plans for a girly glam guestroom/office ~ Make Do and DIY

I have a fun little bit of inspiration to share today!

You may remember that I shared a photo of my neglected guest room in a recent post I wrote about things I wish I knew before I started decorating my house? Well, sharing that photo brought that room right back onto my radar! I'm about to share that hideous photo again, if you're squeamish you might want to quickly scroll past. I'm truly sorry, my (very) basic photography skills are just not up to the challenge this room poses!

My apologies to your eyeballs.

Behold! The hoard of frames, vases and assorted furniture with no current home that really needs to be put into the attic. And topping it all off is a pile of clothes I cleared out of the kids rooms cos they were too small, also waiting to be sorted and put in the attic. Plus the worlds ugliest, busted up crappy Argos canvas "wardrobe" that needs to go. Immediately.

I didn't edit them at all because I wanted you to see just how dark it is in here, and how the sticker on the window gives it that weird pink tint.

And I didn't tidy up because that would be dishonest...and require more effort than I could muster ;)

At the moment it's a dumping ground where clean laundry that's waiting to be put away goes to languish until someone (usually Gavin) runs out of clothes and has to clear it. It's also the home of my "decor hoard", a pile of photo frames, candles sticks and charity shop finds that I find I need to dig through on a regular basis.

In short, it's a mess. Full of stuff that we want to keep handy, but don't actually want to look at. It could be so much more!

And then, as if they could read my mind, the lovely people at Velux contacted me to ask if I would like to look at their current range, and given that the only window in that room is a Velux window that is naked but for a pink sticker that the previous owners slapped on it I was delighted to look at my options for some pretty window dressing!

So I browsed the Velux site and came across an amazing monochrome graphic blind that I thought would be perfect in a girly, glam, Kate Spade-esque guest room that would also function as an office/craft room, and I put together a mood board to show you what I'm planning. So let's see it again.

Graphic black out blind ~ Velux
"Marianna" print-Reuben Ireland ~ society6
Moderna moroccan trellis area rug ~ wayfair
24 light chandelier ~ wayfair
Vittsjo shelving unit ~ Ikea
Black and white California palms-Jessica Hickerson ~ society6

It's a little bit more over the top and eclectic than what I have in the rest of the house, but it's a style that I love the look of, and I thought that if I was ever going to try it here was the place to do it! I want this space to be somewhere I can store all my craft bits and pieces, and also have a place to work on the blog, so I think a bright, vibrant palette and quirky accessories will be appropriate...I just hope it doesn't keep our guests up at night!

I wanted to keep the wallpaper as it was a pain to put up and I do actually quite like it, so the black and white of the blind I chose would be perfect with that, and a nice dalmatian spot cushion and monochrome art carries the black and white through the room.

Then I'll bring in a lot of coral pink in the bed head and rug, and brighten it all up with splashes of neon yellow/green in the accessories.

What do you think?! The headboard, lamps, shelving and desk will all be diy's/ikea hacks, and the art is from society 6, which is really reasonable. So really the only big expenses would be the rug and the light fitting.....and I guess I'll just have to keep an eye out for a sale on those ;) The Velux blind is so much my style that it will go with any future incarnations of the room as well so I'm delighted to have found that. Roof windows are so tricky to dress!

Oh, and if anyone sees a side table or chair like the wire ones shown pleeeeeaaaaaaase let me know! I'll be scouring ebay in the meantime!

Thoughts? Advice? Other than "learn to use a camera", I know that already :p