Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Art And A Bookcase For The Guest Room

Remember this “Things That Are Awesome” print that we got at a local craft fair last Christmas by an amazing artist named Rachel (here’s her shop) with the intent of hanging it in the guest room (you know, so everyone can study all the things that are awesome while they stay)?

Craft Things That Are Awesome Far

Well, we finally got it framed and hung.

Guest Room Art1

This is actually an angle of the guest room that we haven’t shown for a long loong time. As in, this post from two summers ago is the last time we shared it. And then a year later we grabbed that big mirror and hung it over the mantel in the kitchen and a while later we had a yard sale and sold the old Ikea dresser (it had seen better days and one drawer was broken).

Dresser After

So that wall sat bare for a while until we dragged this bookcase in (it’s leftover from book photoshoots, so the tutorial for the different colored shelf-backs is in the book). Then all we needed to do was run to JoAnn and grab a frame for the art (with a 40% discount coupon at checkout of course – do you know they take coupons on your phone now and you can just go to their site to get them?).

Guest Room Art2

From that far away shot you can’t really appreciate the sheer awesomeness of the Things That Are Awesome print (and of course we love that a fellow Virginian whipped it up).

Guest Room Art3

But this detail starts to do it justice I think. We could stare at it all day…

Guest Room Art4

Oh and one other thing on the agenda was to anchor the bookcase to the wall (not only for Clara’s safety but for anyone who stays with us with kiddos, which happens about once every month or two). Thankfully this bookcase, which we originally bought from Target, came with an anchor system, so we installed it and breathed a nice sigh of relief.

Bookcase Tether

A few days later I walked in and saw this, which pretty much made my day. Apparently the bookcase has Clara’s stamp of approval.

Swan Rider

What rooms have sat dormant in your house for years and then suddenly felt like a flurry of activity? Anyone have any theories why that happens? Maybe it’s the ones that you think are pretty far along in the beginning so you shift your focus to a bunch of other rooms and then years later you realize that one room has been sitting around getting ignored for a while?

Comments

  3. Kelsey D. says

    EVERYONE. Get this app now! It’s called Pocketly, and you can search any store, and it will bring up all the coupons available, and you just show the cashier. Joanns, Michaels, Hobbly Lobby, all of their coupons in one app! It’s life changing, I tell you! :) As in, they should add the Pocketly app to that “Things That Are Awesome” poster. Cause it’s awesome.

    Reply

  5. Ashley D says

    Cute update! Love the colored backing in the bookcase. We’ve thought about doing that with an old bookcase crammed in our basement right now.

    So I’ve noticed that you have white painted, solid (non-paneled) doors in your home. We have those, too, along with UGLY brass, beat up door knobs and hardware. We want to replace the doors and all hardware, but with furloughs (yikes, we’re both Feds!) ahead, thank you sequestration, we’re afraid to do it anytime soon. Not to mention it’s going to be a challenge for our carpentry skills. We’re thinking about just replacing the door facing (plain “oval” right now) when we add crown molding, but we haven’t painted the doors, which are all stained this gross dark brown, like we’ve painted all the other woodwork in our circa 1950’s split level. Have you ever thought about replacing the doors, or do you think sanding/painting is enough, and then new knobs/hardware? We hate to spend the money on the paint and the time involved only to replace the doors all later, but those stained doors are disgusting.

    PS, anchoring all our big items is on our to-do list…lots of nieces, nephews, and now our own peanut!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We priced it out in our first house and it was substantially more than painting the doors and replacing the hinges/doorknobs (like 4x the amount) so we opted to freshen them up, which we also did here. It makes a huge difference without having to dole out a ton of money for all new doors, and we always love to use what we have. Hope it helps :)

      xo
      s

  6. kelly says

    I seem to not spend a lot of time on rooms (lack of energy? inspiration?) and then all at once I want to redo every room in the house. My poor husband has been listening patiently to my dreams for a few weeks now. I blame it on the change of seasons this time.

    Reply

  8. Tia says

    Ironcially enough, my craft room (which also serves as my spare bedroom) has been the place of all homeless items in my house since we moved in almost a year and a half ago. I am just now getting around to decorating it.

    Reply

  10. Terresa says

    isn’t it funny how all the baby dolls are naked all the time? Is it that way at your house? My Megan had about 20 NAKED baby dolls when she was Clara’s age:/

    Reply

  12. Jessie says

    Can’t help but notice the doll is sans clothes…made me giggle because my four year can never keep her dolls dressed…poor things :)

    awesome artwork!

    Reply

  13. Natalie says

    That looks really good! Great update!
    This is completely unrelated to the post, but where is the yellow rug from? I am searching for a yellow rug and haven’t found one that I like…that one adds a wonderful pop of color!

    Reply

  14. Charlotta says

    I would love to get som “flurry of activity” on in our livingroom. It felt finished, and then we bought a new (huge!) sofa which makes all the art pieces seem very small (we have a huge oil painting that we want to put up, but we need to frame it). And then we had the bedrooms repainted and the livingroom walls suddenly look very grey-ish instead of crisp white. Oh well, maybe it will get done this summer (if I can keep from spending all my time in the garden…).

    Reply

  15. nick says

    Love the cranes (or storks, or whatever leggy birds you’ve got goin’ on). And the stegosaurus hiding in the bottom left corner–hello first-grade dino-diorama.

    Side note: thoughts on flush doors? (I notice both doors in the wide-angel are of the non-panel variety) We’ve got a couple hanging around the house that I can’t quite figure out what to do with; most of the doors were replaced with mdf panel doors, but there a few flush doors floating around. The one that leads to the laundry/pantry was painted in chalkboard paint. http://nickandmb.com/2013/01/15/taupe-no-more/

    The others are done-up in white like yours. I don’t mind them; replacing a couple hundo dollars of doors doesn’t sound enjoyable, so I suspect they’re going to stay right where they are in all their flat glory–just was curious if you had an opinion/preference on them.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We would love paneled ones, but don’t think they’re in the budget (as you mentioned, it’s an expensive project) so we’ve been happy with priming and painting ours and adding new knobs :)

      xo
      s

  17. Anna @ Gone Banannas says

    Walking in to that room to find that Clara had put her baby doll in that swan(?) would have definitely made my day as well. How adorable! I love the way the bookcase update looks. You guys are so clever! I doubt I will ever tire of looking at all the tweaks and updates you make!

    Reply

  19. Angie says

    I’m always happy to see when people tether their furniture! When my daughter was 2.5 years old (now almost 7.5) she pulled our big bedroom dresser on herself. Scariest moment of my husband and I’s life. Broken jaw, broken arm. SO THANKFUL that was all – could have been so much worse. TV missed her by inches. Before we left the hospital to come home every piece of furniture in the house was tethered. And everytime a friend/family memeber gets pregnant I am a PSA about tethering. Gotta keep our sweet babies safe!!!!

    Reply

  20. Abby Hugill says

    Love the colors in this room! We’re getting ready to do our nursery for baby #2 ETA July & I just found this after googling the wall color: http://www.tealandlime.com/nursery-home-tour/ – very similar color scheme to what you guys did in your room, but geared towards a nursery. I love their DIY alphabet wall & curtains.

    Reply

  22. Anne says

    Download the Coupon Sherpa app which will search automatically for the latest coupon at a number of stores; no need to go to the website.

    The room looks really great!
    No need to reply (-:

    Reply

  23. Michelle says

    I really like this room – lots of fun colors and patterns. A guest room seems like a great spot to experiment with some bolder choices.

    I have a quick question after noticing in some of the photos above (and maybe in a post about the board and batten) that you haven’t painted the small piece of molding between the baseboard and the floor. I have always painted mine as a way of extending the baseboard to the floor and was just wondering if you had a reason for not painting it?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those were all left unpainted in this house while the trim was already white in most areas, so since it’s consistent throughout the house (and it’s easier to maintain since it doesn’t show dirt and scuffs as much as white shoe molding does) we’re cool with leaving it the same color as the floor :)

      xo
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those were from West Elm a few years ago, but if you get some wooden ones from the craft store you could gold leaf them or paint them with metallic paint :)

      xo
      s

  26. Nichole says

    I think it is great that you install the anchor system on your bookcases etc. and published the information on your blog. I have a very good friend that had an unfortunate situation happen with her little girl a few years back. Maybe just a little older then your little one, this child placed her hands on a sofa table and lifted her legs from the floor as to kind of swing from the table. The table fell on top of her and crushed her little pinkie finger which had to be amputated. A crush is worse than a sever. Her parents had only looked a way for a moment. Thank you for posting a picture of how you anchored your dresser. Good information for all parents and families with little ones visiting.

    Reply

  27. Karissa says

    Love it! Quick question: where did you get that cute white dog statue that’s on the bookshelf? Was it a lucky find at a thrift shop or a store that might have more in stock? :)

    Reply

  28. Margee Krebs says

    I LOVE this room! You guys have once again inspired me, and I recently redid MY guest room, which was the first room I tackled when I bought my house (it had been electric lime green!). It now sports some kicky new furnishings and fun, not crazy, colors. Oh! And I had a “brass doorknob” moment – pulled up all my floor registers and ORB’d ’em! They look WAAAY better now! Thanks for all your amazing ideas! You guys are truly inspirational! (My house thanks you, too.)

    Reply

  29. anne says

    hey, i love the things that are awesome art! I think this summer i’m going to have my boys make a poster of the things they think are awesome. It would be wonderful kid art that we can keep to remember all the awesomeness of little boyhood.

    Reply

  30. Sarah says

    I love that Joanne’s & Michaels take coupons on phones now! Someone may have already mentioned this, but I highly recommend downloading both the Joann’s & Michaels apps because it is sooooo handy. I never have to worry about forgetting coupons at home and it puts all available coupons in one spot so you can quickly decide which will give you the best deal. The Joanne’s one has saved me quite a bit because they will let you use multiple coupons as long as they are all different, so having them all together is amazing.

    Reply

  33. Lauren@FilingJointly says

    I totally hung a print I’ve had sitting around for forever today too!

    It says “We’re All Mad Here!” (an Alice in Wonderland quote) and I hung it in the foyer so it’s the first thing everyone sees, including street people because our front door is entirely made of glass.

    My husband came home from work and was all “Pfft, speak for yourself. Some of us are quite sane.” And I was like, “Are you implying that I am insane?” And he was all, “Yesterday you bought a huge bag of gummy bears and then ate them while pretending to be a dinosaur eating real bears.”

    Reply

  34. Caren says

    What is the pollen looking thing on the top shelf of the bookcase? I think I need one!

    I recently renovated a room that was previously unused (except to separate new foster animals from my permanent residents and to slowly introduce them.) In my case, the holdup was that the room was so disgusting that I couldn’t even imagine it being used for anything else. (It included mustard yellow carpet and a closet painted green.)
    But now that it’s completely redone, it’s my absolute favorite room in the house!

    Reply

  35. Valerie @ Making It Worthy says

    Clara’s babydoll in the swan is so sweet! I remember when our first child would leave stuff in unexpected places after she first started walking. I’d go to clean the bathtub and find board books and random things she’d thrown in there. It always made me smile, (and made the cleaning less mundane), you never know what you’ll find where! treasure it…”you’re gonna miss this” tear…sigh…the end. :)

    Reply

  36. Debbie says

    I had to have that awesome print after you guys featured it, and it’s been sitting all rolled up for months because I haven’t figured out how to frame it until I read this post. Just curious what size frame you used from JoAnn’s. I was there this weekend, but the only large frame they had in stock seemed way huge.

    Reply

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