The long-overdue project of refreshing the guest bedroom is finally done!

When we moved in, I knew I wanted to give this room a fresh coat of paint. It had lime green walls and trim. As our lives became busy as they do, the room never got painted. It quickly turned into a dumping ground of all the things, especially clean laundry. We got in the comfortable habit of taking laundry out of the dryer and dumping it on the bed in the guest room until hopefully someone folded it. Do you have a place like that in your house?

Anyway, this past spring, my niece graduated from college. She had interviews lined up, and things were looking good until Covid, and things came to a halt. With us living a little closer to a city, we thought there might be a few more job opportunities here. We offered for her to come to stay with us while she started applying for jobs. So the plans were made, and it was time to refresh this room!

After getting the room cleared out and the furniture plan done, I was ready to go.

I started by priming and painting the trim, doors, and walls. I chose the color Du Jour by Valspar® paint and primer in one for the walls. I'm always happy with how Valspar® paint performs for painting the walls in our bedrooms. It's also super budget-friendly. For the trim I primed using Kiltz primer and honestly don't know the color for the trim and door. It is what I had leftover from when I refreshed our bedroom.

I was looking to complete this project on a super low budget, which was okay because I only planned to buy paint and new storage. The dresser we had in the room way too big for the space. I went to the Facebook marketplace and found the perfect small secretary hutch. It's functional, has storage, and the price was right, perfect in every way. I wanted a natural wood tone to go with the colors I had chosen. So I would just have to strip the paint off and sand it down.

To strip the paint off the dresser, I planned to use Citrus Strip.

I had used it before and was happy with it. It worked great but was a little more challenging in the 90° heat we were having. Having to start and stop so many times in the middle of this project to either run kids or to take care of things around the house made it a little harder. The Citrus Strip and the paint would gum up and not come off as easily I had hoped. It was especially challenging around the hardware that I would have typically removed, but thought since it's also painted, I would leave it on to strip too. After working on getting the paint off the more detailed parts of the piece and getting nowhere, I decided to try and pressure wash the paint off. Okay, maybe not the best idea. The pressure washer was a little aggressive in some spots and shredded the wood a bit. I'm okay with it. It gives it a little more character and looks a bit more worn, which kind of goes with the vibe I'm looking for.

After all the paint was stripped/washed off and sanded, the wood still had a red tone from its original stain. So I decided to bleach it. I had seen people bleach wood before, and I thought I'll give it a try. I am glad I did. I mixed one part bleach with one part water; I don't know if you have to do that, that's just what I did. Then I sprayed the entire hutch in bleach and let it sit in the sun. It sat in the sun for about six hours. I would check on it periodically, and when the bleach was dry would respray it. After it was the color I wanted I coated it with polyurethane. I could not be happier with how it turned out.

Again I was working on a budget and wanted to go with a current trend.

I kept coming across painted arches on walls. They're all over the place. I see people paint them on Instagram, TikTok, and all over Pinterest. I knew that is what I wanted to do. The plan was to paint an arch on the wall so it would be behind the headboard. To paint an arch is easy. You decide how high and wide you want your arch to be, find a center point, and pin a long string to the wall. Stretch the string to point you want the arch to be and tie a pencil the string at that point. Then draw the arch on the wall by pulling the string. Draw only the arch itself and then use a level to draw the sides down to the floor.

After getting the arch painted and putting the bed in its place, I decided the room looked unbalanced. I decided to paint a large circle on the opposite wall to balance the room. I drew the circle similarly to how I drew the arch. I found a center point, pinned the string, tied the pencil to the string to size I wanted, and then drew the circle. We filled it in by painting it freehand with the same color paint as we used on the arch.

I went back to Pinterest to get some ideas of what I wanted to do now.

I had the circle and the arch on the wall, but the circle needed something. I came across a pic of a circle on a wall with a mirror down the side. I loved this idea. I did not want to buy a mirror, anywhere, but the thrift store, where I had no luck. I used the mirror we already had. It was on the dresser I had taken out of the room. After putting the mirror up, it looked great, but it still needed something in the middle of the circle. I decided to add a gallery wall. I picked up some frames from the Dollar Store and filled them with pics of my niece with her friends and family. I printed them in black and white on regular printer paper. I can easily change them out when she moves on.

I added some baskets and plants to the gallery wall for interest and texture. When I am looking for baskets, I go to the thrift store. It's the best place to find baskets of all shapes and sizes.

I also added art on top of the arch above the bed. This was a fun DIY project. As I take art down in my house, it goes up to the attic. The old art is perfect for making over. You just paint over the old art with a primer and now have a blank canvas to create your own art. Such an easy, quick DIY to give an update to artwork in your house.

I didn't buy any new bedding; I just used what was in here before. That bedding is also what I chose my color pallet off. I did spring for $3.00 rug at Five Below that I used to make a pillow cover for a pillow we had.

Budget wise was just right!

$59.00 for the secretary hutch, $9.00 for the gallery wall, $34.00 for paint, $3.00 for the rug. So $105 for the room. I also shopped my house for a lot of accessories. The small painted side table we had was stripped and refinished along with the secretary hutch. The lamp I pulled from our living room. The plant we have had forever. It was a gift from our realtor when we bought our first house. It has been close to death, come back to life, and hopefully lives happily in the little spot in the sun.