Home Office To Guest Suite – Design Plan

Last time y’all heard from me, I announced my husband and I are expecting our first little one this November (we’re kindly calling him/her Tiny Pie). But for now, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled program!

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Let’s Get the (Design) Party Started

Now that I’m into the second trimester, I’ve got most of my energy back and I’m ready to start tackling some projects at my parents’ house. They’ve been so kind to let me stay here for the duration of David’s deployment, so it’s the least I can do to help make improvements while I’m here.

The first room we’ve decided to tackle is a bedroom on the front of the house that has always been used as an office. It has an ensuite bathroom, which makes it the perfect room for guests, and my parents had a sleeper sofa that served the purpose of making the office a guest room as needed. The problem is, no one really uses the office as an office and it has slowly turned into the catch-all room where old books and outdated laptops go to die. Additionally, my dad is an avid outdoorsmen and hunter (or at least he was for his whole life up until the past few years) and he uses this room to display his trophies. Mounted deer don’t exactly scream “Come stay and relax!” to a guest – no offense, dad.

My mom and I joined forces and decided now that I’m living here for the better part of 7.5 months, we should turn this room into the guest suite it was meant to be. It’ll be the perfect room for me to stay in while I’m here, and once David is home and we have Tiny Pie with us, it’ll be just the space we need when we come to visit.

The Design Plan

Like many clients, my mom is a very visual person and has a hard time envisioning design concepts without seeing it all on paper. I love using Pinterest to keep track of client projects, and then I pull together a document with key information so my client isn’t overwhelmed with all the moving pieces. I’ve started Pinterest Boards for each of the rooms we’re renovating, so be sure to follow along with the process!

Before Photos

So now that you’ve seen the plan, here are some before photos. I unfortunately forgot to take any true before photos when the roll top desk and sleeper sofa were still in the room, but I’ll share pictures of those items just to give you an idea of where we started.

This was the first item we moved out of the room to make way for a bed. We ordered a Signature Sleep Memory Foam mattress from Amazon (David and I have two of these at our house and LOVE them), and as soon as it came in, the couch went to the garage. We were able to sell it on Facebook Marketplace and it’s happy to be getting a new life in someone else’s house!

Oh, the roll top desk. Y’all this thing is solid wood and HEAVY. Not to mention it was jam packed with 20+ years worth of stuff. I had to pull my dad’s arm to get it cleaned out, but we were able to organize and store everything (even the printer!) in the bedroom closet. We will have a desk going in the guest room (she’s a beauty that just needs a little TLC and chalk paint), but for now the closet will work for storage.

I chose an iron bed for this room because I love the clean, simple lines, and they’re also extremely affordable. We ordered the Matheney Platform Bed from Wayfair, which is perfect for a memory foam mattress because you won’t have to buy a platform from the mattress store. Because the roll top desk is so large, we waited to assemble the bed until the roll top desk could be moved out. In the meantime, we put the mattress on the floor where the bed is going.

When we finally moved out the roll top desk with the help of my two brothers (it was a family affair!), we had to disassemble it into three pieces just to move it. The desk also found a new home thanks to Facebook Marketplace!

The other big piece of furniture in the room is this humongous safe. My parents’ house had to be reinforced when it was moved in. Obviously, it’s not going anywhere. My mom and I have some creative ideas for concealing it with a custom cabinet, but we can only ask dad for so much change at a time.  For now, we’ll just work around it.

Current State of Affairs

After getting everything cleared out, assembling the bed, and spending the better part of three days painting, I’m excited with how things are going! We decided to paint using Sherwin Williams Natural Tan instead of Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter simply because Lowe’s was having a sale on paint for Memorial Day Weekend and the two colors are nearly identical.

We also installed curtain rods and drop cloth curtains, which are AWESOME. Best bang for your buck, hands down! I hope to have a post up in the next week or so with details on what kind of drop cloths we used and how we hung them.

In the next few days and weeks, we plan to bring in new end tables and lamps, as well as the new desk and chair. We also plan to get new carpet and a jute area rug.

Here’s a sneak peek of how the guest suite looks now! 

Stay tuned for the final photos once we get this room finished, and details (plus photos!) of our drop cloth curtains!