Virtual Home Tour: The Guest Room (Before & After)

It's been awhile, but it's time to continue the Virtual Home Tour. Here's a look at before and after shots of our guest room plus some text about some things. Enjoy!

THE GUEST ROOM

I love our guest room because it's actually very spacious, has a gigantic closet, and is the one room in our house that gets a lot of sunlight. Our first step when we decided to do up this room, like every room in our condo, was to paint it white:

Yay!

But we wanted to make it fun, so...

Stripes

We decided on green stripes because a) It's gender neutral (we're optimistic about starting a family and making this into a nursery one day, so...), and b) Why not? It's so fun.

And now, time for current shots of how our guest room looks like:  

Guest Bed

Here we have the guest bed that Husband built. We can't claim the idea for this. I love looking through home decor blogs and pictures - this bed was inspired from this post.

Little triangle shelf Russell built

Work Table

Add caption

I love this window sill. It gets a lot of indirect sunlight throughout the day. We also make it our makeshift greenhouse. Most of our plants thrive when we place them here. I've taken to rotating the plants in and out of this room. But one of the recent things we've added is this little herb garden attached to the wall.

Another thing Russ made

Here's the door. Only two of our walls are painted in stripes.

Hey there

The third wall of this room consists of one giant closet. The mirrors also make this space that much bigger which is why I love this room so much.

We've christened the guest room as our creativity room. Husband will normally work in here during the day. We store our art and crafts items in here. I didn't really do a close up shot of our bar cart, but it's the blue cart from IKEA which I use to store all my sewing supplies. The yellow chest in this room (also from IKEA) is meant to be an entertainment center but we use it to display plants and artwork, and in the drawers we store canvases, paint brushes, paint, etc.

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this installment of The Henry Home tour :)

Original post on The Henry Home.

Currently...

Took down the Christmas decorations last week and finally got around to transforming the living room into a new seasonal look. I was going for more of a winter look, but this is as close as I got.

A couple changes for this new look:

• Sewed new pillow cases. Stuck with a white, gray, and blue theme. Money spent: $0
• Hung new wall art above the mantel. Russ and I found the stick during one of our walks. Then I bought a ton of oranges that were on sale for 19 cents/pound. Dried the oranges and strung them together because oranges are a winter fruit, right? Money spent: $1.05 for the oranges
  
  Tutorial on how to make the Bohemian Orange Garland can be found here.

It's the little changes that make me happy. Happy winter, everyone!

P.S. I swear I don't pose my dogs for these shots.

Wrapping Christmas Presents

Getting festive in the Henry home!

Materials

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Christmas Time is Here

We love Christmas at the Henry home! Here's a look at the current state of our space.

Front Door

Christmas Sheep

Simple box, bell, and sheep. I believe these sheep used to belong to Russell's parents when he was little.

The toy train and the banner were also Russell's when he used to live in Reno. His family are insane Christmas decorators. His entire family goes all out on Christmas, and it's nice to have little decorations that used to hang in his childhood home this time of year.

Coffee Table Centerpiece.
Top: Top View | Bottom: Side View

Coat Rack. Representing the Gryffindor scarf.

Side Table

Gotta put little ornaments on our houseplants. Russell's grandma knitted us that white circle Christmas decoration. The red yarn is mine since I am also trying to knit little Christmas decorations.

His & Hers Stockings

Mantel View

Loving our mantel. We had so much white space above the fireplace, so I hung little Christmas ornaments across it using fishing line. Total money saver and an easy DIY.

Snow Falling 

Also hung little blue snowflakes across our windows. The only way we'll get snow in this part of Southern California.

Vintage Sign

This also used to belong to Russell's parents. It's currently hanging in our kitchen.

Presents

Oh Christmas Tree

We got a real tree this year (last year, we were living in Carlsbad and didn't have space in our 450 sq. ft apartment for a tree). For ornaments, we stuck with white and silver ornaments/snowflakes. Russell also wrapped white yarn and twine around the tree. I love the smell of our living room every morning when I step out of the bedroom. Smells like CHRISTMAS.

My Favorite Christmas Ornament

Every year, we get a new ornament for the tree. This ornament was from our first Christmas together as a married couple. Also an easy DIY (buy a clear ornament, print out a picture, stuff it in ornament, then fill the extra space behind the picture with cotton balls).

Lewis as Grumpy Santa

Handmade Items:

• Wreath on door: I made this last year as part of a wreath-decorating contest in a company I worked for. I got second place :)
• Christmas pillow cases: Sewed new cases from extra fabric I had lying around. 
• Quilt/blanket: Quilt on the couch was the one Russell's mom made me for one of my birthdays.
• Stockings: Russell's stocking was made by his mom; it's the same stocking he had growing up. 
• Red Mat on coffee table: From an easy sewing project
• Mantel Ornaments and Blue Snowflakes: Made from fishing line and old Christmas ornaments from our first Christmas together!
• Yarn and Twine wrapped around tree: Self-explanatory

There was a lot of easy DIY Christmas project this year. You can never go wrong from personalized Christmas creations.

We didn't go too overboard with the decorations--I figured we have years to collect different Christmas momentoes, so I didn't want to stockpile it this year. Hence, lots of random handmade bits. I think we honestly spent less than $20 on decorations [does not include cost of tree] this year, and most of that money was spent on ornaments. Loving the look, smell, and overall vibe of the living room. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Sneak Peeks

Not sure if anyone really cares, but I'm obsessed with my little condo. The housewarming party is around the corner which means Russ and I are busy bees. I've been sewing throw pillows and Russell has been making wooden things. Here are a few of my favorites...

Hanging Macrame Planter

About a week ago, Russ and I cleaned out our closet (been reading this book about decluttering--amazing, love it) and got rid about 70% of our clothes. We were able to resell some of it and used the money to buy more plants. We even got a lemon tree! Anyways, made this little hanging macrame planter to hang one of our other new plants. I learned some new macrame knots and I am loving it.

Future Guest Bed

Russell made this wood block that's going to be our daybed in the guest room. Um, there's no mattress on it yet, but we'll get that soon enough. I've never been one for throw pillows but lately, it's all I can think about. We've also realized that by trying to keep this room as gender-neutral as possible, it almost looks like a nursery. It's not! (Yet). It's a guest room/office/art room. 

Medicine Cabinet

Not really sure if I took before shots of our medicine cabinet in the guest bathroom--it's your typical cabinet. Russell was able to take it out and built this custom medicine cabinet that fit perfectly. I went in and decorated it with bath things and...plants. It's so beautiful.

Wooden Frame

Russell also made this wood frame that goes around our bathroom mirror. Makes the bathroom look warmer. Is it weird to say that the guest bathroom is one of my favorite rooms? 

Before and after pictures should be coming soon! There are so many things that have changed! Ahh! And so much more to do!

Created

I never thought of myself as a creative person. I've always enjoyed reading and writing, but I never went out of my way to take art classes or to draw. Growing up my parents would look at something I made (knitted scarf, birthday banner, etc.) and mention that it was creative. With Asian parents who always encouraged math and science, I figured maybe they didn't really understand creativity. Because I, most definitely, was not.

Then I met Russell. Russ who went to an art college and knew how to create pretty things on the computer and painted and sketched. He was everything I labeled as artistic. After being with him for five (omg, 5!) years now, I've realized how much he's pulled my creative side out of me. He encouraged the side of me my parents saw, and coerced it out. Because now, as a work-from-home writer and marketing associate, I think I've fallen over to the creative side. I spend my days at home--while Russ brings home the good bacon--writing and/or creating fun images for work. And when I'm not working, I write and/or make fun stuff.

This is not to say I am good at any "creative" things in any way. I am willing to try almost any creative hobby and am okay at failing at all of them. But it's so much fun to try. And Russell is always cheering me on. I find it so endearing. It's probably why I still keep sewing even if the creases aren't straight and the stitches aren't even. I tell him I'm going to try calligraphy and he gets excited for me. I want to try needlepoint and he's enthusiastic. And you guys, some of my stuff is not that great but he still puts them around the house. He hung up my "Oh Hello" embroidery sign up outside our door. I weaved this thing from my loom (that he built me!) and it was so unshapely and I hated it but he has it out in the living room. He asked me to crochet a few mats for our plants like he trusts me to be able to do it. And I do it because of his blind faith and encouragement.

Oh, this post was going to be about what I've been doing lately. Sorry, got side-tracked :) A final note before I post pics of my latest projects: find someone who draws out the best side of you, even if you thought it was non-existent.

So anyways, look what I've been up to:

Sewing!

Double-sided because I liked both fabric so much and didn't want to choose.

My parents were coming over one night this week. Our old table runner was in the wash and I really wanted a nice accent on our dining table before my parents visited. So...I made one. Out of old curtains bought from a thrift store and fabric scored from the Fabric District in LA.

Cooking!

Okay, so this might not be as creative as it was random. That's homemade ketchup, homemade ranch, and homemade chicken nuggets. Can you tell I work from home? Ha. The homemade sauces is mostly because we're trying to do our part on having less plastic waste--so when I have the time (keyword: time; this doesn't happen as often as I'd like), I try to make food/sauces that are easy to make from ingredients I already have. That way, no buying extra plastic packaging. The nuggets were just because I had extra coconut flour. Note: coconut flour is very dry. Have lots of water.

Calligraphy! 

This was harder than I thought. But I just love pretty writing. Some girls from my church invited me to a calligraphy workshop happening at one of their houses, and I'm so glad I went. I now have ink and a calligraphy pen and have been working on my up and down strokes. I'm nowhere near as good as I would like to be but this is one hobby I am willing to keep working at.


Russell and I got another order on Etsy this past week so Russ has been out on the patio making it. He also made a compost bin for all our raw food waste so we're making our own fertilizer. He also planted some new plants and made a green house. Oh you guys, it's such a weird home; but a happy one.