Creating a Space for Guests

We recently moved our two boys into the same room, so our “nursery” became kind of an empty space.  Then, my parents gifted us their mattresses that were still fairly new–and we were left with TWO sets of Queen-size mattresses for our bedroom.  So, I got this great idea to turn Joshua’s nursery into a guest room.  It was perfect timing, too, because for Revival we invited the guest pastor’s family to stay in our home!

Here’s how we took just a set of mattresses and turned it into a guest room:

1. We used pieces of furniture we already had!

• The dresser that had been Joshua’s changing table still worked perfectly as a dresser.
  
• The night-stand we moved out of Nathanael’s room (to make room for a twin bed in there) paired perfectly with the existing nightstand that was already in Joshua’s room.
• The nursery rocking chair remained in the corner and served as a perfect place to sit!

2.  We found metal bed-rails.  You can get these at Walmart for pretty cheap, but we were blessed by having a friend offer some that she had in storage!  They work great!  A headboard would look nice, but the room still looks nice without it.

3. We found art for the walls:

• This piece was one of FIVE free Scripture art prints that I received for registering early for an online homemaking conference last year!
  
• I picked this one up at a local consignment sale for about $10.
  
• I bought this beautiful hanging last fall at a local festival.  My intent is to use it someday if/when we have a daughter.  I’d love to do a girl’s nursery with birds and bird houses!  It has been in storage since then, so I might as well use it!  (It’s actually a little brighter than this picture shows.  You can see the color better in the picture of the dresser above.)
  

4.  I bought bedding.  We got ours off of Amazon and it was here in 2 days!

5. I added some nice touches for our guests:

• Joshua had a CD player that was for lullabies.  I gathered some worship CDs they would be able to enjoy.
• I found a notepad and pen, in case they needed to write something down.
  
• I moved a cute trash can from under my desk to their room.  I can still use it at my desk whenever we don’t have guests.
• I picked up some treats ranging from “pretty healthy” all the way down to “junk food” for them.  Since I didn’t know their tastes in snacks, I wanted to make sure they had plenty of options!
• For fun, I made this card and placed it in their snack basket.  It’s unnecessary, but it has our WiFi password on it (something we know every guest is going to want!), and I felt it added a personal touch.

All in all, the guest room “project” cost us under $100!  Granted, we were blessed by a totally FREE bed, but you can generally find good deals at local consignment sales, auctions, or even Facebook resale pages.  Look around you!  You might be able to make a nice and inviting guest space too, without too much cost or effort!

I’m in LOVE with this guest space!  I’d still like to add a headboard to the bed, and find matching curtains for the 2 windows, but I’m pleased with it and feel that it is an inviting space overall.  Of course, we hope to someday turn it back into a nursery if we’re blessed with a third child, but for now this room is helping us to serve others outside of our family!