The Guest Cottage...

Well, after 14 very long years, we now have a guest cottage.  No, we didn't build a cute little guest house in the backyard.  By the way, is it me, or does every girl want one of those?

Well, because we don't have trees that produce money, we turned our den into a bedroom.  Or as I prefer to call it, a guest cottage.

A few days ago, Gregg the handyman was busy in our garage.  Isn't he always?

I wanted to introduce him to my girlfriend, the professional organizer, who was over having lunch.  Well, before I knew it, their conversation turned into, "So are you going to make that room into a bedroom?"

When my parents were here a few weeks ago, we kicked the idea around of putting up a wall, a door and adding a closet in our den to turn it into a bedroom.  The one great thing about our home is that it has pretty large rooms, and I hated to add a wall and shrink the size of the room.  Plus, I hate spending money.

My girlfriend suggested that the bed "go there", and before we knew it, I was pointing, and they were moving all the furniture around.  God bless them!  Minutes later, I was off to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy bedding and Gregg was going to meet me at Costco to buy a mattress.  Within two hours, no lie, we had a guest cottage!

On a budget.  

Is there anything better?

Here are the details...

I used our king-sized sheets on the new queen mattress.  Bought the scalloped dust ruffle, ruffled pillow shams, twin size quilt, matching pillows and mattress protector at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $121.  Everything was on sale, and I used the 20% off coupons!  The other quilt beneath the green quilt was a find at Goodwill for $10 (it's a full size).  

Also, the beautiful vintage headboard is a loaner from my girlfriend.  It was her grandmother's she was storing in her garage.  She was kind enough to let us give it a good home until they can use it in theirs.  And she brought it over that night as Gregg and I were getting home from Costco.  And, by the way, it's a double.  But it works!

King-sized sheets, twin and full-sized quilts and a double headboard for a queen mattress.  

Try it!  

The best part of this is being able to keep the two couches. (Actually, it's an L-shaped couch that I separated, so one is a couch and one is a chaise).  I thought we wouldn't have enough room to do both.  

But leaving the couches in front of the fireplace makes it feel like a little cottage, and not just a bedroom.  And about five years ago, I scored a little white refrigerator on someone's curb.  I've held on to it "just because."  Now I think I'm going to fill it with bottled waters, Oreo cookies and Pringles.  Now our guests can have their very own unhealthy mini-bar!  (Don't tell my kids!)

And given that this room is primarily used as my office, it's great that my desk can stay where it is.  I promise to keep it nice and tidy when guests arrive.

And, oh by the way, this is an old photo of how this room used to look.

We basically just removed the table, added the bed, and rearranged the furniture.  Just by removing one piece (the table), a bedroom appeared.

We've lived in our home for 14 years.  It's a four bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, but one of those bedrooms is my husband's office.  So this girl who has always dreamed of having a bed and breakfast, has never even had a guest bedroom.  And given my health these last few years, it's about time my parents (who often stay for months at a time) and sisters now have a cute place to call "home."  Or cottage.

Look, two guests have already checked in...

So what could you do with your home that you've always been dreaming about doing?  Can you simply remove a table and get a ??????

Let me know!