My French Caribbean Guest Room Reveal

Would you believe me if I told you that my guest room didn’t want a makeover? Well… that is the simple truth of it.

It didn’t care that it was going to be a French Caribbean makeover… or was it Caribbean French?

(I started this so long ago that I can’t remember now.)

but I finally came to this conclusion after it continued to fight me… every single step of the way. It simply did not co-operate, not one little bit, and that is why it took so long. 

Oh…I could say it was because I started working full-time again about two weeks after I started the makeover… 

or because I stupidly took off my coat one day and twisted my wrist… or I took my coat off stupidly. I think that’s probably right.

Or… I could say it was because the warm weather finally blasted winter away, and I couldn’t resist the gardens that were calling to me like sirens.

All three are totally believable excuses reasons as to why this took so long.

But no… oh no… it was the guest room itself I tell you. It simply didn’t want a makeover! 

It was totally and completely not my fault. 

I tried every trick I could possibly try to drag this room out of the emerald green abyss to which it had become so sadly accustomed. 

And drag it I did… kicking and screaming…

out of makeover purgatory and into a makeover heaven of my own making. Now don’t get me wrong… I love green. It’s one of my favourite colours, but 20 years of living with the emerald green was w-a-a-a-y too long for me. Even if it is “the colour of the year”.

I even resorted to using a meditative visualization technique…

trying to channel those sometimes illusive decorating spirits...

by sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, eyes closed…

and chanting to myself… “I can see the finished guest room… I can see the finished guest room… I can see the finished guest room”.

OK… I admit it… I spent some time (days) sitting on the floor mumbling to myself. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures people.

I know what you’re thinking… I could have used the time I spent procrastinating visualizing the guest room to actually working on the guest room. 

(It’s no good trying that logical trickery on me.)

So, finally,  after many sunrises and sunsets… in winter, spring and a few in summer… ( oh my gosh this makeover crossed over 3 seasons… yikes) my if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em guest room and I are sooo happy to be calling this room makeover done. Yay!! 

The Claude Monet water lily print was $5 at a thrift store. We saw Monet’s water lily murals at the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, and I was thrilled when I found this a couple of months ago.

The straw basket, place mat, and the antique teapot were all thrift store finds. I cut the large pink peony from my garden. Peonies will easily fill a whole room, and more, with their glorious scent.

The dresser was painted with homemade white chalk paint and you can find that makeover post here.

I found the bedding set at Zellers the week before our local store closed at 70% off, that made it only $30. I thought it had that tropical look that I was going for.

The souvenir towel no sew bolster pillow post can be found here, and the $3 lamp makeover can be found here. The green scarf that I used on the lamp shade ties in the green on the dresser and chair on the other side of the room.

I’ll be showing you how I put together the DIY shutter headboard in a future post.

The little night table had two makeovers. The first makeover shows how to decoupage with fabric, and it can be found here.  The second makeover changed the paint colour to white, and it can be found here.

And there’s another one of those straw place mats.

My French Caribbean mirror makeover can be found here.

I’m planning a makeover on the inside of the closet some time in the future. The master bedroom has this funny little closet door as well, and they open to a much larger closet than you would expect. Still small though, by today’s standards.

Our house was built in 1890 and has lots of quirks, and like most century homes it’s very storage and closet challenged. Because of this John keeps his clothes in here, and I keep mine in the master bedroom.

The post for the silver tray chalkboard sign that’s on the guest room door can be found here.

This dresser was repainted with the same homemade white chalk paint as the dresser on the other side of the room, and it has Re-Store knobs that I spray painted a dark blue. I’ll be doing something else to this dresser also. I have a couple of ideas, but I haven’t decided which one it’ll be yet.

I bought the deep pink glass vase that holds a few more peonies from my garden at an auction years ago, and the scarf and the little green hand painted box were both thrift store finds.

I’m still loving my weather beaten green dresser, and the post can be found here. I know that the vibrant colour isn’t for everyone, but it is so for me.

I did a makeover on the outdated hardware also, and that can be found here.

My decoupaged photos on canvas frames project can be found here.

We removed the dresser in the before photo because the room was just too crowded. It was moved to the garage and will get a makeover at some point, and will either be sold or used somewhere else. I’ve had the Van Gogh poster for years and brought it in from another room.

And yes, I am so going to mention the elephant in the room, the plumbing vent pipe. Like I said, our house is old and has lots of quirks. I painted it out so it kind of disappears, but I’m seriously thinking of doing something crazy and fun with it. This may just be a future project! Why not?

I did the chair makeover last year and it fit nicely in this room so it now has been given the corner spot of honour. Ha ha!  That post can be found here.

And my DIY beach mat window blind post with it’s woven belt and thrifted brooch can be found here.

The antique typewriter is a sentimental treasure from the days when we owned our own small town newspaper… another lifetime ago. It holds great memories, and sits beside a canvas photo of Shakespeare and Company, a famous book store in Paris.

I’ll end this post with the pic of the thrifted vintage Eiffel Tower ash tray that I used on my DIY headboard. It cost me a whole dollar. Neither one of us smokes, but I absolutely love it anyway. Actually everything for this room was either reused or thrifted, except for the bedding. This makeover cost me a total of $88, including the bedding and the wall paint, and I’m totally happy dancing about that!

The main thing I really love about this room is the Ooops robin’s egg blue paint that I fell in love with at the Re-Store. It changed my plan for the room completely, and temporarily stressed me out because of that, but it turned out to be just perfect.  Somehow this blue colour manages to be cool in summer and warm in winter, and a lot of blues can’t manage that trick.

We can have long, and sometimes harsh, winters here in Ontario and because of this I tend to decorate my house more for the winter, and always with colour. I am a girl who needs colour in the dark and cold days of winter, and during the warmer months we spend most of our time outside.

Colour makes me smile, and smiling makes me happy. So… when I sprinkle colour throughout my house, I’m really sprinkling happiness.

So there you have it… my French Caribbean guest room makeover. Now that it’s done I think it’s actually more Caribbean than it is French, and that’s just fine with me because the master bedroom makeover, which won’t be happening until the fall, is going to be very French.

My brain will be busily working on this for the next few months as I daydream while I’m weeding. lol. I’ll be spending my project time, as much as I can, outside … tackling projects for both the house and the gardens… and loving it!

Thanks so much for reading! Sprinkle some colour somewhere today… and smile!

 

 

XOX