DIY + 2 Weekends = Guest Bedroom Makeover


I love me a little reveal day, don’t you?! Home improvement projects have gotten a bit more difficult since becoming parents, but we’re learning the ropes! Griffin naps for longer stretches now so we’re able to work together more during naps. But ALAS! I’m excited to share some before + afters today! We completed this guest bedroom makeover over just TWO WEEKENDS and while it’s not all dressed up yet, this room has come a long way with a little paint and new trim.

guest room makeover-before

This room was not-so-affectionately called the “junk room” and the “hot air balloon room.” It’s a spare bedroom at the top of the stairs that was used for throwing our home improvement tools and supplies in, among other junk. It was in desperate need of some TLC!

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After living in our house for just over 2 years, we’re still assigning a purpose to all our rooms. The old guest room will become my new office (yay! another reveal to come!), and this former junk room will be a guest room for now, then Griffin’s new bedroom once baby #2 comes along eventually.

The Guest Bedroom Makeover Project List

  1. Take down the wallpaper border
  2. Fill in holes in the wall with spackling
  3. Remove baseboard
  4. Paint walls in Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams (we love this color in our bathrooms here and here!)
  5. Install and paint new baseboard
  6. Install and paint crown molding
  7. Move bed + furniture

Taking Down the Wallpaper

We were nervous about this process since we’ve heard horror stories of removing wallpaper. We did a little research and scoured Amazon reviews for a solution that would work. we settled on…

  1. Scoring the wallpaper with this handy tool
  2. Spraying with WP Chomp Wallpaper Remover

guest room makeover- how to remove wallpaper

After we sprayed the wallpaper, it peeled away effortlessly. Seriously! It actually came off in two layers – in the photo above we’re peeling off the second layer. It did no damage to the walls and it looked like it was never there! We used a plastic scraper in spots where it was being a bit difficult, but that’s as difficult as it was. I would 100%, to the moon and back, recommend WP Chomp! It works great for wallpaper on painted surfaces.

Baseboard & Trim

I was downstairs getting dinner ready that first weekend when I heard Andrew making a bit of a ruckus upstairs. When I went upstairs 15 minutes later, Andrew excitedly exclaimed, “I removed all the baseboard and threw it out the window!” LOL. Sure enough, there was a pile of baseboard in our backyard. I love my husband.

We’re old pro’s at putting in baseboard, so it went in relatively quickly. Andrew made all the cuts and installed it while I followed behind and filled the nail holes with spackling. We also caulked in the top edge with paintable caulk. After letting it dry for a day, we sanded all the filled holes and painted it white!

We’ve started installing crown molding in all our room makeovers (like the nursery) because it looks so. dang. good! It takes an extra day and the cuts can get a bit complicated, but it’s 100% worth it. Andrew is kind of addicted. LOL.

Before + After

After all this TLC, we moved the guest room furniture in and I hung up a (semi-OK) canvas I painted awhile back to help it feel a little more domesticated. Still on our to-do list is to install a white shiplap wall behind the bed and really decorate the room. I’m sure that will happen in a few months (or years TBH, lol!).

guest room makeover-before01

guest room makeover-after01

Wall color: Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams

guest room makeover-before02

guest room makeover-before03

guest room makeover-after03

It was amazing to see how quickly this room transformed! In one day we had the baseboard removed, the wallpaper down and the room painted… and in 2 weekends we had a full guest bedroom makeover! It’s encouraging to see a quick transformation, as we’ve been feeling burnt out by renovations lately, because of our next reveal…

What’s next?

A big ol’ kitchen reveal! You’ll remember a couple months ago that we painted our kitchen cabinets white. We are ALMOST done with our kitchen! We were going to finish it last week, but we’re taking our island a step further than we planned by adding an extra cabinet and extending the butcher block island. SO, keep an eye out in the next month for the reveal!

PS…

If you haven’t heard, Rise and Renovate will be REBRANDING in the next couple weeks to Hello Hayley! Read the full scoop here.

See ya soon, friends!

2 thoughts on “DIY + 2 Weekends = Guest Bedroom Makeover”

  1. Pingback: 29 Bedroom Storage Ideas: Say Goodbye to Cluttered Chaos!

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