new silver ones, and replaced all the dingy old electrical outlets and light switch for brand new, clean modern ones.

We had replaced or finished every surface in the room and the only thing left was the decorating (yay!).  Stay tuned and we'll share all the details.

Talk soon!
​Johanna