Would You Sleep Here?

Last summer our family returned to Barrie. It's a small city (pop 125,000) just north of Toronto.

We have quite a large lake, Simcoe, that allows for plenty of beach time in the summer, and ski hills all around - Barrie is known for it's abundance of snow!

It's a fantastic place to bring up kids - the only downfall is that our families are a little farther away now.

So when we found this house, the guest room and semi-ensuite were big selling features.

Now, the last people to have lived here were pretty adventurous with colour (I'm trying to be gracious here).

We moved into quite the rainbow of rooms... the guest room was no exception - pumpkin.

For a small basement space with limited light this was too intense for me.

The decorating budget for this room was VERY minimal so I had to be a bit creative.

A leftover can of paint from my sons room did the trick

It's called County Cork, Ralph Lauren - a warm camel.

Do you see that orange?!

We had these canvases, from our master bedroom in our last home.

Although it's a small room, we had just replaced our king mattress and wanted to use our other one here -  a big bed is so comfortable and this room has a closet for guests so no dresser is required.

With no room to spare, I decided to use the art like a headboard, and got two of these twin bed bases from Ikea.

This creates a platform feel (for $120!) which doesn't crowd the room any further..

These tie-dyed sheets have been waiting for a purpose for years - they are DKNY, and when I found them at Winners (for $12 each) I bought them because they matched those canvases - although I wasn't really sure what I was going to use them for.

 This is why my husband loves me LOL.

So the other day the tiny temporary curtains (from previous owners) gained a new life as curtain lining for my sheets!  Sewed the sheets onto the tabs, leaving a little excess fabric all along for fullness, and voila - new curtains that emphasize the ceiling height (and still need steaming!)

The chair ($4 at the thrift shop) was updated with some silver paint and a new seat. An old cord set was covered with twine and given a new paper lantern.

The shelves were moved here from the kids playroom, I didn't want glass around flying floor hockey balls...
My Grandmothers bookends finally have a special spot, and the other accessories were presents from my Sis over the years.. obviously I'm a sentimental fool!

I think it's pretty cosy! Just a few things left to finish..

I'm trying to decide what to make the bedskirt from - another bit of the tie-dye or plain white?
Also, I'm thinking of sewing that teal throw on the bed into a cover for a body pillow to place across the top, and adding a navy quilt across the bottom of the bed. And we definitely need four new king sized pillows, those little ones are pretty skimpy...

so what do you think?
Would you be comfortable staying here??!

Love to hear your feedback!

til next time...