Our Tan & Blue Guest Room

I know that it's taken me FOREVER and a day to post pictures of our pretty-much-finished main guest room, but I've finally gotten around to it!  In my defense, we have had guests staying with us almost every weekend since we've moved in.  It's been great, and so far, everyone really enjoys staying in the room :)  We are still waiting on one more piece of furniture, a hollywood regency inspired white bamboo dresser that my Aunt painted and is bringing down from Connecticut for me, and then it's D-O-N-E.

Here are some pictures of what it looks like so far:

This nightstand used to belong to my cousin Katie.  Her Mom, my other Aunt, got it for free from a furniture consignment store!   Unbelievable, right?  (Getting deals runs in my genes,  I swear)  When they saw how much I loved it, they generously offered to give the whole set to me!  My other Aunt (who is also my wonderful Godmother) painted it white for me so that it would match the rest of the room.

I found this nighstand at the flea market in Raleigh.  It was already painted the perfect shade of light aqua blue, and had some really nice vintage details and wear on it.  I negotiated the guy down to $50 for this beauty :)

Our little chair came from IKEA, and with the slipcover, cost us a whopping $149.

The chevron pillows and chevron valances are from Etsy, courtesy of Modernality2.  The owner, Tara, custom made the valances for me, and they only cost $40!  The pillows were about $15 each.  The tan monogrammed pillow is also from Etsy, but from a different shop.

The long blue silk drapes are from overstock.com, as are all of the bed linens, duvet cover, and blanket.

The lamps are from Target, and I just spray painted their bases with gold spray paint..... I bought them like 5 years ago for $15, but I'm pretty sure they still sell something similar in their cheap college-y section.

The mirror above the bed (which just so happens to be one of my favorite things in the room!) is from Martha Stewart for Home Depot, and was less than $30!  Such an awesome find, and it doesn't look cheap at all.

I bought the headboard while we were still living in Cary from Wayfair.  When we finally moved into our house, I realized that it wasn't the right color :(  So naturally, I did what I do with everything else...... I spray painted it!  I used a gold metallic paint to create a worn vintage look, similar to the finish on the mirror.  I think it turned out fairly well, considering that the heaboard was a mistake lol.

I'll try to post more pictures in April when the dresser arrives and I finish that side of the room.

This entire room cost less than $1500!

Here's where you can get everything: 
(just click on each item and the link will take you to the product)

Robin's Egg Silk Drapery Panel

Egyptian Cotton Duvet Cover set

Spa Blue Throw Blanket

Tan Microfiber Bedskirt

Tufted Arch Upholstered Headboard

Martha Stewart Sunburst Mirror

Chevron Throw Pillows

Chevron Window Valances

Monogrammed Pillow Cover

Natural TULLSTA chair

If you have any questions on where to find something, just let me know!

Now I have to go get the house ready, because my little brother and eight (yes, 8!!) of his college friends are spending the night with us on their way back from Spring Break. I know that you're probably thinking "you are insane". Possibly I am, but these kids go to Notre Dame so they are all super awesome and polite, and we are actually really looking forward to having them here and celebrating St. Patrick's Day with them. GO IRISH!

One more room almost done!

I never thought much of dining rooms, but now that ours is on it's way to being finished, I'm starting to change my mind.  Here's a peek at our semi-finished formal dining room:

 

 

We took our old espresso wood dining set that we bought from Home Comfort several years ago, and tweaked it a little by adding custom upholstered benches from Ballard designs.  It ended up giving a bit of an eclectic edge that made me fall in love with it all over again:)

 

The rug, which I was initially unsure about, is actually from one of Rugs USA's big 75% off sales.  I picked it up online for a whopping $150, and now that it's in the room it works with our pillows without being too matchy-matchy.  The pillows are from Etsy (of course!), and were originally destined for one of our guest rooms.  They didn't work in there, so I ended up using them in the dining room.....it ended up being a happy accident in the end.

 

We inherited these lamps from my husband's late father..... I cleaned them up and got them working again, and how they are both beautiful and sentimental.  The lampshades were $10 at Garden Ridge, and all I did was spray paint them with Rustoleum's Glossy navy blue, and voila!  (Have I mentioned before how much I love spray paint?)

This silver plated trophy that we are using to hold flowers was our first purchase after we moved to Charlotte.  We went to this big antique flea market one weekend, and found a vendor that had all sorts of sterling silver and silver-plated goodies.  I fell in love with this one, and my hubby negotiated it down for an awesome price.

 

Our makeshift bar is from Lee Lighting, and I was super excited that we found it on sale.  I can't wait to accessorize it.

Our console/buffet is actually 2 Ikea Expedit series bookcases on their sides, stacked on top of each other.  We had one mounted floating on a wall at our old place, but we were too scared to try the same technique on our plaster walls.  My husband came up with the idea of buying another one and just stacking them to give us more storage.  Not too shabby for a guy, right?  We are ordering doors for the cubbies, and will be adding wood fretwork to them to give it a custom look.  More pics to come of that.....whenever I get around to it!

 

The mirror above our buffet is something I found at Carolina Pottery.  It was a weird grayish-bronze metal color, so I just spray painted it with several different tones of gold spray paint.  I like it much better now.  I think I've developed an addiction for these types of mirrors now! lol

We got really lucky since all the sconces and chandeliers came with the house, and I think they fit perfectly.

Our dining room is right next to our kitchen, so we have been using it a lot more than I thought.  We can't wait to have our first dinner party so we can have a full table!

Navy & white for one of our guest rooms?

So it's official.  We move to Charlotte the third week and October!!  House hunting starts next weekend, and hopefully we can find the perfect 3-4 bedroom place in the Myers Park and surround uptown neighborhoods.  **Fingers crossed!**

 

I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about the whole moving thing, but I am trying to focus on how exciting it's going to be to decorate an entire new space.  :)  Right now, all we have is a master, and open floor plan kitchen/dining/living.  So that means there will be a lot of work for me to do decorating our new place!

 

I'm trying to come up with guest bedroom color schemes, and Navy and White is one of the looks that I have on my mind.  I'm thinking maybe taupe walls (NOT navy paint), with mostly white linens, and touches of graphic navy patterns, and Gold accents.

Very cool rug in this one.  I'm trying to hunt for a cool patterened rug as my inspiration.

I like the balance of the navy/white in this one:

YES to mixing patterns! Maybe not this much, but still.

 

And here is ANOTHER thing I'm torn about... I think that I want one guest room to have a QUEEN bed, and maybe the other one to have TWO TWIN beds.... thoughts???  (Obviously, two totally different design themes)

Love the greek key detailing......  but I only like to use it in small quantities!

The headboard is cool, but I'm leaning more towards painted metal/wrought iron.

I'm also on the hunt to find something that I can DIY to replicate the mirror like this....

 

I love horizontal wide-striped drapes (maybe a little thicker stripes than this) against taupe walls.  I think a few graphic pillows against crisp white linens would be pretty.

The throw might be a little much, but it is SERIOUSLY hard to find a decent navy and white throw that isn't $200.

I'll keep you updated as my design process progresses and as I collect things for my new space... wish me luck!