Are you all sick of hearing about my new house yet? I don't even own it, haven't started a single project in it, and I'm already annoying myself. So how about a good before/after story from someone else's home?
My favorite part about this before/after is that I've actually slept in the "before" room, and when I saw the "after" pictures I didn't even realize that it was the same room! In this fabulous story, an outdated Guest Room is turned into a stunning Master Bedroom- and the transformation is truly jaw dropping.
This house belongs to my wonderful amazing friend Amy, who I've mentioned on this blog more than once since she's so cool. She and her husband are renting a charming little house in the outskirts of Chicago. As renters they are somewhat limited as to what improvements they can make- but after living with the purple walls for awhile they decided that wall color was one thing that needed to change.
Before the makeover, this purple room served mostly as an extra closet space and dressing room for her husband Mike, and occasional overflow sleeping when someone was snoring or bed hogging in the Master.
After Amy and Mike got married, their major purchase with wedding gift money was a new King Sized bed (so that they could both actually sleep comfortably without one of them ending up on the futon). Since they were getting a new bed, it ended up making more sense to turn this guest room into their new master, and then use their old bed as the guest bed. The size and shape of the guest room was better suited to their new King bed anyway, so all that was missing was a color scheme to replace the grape bubble gum walls.
And like any good before/after story, the end result of the room was somewhat of an evolution- based on working with what they had and trying to tie it all together. She started by painting the room a light and bright creamy off white- which ended up slightly tinged with yellow. Replacing the carpet was not an option, so she knew the objective was to come up with a color scheme that would tie the yellow and gray together.
Since they are newlyweds, I love love love that her ultimate inspiration ended up coming from her wedding photos.
The yellow and green trees, along with the stunning photo of them walking along the center line of a country road brought together all of the colors she had in mind. (PS that photo on the left involved the photographer lying down in the middle of the street- and stopping traffic in the process!)
They purchased the headboard on Amazon.com after realizing that the DIY option was probably more trouble than it was worth.

She searched high and low for end tables that would fit into the narrow floorplan of their old Chicago home- but a lucky find at a wholesale furniture helped her complete their furniture shopping and tie the color scheme together further.
She found the most perfect bedding by laying different colors and patterns that she found at different stores over the course of a few weeks. The added bonus with the layers is that they now have "his and her" bedding to accommodate different sleeping temperature preferences.
Are you ready for the wide shot?
Eeek, I'm so excited to show you!

She rounded out the decor with a few more wedding presents displayed on the wall including a cross stitch from her sister in law, and her custom painted wedding guest book thumbprint tree, painted by yours truly!
And aside from the fact that she has some of my artwork displayed on her walls, I think my favorite part of this makeover is that her cat Oscar photo bombed almost all of her showcase photos.
But seriously, aren't you just dying to spread out on that bed and read a book?
This, my friends, is what you call Before/After Magic.
To see more of what went down at Amy's wedding (as far as my role in the decor was concerned) check it out here and here. To see more of what this talented gal can do behind the lens of a camera, check her out here.






































