Welcome to Amish Furniture Home’s Fourth Blog Carnival! We have collected posts from around the web that focus on updating one room of your home. With these simple steps, you could make over a room in a weekend! For this post we chose a guest room, but these steps could easily be applied to almost any room! If you choose to follow these steps, email us photos of your redesign and your design could be featured on our blog!

If you’d like to see one of your posts appear in next month’s Carnival, email us at marketing@amishtables.com or message us on Twitter. Remember, each article can be found by clicking the blue title before each summary.

Happy Re-Designing!

Ok, you have decided you are finally going to tackle that “catch-all” room. But where do you start? Blogger Janell Beals gives our readers some tips in this post.  In order to go through this too, we have picked an inspiration room, revealed next.

Here it is! This is the inspiration for the guest room, courtesy of Noir Blanc Interiors‘ Beach House Decor Blog!  You will see the photo of this guest room at the beginning of this post.  We love the relaxed colors and a little touch of the seaside. It is still summer after all!  We chose this as our inspiration room, because with some simple additions and a little planning, we felt this could be an easily attainable room for you our readers!

We love ceilings and like Barbara Miller we feel that they all too often get forgotten. We think her interesting paper technique could be a good addition to the guest room design we are working towards. If this is too daunting another idea would be to use a slightly darker shade on the ceiling, like a lovely warm gray!

How To: No Sew Faux Roman Shade

Working through our guest room re-design, we wanted to find a quick and easy curtain that we could make.  We found this great “How To” post from the blog High Heeled Foot in the Door. Of course making curtains yourself allows you the freedom to pick fabrics and colors that work with your scheme.  If you need more privacy, you could always add sheers behind the curtains or make them longer!

What bed is complete without some throw pillows? This handy “How To” from Fresh Nest Design is another perfect way to tie your scheme together, especially if you are also making your own Faux Roman Shade!  Instead of the rosettes, you could also use ribbon, buttons, or nothing at all depending on the type of fabric you are using.  If you don’t have time to do anything else, this is a great way to freshen up any room.  Think of new pillows on your sofa, instant pops of fresh color!

Now What? Hopefully this Carnival has inspired you to to bring life to an un-inspired room in your home; you have a decent arsenal of tools to get this job done in one weekend. But what next?

It is time to start pulling your design together, piece by piece.  In our strategy, we would purchase all our items to make sure we can get the complete look we are hoping for. Then comes the time to pick your weekend, prep, paint and reassemble the room! You can tackle the DIY projects in between paint coats or you could do them ahead of time, so there is less to do over the weekend.

We have pulled together a style guide (complete with shopping resources) based on the featured room inspiration. Its a little different, but we think the feel is similar. What do you think?

Style Guide – Resources

1) Monogrammed Sheets: Restoration Hardware

2) Duvet Covers: Potterybarn

3) Shell Print: Etsy

4) Vintage Shell Print: Etsy

5) Fossil Lamp: West Elm

6) Plain Tin Slate Wool Rug: Dash & Albert

7) Royal Master Sealight Floor Lamp: Restoration Hardware

Linen: Home Fabrics & Rugs

Of course, the first thing you need to think about is the guest room bed. You want your guests to get a good night’s rest, so make sure the size bed you choose will accommodate that. A queen size bed is the best choice for any guest room because it will provide the most room and comfort for both individuals and couples. You can also get two twin beds and keep them apart for younger guests or push them together for couples.

A small nightstand or bedside table next to each side of the bed with table lamps is also essential to any guest room layout. Guests will appreciate having a place to put their alarm clock or glass of water at night and the lamps will be useful for reading in bed. A nightstand with a drawer is nice also so your guests will have a place to keep their small items, such as wallets, keys, glasses, or cell phones.

A chest of drawers or dresser that guests can use to put their clothes in during their stay is very important as well. It’s difficult to relax when your clothes are strewn all over the floor or crumpled up in a suitcase, so make sure to provide a convenient place for guests to keep their clothes organized.

You might also want to provide a comfortable chair or bench so guests can have a place to sit other than on the bed. A small desk is also a nice addition to any guest room for those who want to set up and use their laptops. Providing all the amenities that a basic hotel room would provide will make your guests feel welcome, comfortable, and relaxed during their stay.