Hello everyone! And welcome back to The Venue House! When my husband and I started working from home 3+ years ago, we initially shared an office. Once we realized we were going to be working from home permanently, we needed our own workspaces (desperately!).
We are fortunate enough to have more than one extra room so he was able to stay in the office and I moved into the guest bedroom next door. I've been here for about a year, but I haven't done much to decorate or make it feel much like a guest room or an office. So I finally decided to do a guestroom/office refresh and I was able to do it for less than $200!
To keep things low cost I repurposed as much from around our house as I could and bought as much as I could second-hand. I did have to purchase a few items but I was able to keep everything under $200. Below I will share before/after pictures and how much I spent on everything. I hope this encourages your to take on a refresh of your own!
First - BEFORE picture!
Ok so I did forget to take pictures at the very beginning (because of course I would) so these were taken once I had already started to declutter and remove some items from the room. Here are the things I definitely knew I wanted to change. First, the paint color; this was the color throughout our entire house when we moved in and although it is not terrible I prefer more color so the first thing I like to do in every room is paint. Second, put some stuff on those walls! I like wall decor - pictures, planters, art, banners, etc. Give me all of it, I dont like my walls to be bare. Third, that weird cutout in my wall. I dont know what this is for, it is so deep and in such a weird spot. I am not ready to either open it up or close it up so for now I just wanted to find a way to make it stand out less. Other than those things I really just wanted to make the space more like me and comfortable to work in or to have a guest stay in.
The Paint
I chose to paint this room the same color as my bedroom - Thai Basil by Behr. I love this color! I will probably end up doing all of the upstairs bedrooms this color. My walls are a little textured so I had to use two coats, but it is not a huge room so I was able to use one gallon. Also, this was my first time painting the ceiling in a room. I have always heard that painting a ceiling will make your room feel smaller and since this room is already small I was hesitant, but I'm so glad I painted it. I love how cozy it makes the space feel. I love it so much I'm going to paint the ceiling in all of my rooms now. Paint in total cost me $49.98
Office Storage
Since this space needs to function as an office and a secondary guest bedroom (we have a bigger guest bedroom that is downstairs, that's usually where we put guests) I need office storage and bedroom storage. Luckily, I don't have to store too much for my job so I was able to repurpose the storage I already had and I only bought one item which was a wall pocket for documents I found at Goodwill. I painted it white so it didn't look so beat up and hung it with a clipboard and a corkboard I already had. I painted the corkboard the same color as my wall so it blended in a little bit more. Since I repurposed leftover paint and office storage this update only cost me $2.99!
Bedroom Storage/Closet
I use this guest bedroom as a secondary location for linens since my hallway linen closet is a little small. When we initially moved in there was a standard shelf in the closet that provided storage above and a place to hang clothes below, but I dont really hang clothes in here. I decided to add another shelf to increase the amount of non-hanging items I could store in this closet. I also need to keep extra quilts and blankets in here but they are hard to stack without falling over, so I bought these bungee cords to keep everything in place! I placed a couple of storage containers with pull-out drawers to keep pillowcases and some miscellaneous items. I really love how functional and organized this space is now. I had all of these storage items already except for the bungee cords so this update only cost me $17.
Weird Wall Cubby
There is a very weird window/cubby in this room and I have no idea why someone would put this in a room, it has annoyed me since the day we moved in. I have always struggled with what to do to this space to draw the least amount of attention as possible, but while doing this office/guest room refresh I had an epiphany! What if I made it look like a built-in?! I could add some shelves and put a tv up there for guests, the shelves could hold books and some of my office supplies! I was sold! I repurposed some wood in our garage to make shelves, painted everything the colors of the walls so it blended in a little more, and voila! I originally did not have a curtain hanging behind it but I could still see the cubby so I used an old curtain rod and some leftover fabric to hang a faux curtain behind the shelves and hide the extra space behind the shelves. I love how this turned out! This update cost me $0 since I reposed the wood, paint, curtain rod, and fabric for the curtain!
Gallery Wall
If you know me then you know adding a gallery wall to a space is my favorite way to display items I love, show off my personality and style, and fill wall space. I spend months and months finding and putting together items I love knowing one day I will know where I want to hang them! For this part of the office/guestroom refresh, I looked upon my collection and put together this gallery wall! A few items that I really wanted to include on this gallery wall - a shadow box of old handkerchiefs my grandma gave me, a vintage hand mirror my grandma also gave me, a lucky cat painting my brother made for me, these framed cherry embellishments I put together, and a pennant flag I made with a fun phrase on it. Everything else I had from leftover projects and framed photos I had not hung yet. I did purchase one mirror I saw on a super sale and absolutely loved. I decided to add a little reading light to go over the guest bed. I repurposed this sconce from a partition wall that was outside and we tore down. I cleaned it up and added a new coat of paint. I bought the rechargeable light bulb from Amazon and would highly recommend it! It comes with a remote and has three different brightness levels. I saw the idea to add some stars to the wall with tacks and magnets on Pinterest and was so excited to finally have a place to put some! This update cost me $51 for the stars, the rechargeable light bulb, and the beautiful mirror you see in the picture below.
Window
I had previously made a shade for this window and while I loved the fabric the shade did not work and it was time for an upgrade. The first thing I did was DIY a window valance, you can find the DIY here. I love how it turned out! Then I found a curtain rod and curtain on Amazon. I thought this was the perfect addition to the window and really completed the look. I bought fabric and posterboard for the window valance, the curtain rod, and the shade. The total I spent on the window was $56.
I think that is everything!
I am so so happy with how this space turned out! I definitely would not be embarrassed to put a guest in this space now and I am so happy to come in and work here every day. Even my boss commented on the transformation she could see behind me in our Zoom meetings! I'll put more pictures below!
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