Guest Room Re-Do

So I took my own advice and sold the home office furniture and computer equipment that were occupying one half of my guest room.   My big plan is to rearrange and redecorate my spare bedroom and I've decided to take everyone along on this journey via my blog.

It's important to mention that I live in a small (980 square feet), 2-bedroom house.  Decorating small spaces have their own unique challenges and when you have just two bedrooms they usually need to serve multi-purposes.  Since I decided to eliminate the home office area in this room I thought long and hard about what different purposes this room make-over should serve.  Clearly I need this room as a guest room for visitors, but when you have a small house, living and storage space are at a premium and here was an opportunity to add both.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes.  Since moving into this house I have struggled to find a good storage solution for all my shoes!  Yes, you heard me, my shoes have been a disorganized mess for the past three years.  I know, it's shameful, but there you have it.  I have a small walk-in closet in my master bedroom, but, although there is enough room for my hanging clothes, the closet layout just doesn't provide enough room for shoes.

Design dilema number two.  I prefer to put on my makeup while seated at a dressing table as opposed to standing under the harsh lighting in my bathroom.  Not to mention the fact that at my age I seem to need the assistance of a magnified mirror and as much natural light as possible to see what I'm doing.  It is also my habit to steam or iron whatever I am wearing that day rather that do my ironing all at one time like my mother did, so I need an area where I can access my steamer or iron easily.

I think you know where I'm going with this.  My spare room redesign will be a combination guest room and dressing room.  I am really excited about this plan.  I love the idea of creating an attractive and welcoming room for my occasional guest AND a pretty dressing room that I can enjoy every day.

So now I have a "concept", next I need a "game plan".  As you can see from the photos, my spare room is in complete disarray.  This room is also the only room in my house that has not been painted a nice color.  In the coming days I will need to pack up everything in the room that doesn't serve the new purpose of the room, decide on furniture arrangement, come up with a closet design to accomodate my shoes and pick a paint color.  I've gone online looking at shoe storage units and I have a pretty good idea for the closet makeover.  Choosing a wall color, however, is another issue.  I think I will need to visit the paint store and get a few paint color testers to put on the wall before I can decide.  Stay tuned...

Happy Organizing