Guest Bedroom Reveal | $100 Room Challenge

Today is reveal day for the $100 Room Challenge, and I am so excited to share our guest bedroom reveal with you!

Hey friends hey!  Oh how I love a room reveal, don’t you?!  It’s simply one of my favorite things in all the land to look at before and after photos of room makeovers, and I have to say that I am very  happy with how this one turned out.  For the past 5 weeks, we have been sharing the process we went through to transform this room on the tiny budget of $100.  It is always so fun to see how creative and talented all of the other participants of the $100 Room Challenge, and how they transform their own spaces.  So not only is it fun and motivating to participate in this challenge, but it is inspiring as well.  Before we go any further, let me show you where we started with our guest bedroom.  This is what it looked like up until around New Years Day.

 Week One |Week Two | Week Three | Week 4 

What’s The $100 Room Challenge?

Let me start by thanking Erin over at Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry for being our lovely host, and this whole challenge was her brain child. If you are new to the $100 Room Challenge you can read more about it here.  But the basic premise for the challenge is this: you get one month, and $100, to completely makeover one space in your home. I know what you may be thinking… $100 is not a lot of money.  Just wait. What you can do with $100 (and a little creativity) will absolutely blow your mind.  And if you don’t believe me, just follow along, and click through and see what the other participants are doing for this challenge, and you will see so many great things happening with just a $100 budget.  This is my third time joining the challenge, and I am always so glad I did in the end!

See My Previous $100 Room Reveals

Modern Farmhouse Dining Room Reveal | Mudroom Makeover Reveal

 Modern Farmhouse Dining Room/Office Reveal

Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which allow me to make a small commission from your purchase, but your purchase price stays the same.

Bedding

When we moved into this house in July, the entire room was full of built in cabinetry and being used as a home office. But we had all of that taken down last summer because we needed to use this as a guest bedroom.  It remained the way it looks above for several months before we got around the making any further changes.  When the $100 Room Challenge started to roll around, I began contemplating what room I could make a significant update to with only $100, and I landed on this guest bedroom.  It was really important to me to create a welcoming and cozy place to host the myriad of guests we plan to have stay in our new home in Austin, TX.

I began to envision what I wanted this room to look like, and for a while I struggled to come up with a vision.  the one thing in this room that I did not want to alter in any way was the bed, the nightstand, and the dresser.  It was handmade by Amish furniture builders for my daughter, and her Daddy drove six hours round trip to pick it up for her from Sugar Creek Ohio, in the heart of Amish country.  Since he passed away a little over a year ago, this furniture holds special meaning.  and we are using it in our home until the time that my daughter decides she wants to have it in her future home.  All that to say that the rest of the room needed to compliment this furniture as much as possible.  Below, you can see the inspiration board I share during week one of this guest bedroom makeover.

The first decision I made was to paint the entire room Bistro White, which is a Valspar color.  The tone of the wood is slightly too orange-y for my current taste, so I wanted to neutralize that as much as possible, and I felt like white could do the trick.  I think I made the right choice, because I love the way the furniture looks against my new white walls!

Once I knew the walls were going to be Bistro White, I started thinking of the bedding, and I decided to stick with the white theme I was getting going.  I love the look of fluffy white bedding, and since the guest room gets only light use, I thought it would be a great place to add some really pretty white on the bed.  I headed to HomeGoods on the day after Christmas to shop for the the perfect fluffy white comforter and pillow shams.

I fully intended to spend at least half of my budget on bedding, and I pretty much did.  this bedding came in at about $39.99.  You can read more about this bedding in my week 4 post.  I go into a lot more detail there about how I layered this bedding with some vintage and thrifted blankets, to achieve this look. I love the shabby chic vibe of the bedding.  It is so fluffy looking and it feels very soft to the touch.  I like the double layer of ruffles around all four side of everything from the comforter to the small square pillow the bedding set came with.  It even came with two white euro shams that I didn’t use on this bed.  So I will save those for use in another space in our home, because they are way cute!  I got creative with the artwork over the bed by using an old vintage book I bought at a thrift store years ago.  I just chose a botanical print from that book and framed it using a frame I already had.  So that was free wall art, score!

Bedding | Faux fur Sheepskin Rug

We do love the flooring that is all through the upstairs, but I do still think we need to add a rug to this room.  I stalked Facebook Marketplace for a rug that I might be able to find at a great price for this room, and it just wasn’t happening with what was left of my budget after the bedding.  At first I planned to  move a rug from the downstairs up here to this room, and then as the room started progressing, I decided against it.  It just seemed like a lot of effort when it wouldn’t ultimately be the rug I used in this room.  One day I will add a rug under this bed, but not for this budget.  I decided to add this faux sheepskin rug I already owned to the spot right where someone’s feet would land as they were waking up and getting out of bed in the morning.

Bedding | Faux fur Sheepskin Rug

I wanted to update the ceiling light in this room for free, and I had that figured out from the beginning as well.  and it was this paper lantern that I bought in New York City about 18 months ago.  I paid $15 for this baby in China Town, and I originally bought it for our mudroom in our previous home back in West Virginia.   So because I already owned this, it doesn’t count in my budget for this room makeover.  All I did to install this was remove the old glass globe.  I kept the rest of the light fixture intact, and used electrical tape to tape this lamp in place.  It has a wire bar going across the middle that I easily taped in place.  I used warm white LED bulbs to give this room a cozy glow.  I love the fringe detail on this lantern, and it is a huge statement piece in the room.

Everything I used on this end table were things we already owned.  the gold lamp was in our 23 year old daughter’s bedroom for several years.  The feather artwork is a free printable that I printed out on my own printer.  You can find lots of resources online that have free artwork you can download and print out.

The art I hung on this wall was from a collaboration I did on Instagram about a year ago.  For a bit before we moved, it hung in our previous entry, but I hadn’t really found a place I wanted to hang it in our new hoe, although I do think it is a cool print.  So I decided, since I was on a tight budget, to try to make this piece work in this room.  I hung it in this floating frame that I have had for many years.  I also had this drawing of my daughter that used to hang in her teenage bedroom, and although I didn’t want to hang it in this room, I also couldn’t bare to part with it, so I decided to lean it against the wall.  The mirror that is leaning behind it is another item that we brought with us from our previous home that had yet to find a place for in our new home, so I decided to paint the frame with some metallic gold craft paint that we had on hand, and then I just layered it under the drawing.  I like the way the mirror reflects the ruffled trim on the bedding.

I did find this great basket at a local Goodwill to use in the room.  It looks to be a vintage basket, and it was only $4!.  I also found two creamy colored pillow cases that are trimmed with crochet for $2 each and just couldn’t pass them up.  I just folded them and draped them over the edge of my new basket.  My husband’s closet it is this room, and the dresser is actually filled with his clothing, so this basket serves as the perfect spot for him to throw his dirty shirts for the dry cleaner.  I threw in this turquoise blanket that we had in our stash to hide the laundry, and because it helps coordinate the artwork hanging above.

I added two black and white photos to the wall to the left of the closet doors.  These are photos of my husband and myself with our one moth old baby that used to hang in a gallery wall in our previous home.  I still wanted to have them somewhere in our new home, and I think this is a good place for them.

My plan for the doors in this room was to paint them the same color (plum martini by Benjamin Moore) I had used to paint two doors in our breakfast room makeover this past Fall.  But when I got he paint out, I realized I didn’t have enough to finish both the closet door and the bedroom door.  I didn’t have enough money in my budget to buy more paint, so I decided to use the color Kendall Charcoal that I had on hand from our kitchen island makeover.  I actually added the rest of the can of the plum martini to the can of Kendall charcoal paint to darken it just a tad.  I am happy with the way it turned out.  I originally wanted the doors to be darker than that, but when you have a budget of $100, you have to improvise and do the best you can, and I do think I can call the color of the doors a success.

Here is a before photo of this same wall in the bedroom.  So.  Much.  Better.  Right!?!  I painted all of the baseboards and trim around the doors in Simply White by Benjamin Moore. I also had this paint left over from our kitchen makeover, so it was free too.

The white linen curtains I used in the room were from our previous kitchen.  They were a Marshall’s find a couple of years ago.  I ended up not being able to use the curtain rods I originally bought for this room because they were too short.  That was an error on my part because I failed to measure before I ordered them.  So I ended up making a last minute run to Walmart to find something that would work in this room.  Although I don’t like them as much as the first ones, they do work in this space for now, and they saved me some money out of my budget, because these were about $15 cheaper.

Another free project I did for this room makeover is the vintage steamer trunk makeover.  I have owned this trunk since high school, and it was stored in our attic for years.  Unfortunately, we have a much smaller attic here, so this trunk would not fit.  I need it for storage, so I decided to make it work as an end of the bed bench for this guest bedroom, and I quite love the way it turned out!  It is one of my favorite aspects in this room, and the little bun feet are just so cute!  Below, you can see what the trunk looked like before.

Isn’t it just the cutest little trunk now?  We had a guest stay in this room already, and she used it to put her suitcase on, so it worked out so perfectly to have this here.  It’s also a great place for me to lay my husband’s clean laundry that needs put away.

I brought in some decor we already had in my decor stash to decorate the top of the dresser.  Everything you see here was already owned by me.  I brought in the vintage blue jars and this little teal candle holder to tie in the art work that you saw hanging above the vintage basket earlier.

And just in case your forgot, this was what the dresser looked like before I started this makeover.  I was able to find a place for my husbands baseball caps, and the other things he has collected will be added back in to the room soon.  I removed them so that I could style this room makeover and photograph it, but I do have plans to hang all of his running medals back in here, and I will also be adding shelves to display some of his collectibles.

I had to nix the shelves from my original plan due to  the fact that I could not afford the brackets I need to purchase to hang them.  To be honest, I am cool with it and wish I didn’t need to incorporate these things into my cute guest room, but on the other hand, I know it is important to allow my husband a place to put some things that are meaningful to him ,and this room makes sense since his clothing is all in this room.

My husband hung this hanging rack on the wall to to hang his caps.  This was also brought with us from our previous house.  We will eventually display his medals right under these caps.  And when the door is open, all of this disappears behind it.

I am thrilled to finally have a cozy guest bedroom, because since we recently relocated halfway across the country from all of friends and family, we plan to be hosting a lot of guests here over the years, and we hope that there will be lots of people who are able to feel welcome in this room.  Thank you so much for following along with this challenge and for checking out our guest bedroom reveal today!  I would love to know what you think of this transformation!  Please leave me a comment and let me know what is your favorite part of this makeover, I would love to know what parts resonated with you the most.  Before wrap u this post, I need to share my final budget breakdown and my list of things I needed to accomplish in this room.

I have to admit, that for the first time I went over budget on my $100 Challenge Makeover.  I ended up being over by $8.82.  So I will let you be the judge of whether I can call it a success or not.  I could have chosen to remove the basket and the pillow cases, but I just liked them in the photos too much to give them up.  So I decided to leave them, and just disclose that I went over.  These items weren’t essential to this room makeover, but I do think they made it cuter for the reveal.  And I do also want to say that I plan to spend just a little more money in this room in the future by adding the shelves to display my husband’s collectibles, and an area rug to warm up the space a little more.  But I am in no rush to run out and spend money on these things, and I still think I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to make a welcoming, cozy room where we are able to host guests

To Do List for Guest Bedroom Makeover:

paint walls

Paint closet and bedroom doors

paint baseboards and trim

hang curtains

hang shelves-Didn’t have the budget to complete this

add a rug from another room-Nixed this idea along the way

make over vintage trunk

add new bedding

update ceiling light

add accessories, decor, and wall art that we already have

My Budget For The Guest Bedroom Makeover So Far

Wall Paint- Valspar Bistro White:  $28.98

Door Paint- left over from kitchen island:  $0

Trim Paint- left over from breakfast room: $0

Bun feet for trunk- $12.85

Chalk Paint and Clear Wax: $0 (I already owned this from another project)

Vintage basket- $4.00

Crochet trimmed pillow cases- $4.oo

New Bedding– $39.99

Curtain Rod- $15

You don’t want to miss the other awesome makeovers that are a part of this challenge.  Please click through below to see all of the other bloggers who are participating in the $100 Room Challenge, and you can follow along with their room makeovers as well!

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