If you’ve been following along on Instagram, then you may have gotten some peeks of my latest home project—our basement guest room. This room has been one of those that we mostly overlooked for the past 4 years, but my parents are coming to visit next month and I decided it’s finally time to make this room a space that feels cozy, comfortable and invites guests to relax and feel at home.
The Inspiration
The first step was making it feel less like a forgotten white box, so I decided to paint it! I came across this photo below on Pinterest and fell in love with the idea of painting the room a blushy, muted pink. It’s a color I love, but living in a house full of boys, no one is super pumped about having their space painted pink, so the basement seemed like the perfect opportunity to go big!
I tested a couple of colors that originally felt too dark or too sandy and landed on Benjamin Moore’s San Carlos Tan (1207) mixed at 25%. At full strength, it was simply too dark for the space down here. The result is this warm, soft pinky-tan that gives me vintage cottage vibes. Pink is such a tough color. So many either looked too babyish or too bubblegum-y and this one was, as Goldilocks would say, just right!
I tossed around color-drenching the whole space, but felt that it was already a little cavernous and didn’t want it to feel too dark down there. I agree with Julia’s stance on painting the ceiling when there are architectural details, but this space, it just wasn’t right.
So, here it is as of this week! Not much else has changed except for the paint color which I already think makes such a huge difference. But it will be getting even more tweaks over the next few weeks.
Another big change will be a real bed frame. Right now it’s sitting on a metal bed frame with a cheap and flimsy bed skirt that I absolutely despise. It never lays straight, it’s not opaque and the fabric is terrible. Definitely not my best Amazon find. I wanted an upholstered headboard, but ugh, they are pricy and I was having a hard time justifying spending the money on a room that only gets guests a couple of weeks a year. But then I had a thought. There was this bed from Amber Interiors, (which is crazy expensive, so stay with me), that I loved, and thought, I know how to sew now—surely I can make something similar!
I bought this bed that’s a similar shape and at a price I loved and plan to make some sort of headboard pillow. This Ikea bed was a close second, but we don’t need the extra storage—maybe this will be good for my youngest’s bedroom since he doesn’t have much of a closet. I can’t decide if I want to have it hang from the bedposts like the Penny bed, or have it fold over the top and tie on the sides. I think this will have to be a decision once the bed arrives and I get a better idea of how to construct it.
For the cover, I’ve ordered a swatch of this fun cornflower blue buffalo check fabric that I think gives that cozy cottage feel that’s classic and timeless and also pulls in some color. I’d also love to pull some yellow and green in here because that just feels so fun and fresh to me, but we’ll do one thing at a time. I’m such a visual person I need to see it all before I commit!
Stay tuned for the next phase of my makeover down here, it’s going to be good! Fingers crossed it can be more pulled together when my parents get here, but if not, it’ll be at least better than before! Now, time to do some thrifting and antiquing to make this space come to life!
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