DESIGN PROBLEM – FURNISHING A GUEST BEDROOM
A designated space for guests means designated furniture for guests. You want guests to feel welcomed, but let’s face it, the guest room will be the least used room in the house. As such, when you furnish your guest room it can be a balance between comfort, function, and affordability. I already had a guest bed stashed in storage, an old dresser from college I knew I was going to update, and a slipper chair I had my eye on purchasing. I even had ideas for wall decor. What I was missing for our newly finished basement guest room were the night stands.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR GUEST BEDROOM FURNITURE
Windows are typical for meeting second egress requirements for bedrooms. Since this basement guest room was located near the front corner of the house, the slope of the yard limited the placement of the large window needed. This in turn limited the location of the bed for more privacy. Hence the size of the night stands on each side of the bed needed to be a specific width. Moreover, the guest room was going to have a strong Global vibe in my whole house colors (find the details in my Style Library) so I wanted to add some color and pattern with the night stands. Best yet, I needed them affordable as I had the entire basement to furnish.
MY UPCYCLED NIGTHSTAND SOLUTION
When we got married we registered for some nice maple wood TV trays. Yup, TV trays. It was 1996 and we were moving into an apartment where kitchen tables were only big enough to serve as an entry way table for keys and mail! These TV trays served us very well BK (before kids). Then they became my go to saw horses for DIY projects. They were in very good condition nearly 20 years later, the perfect width for the night stands I needed in the guest room, and free!
To get that Global style, I purchased two simple bamboo serving trays to attach to the top. This also gave some stability and would help corral any items placed on the night stands. I have to admit, finding trays the right style and size was the most time-consuming portion of this entire DIY. I wanted to mimic the patchwork bed canopy I made using worn sari fabric (coming in November post). Scrapbook paper offers so many colors and patterns that I knew it was the perfect solution. I still haven’t refined my use of Mod Podge to avoid ALL wrinkles, but I was pretty happy with the outcome.
GLAM STYLE TV TRAY NIGHTSTAND
If you are wanting your guests to feel a little more pampered, it’s easy to take this TV tray night stand to the next level. Here I have painted the frame in a glossy black. The bamboo tray has such clean lines that it can simply be painted or stained. Again, there are so many options with scrapbook paper that you can find some for any style. Consequently, I found several in cream and grey to give that luxe feel. The acrylic bead garland draped around the outer edge sparkles against the darker tray.
Check out this post to see how I’ve made this guest bedroom area feel private and secluded from the basement entertaining space.
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