70 square feet - A guest room !

Most people have closets larger than that - I whined
A lot of people have bathrooms bigger than that - I muttered
But it was all I had to work with - so as soon as I was finished whining and muttering I went to work on
making this impossibly tiny space into a second guest room.
You can see the first one HERE ( which has at the very least 80 square feet - HUGE lol )

These 2 tiny rooms used to be one large one - the previous owners split them into 2 for their 2 daughters.
The jury is still out on whether I should have reverted back to one larger one - not sure if that has any resale impact or not...............I just have to hope a future owner will see charm in them and overlook their size.

A quick coat of black spray paint on the dresser handles to make it fit in the room's decor.

7 feet X 10 feet ( and even a little under that because the wall juts out a little in one section )
That's a little under 70 square feet for those of you that are not as highly skilled with algebra as I am

Anyway -the only way this was ever going to work was by creating a bed nook..  There was simply no other solution.
BUT - that little section of the wall that jutted out?
Well that allowed for a nook to fit a double bed perfectly - and I DO mean perfectly - 1/2 an inch larger and the whole plan would have to have been scrapped.
The bed frame was a craig's list find - and though it really wasn't my first choice - I'm so glad it was the one that ended up being available -

Since I have to look for positives wherever I can find them in this room - I WILL say that I love the fact that the " nook " has it's own window - when you're laying in the bed all you can see are the tree tops - it's quite pretty.

I took this little console table out of our bedroom and put it in here - it's narrow enough in depth not to take up desperately needed inches ( it's pretty sad when every inch - not foot - but inch - counts ) but it's a place to put a glass of water - jewellery - etc.
And again I totally lucked out - since the width of this is exactly the width of the wall which it rests against !

John says - WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THAT?
Suzan says - It's going in the guest room
John says - HERE WE GO - EVERY TIME YOU WORK ON ONE ROOM - EVERY OTHER ROOM GETS DISMANTLED.

But what he doesn't know is this:
I'm dismantling that right our of our bedroom - because in it's place I want him to build me a faux mantel !!!
( UPDATE - you can see the fireplace and mantel HERE and HERE )
Besides it fits the hobbit's guest room better I think.

Drapes made from a duvet on the other end ( which can close off the bed completely ) finished that section off.
I also took the Parisien Armoire out of the other little guest room to bring in here LOL

I didn't dare ask John to help me with this one - so as I was struggling to get it from one room to the next I banged it into the doorway accidentally and up he hops from where he was watching t.v.

John says - What the hell?
John says - It's an insane asylum here -
John says - Can't you leave anything alone at all?
Suzan says - NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BUG ME JOHN -
Suzan says - Feel free to give me a hand if you'd like -
( as the armoire is precariously tilted to one side - ready to crush me like a bug )
John says - Would you like to bring the dining room table in here too - you might as well
I've learned to block him out - but it's really getting annoying now - he has a comment on every single thing I do - every single step of the way.

One of my daughters gave me this " dress " dummy a couple of Christmas' ago - I brought it out into the landing so I could work on her - and then I needed to drape some dark curtains so you could actually see her.
Again hawkeye appeared out of nowhere

John says - Dressing the dummy now?
John says - What's with the velvet drapes hanging off the dresser?
Suzan says - So you can see it in the photos
John says - It looks
Suzan says - OMG - LEAVE ME ALONE JOHN -
ISN'T THERE A HOCKEY GAME ON?

I just threaded gauze strips around the body - and crisscrossed a ribbon on the top

and then tucked her into a corner of the room - the " art work " is a piece of an antique chair that fell apart on me - I'm clinging to the memory of it ...................

And now I'm going to show you the most perfect artwork for this little room.
Tina from WHAT WE KEEP sent me this -
There's sort of an inside joke here - she once told me a bear got in her back yard and she had to dive into her pool to escape it - AND I BELIEVED HER
I'm not blonde for no reason you know !!!
She had this silouette made for me and I framed it - I LOVE it ( thank you so much Amigo of mine )
I'll show you what another amigo sent me later this week -

Check this out - first of all it's black and white - perfect -
And secondly, it's 2 bears living inside an acorn " nook "  ( and the bear reference was totally lost on me - blonder and blonder - she actually had to explain it to me )
Too cute for words -
It sits on the end table - along with magazines to browse through

Once it was all finished John gave his approval
John says - I have to hand it to you Suzan - you somehow always manage to pull off the impossible
He doesn't see the irony in that.
He's impossible -

TOTAL COST FOR THIS MAKEOVER 100.00 DOLLARS

BED FRAME - 80.00
WALL READING LAMPS - 8.99 EACH

Everything else were items I had on hand ( including the paint )
We won't count John and I's labor - because that would bring it up to 25,000 dollars I'm sure
Tiny rooms require a lot more resourcefulness - but anything is possible, right?
And if you HAVE to - you can fit a bed - an end table - a dresser - an armoire and a " dress " dummy
into 70 square feet -
But only if you HAVE to......................
Otherwise - if you can - I'd highly recommend at the very least - 100 square feet.

But you work with what you've got, right?

and this is how it looked when we came to see the house

You all have a wonderful Tuesday !
Much love,
Me

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Creating a bed nook.....( and overcoming obstacles )

John says - This is absolutely ridiculous -
John says - This is STUPID
John says - The room's too small - this is ridiculous
Suzan says - You already said that
John says - I can't believe you're hanging a curtain there - the room's small enough - this is absolutely ridiculous

3 times............................

GET.  OUT.  OF. THE.  ROOM.  PLEASE...................................
Obstacle no. 1 taken care of.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Now for the second one and this is huge - we couldn't get the box spring upstairs.
For the first guest room we were able to cut the box spring and fold it in half since it was a spring ( coiled ) one.
Assuming this would be the same, John began sawing away
( Yep - right through the gauze - don't ask - we had plenty to fight about last night - this didn't seem worth it at all )

You cut the 3 main pieces of frame like this

and then simply fold it over

John says - There's nothing " simple " about this
John says - I don't know anyone else on this earth that does this crap
Suzan says - Trust me - people do this - in fact a lot of people do this that live in little old houses
John says - WHY COULDN'T WE JUST PUT A SINGLE BED IN THERE FOR GOD'S SAKES?
Suzan says - Because a double fits in and I want to create a nook

Except -

Suzan says - Oh oh - there's no springs - we can't fold it in half because of all the wood slats
John says - Oh well - there goes that idea - we'll get a single bed - and he gets up to walk away
Suzan says - No way, Jose, we'll just cut the entire thing in half and then re-attach it upstairs - in place
John says - WHAT DO YOU MEAN  " WE'LL " JUST CUT IT IN HALF?
John says - I only see one of us with a saw in his hands
John says - I'm really at the end of my rope with all of your sick ideas
Suzan says - THEY'RE NOT SICK IDEAS !!!!!!!!!!
John yells - WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING NOW?
Suzan says - taking all the fabric off to one side so you can remove those slats...............it'll be easier for you that way, trust me
John says - EASIER FOR ME????????????????????

They were just stapled in - so they were in fact quite easy to come off - here it is with all the horizontal slats removed

John says - THIS IS THE LAST TIME - DO YOU HEAR ME - I'M NOT DOING CRAP LIKE THIS ANYMORE
Suzan says - Aw c'mon - you just have to saw the 3 main piece of wood now and it's done

Here's how it looked when it was done

John says - I BASICALLY HAVE TO REBUILD THE BLOODY THING UPSTAIRS NOW
Suzan says - Could you please stop shouting?  You're giving me a headache
John says - YOU ARE A HEADACHE

It was incredibly light to carry upstairs LOL

We placed it on the bed frame and John reinforced where the 3 cuts were made

and then he nailed the slats back in ( I patched up where the fabric had been cut )
I only kept the fabric on the sides since the mattress is going to hide everything else..................everything else was cut up and thrown out

Obstacle no. 2 taken care of

A bed skirt would have been difficult - ( plus I didn't have one LOL ) so I cut up a drop cloth - folded it in half - and stapled it along the edge of the slats

Obstacle no. 3 - done !
And there you have it -
By hook or by crook - I've we've created a nook !!!

This tiny little space took me over a week - not the room - just the nook - so that's all you're going to see
( and by the way the entire room is basically double the size of this -

The " curtain " is a duvet cover I had on hand ( you can see that post HERE )
Did you notice that little window?
I put the matching pillow case on it - I can fold it to whatever size I need ( shorter in the day ) again I didn't cut the sham at all - just simply folded it - the top part of the window only shows roof lines and tree tops so I didn't think it was necessary to cover that part ( unless there's a chimney sweep in the area, it's perfectly safe)
 I also painted a frame around the window to give it a little more substance

It's not easy getting photos of this small area, let me tell you but I'm going to do my best to show you
" around " lol

I added a mirror to my wood plank " glam " frame - and installed 2 reading lamps on the wall -

A picture of the Eiffel Tower - and benches that I actually used to read on once upon a time !!!
( and fell asleep on one sunny beautiful afternoon )

The mirror is painted white and distressed ( a long long time ago )

And I guess that's kind of it .................almost ready

but not quite

John says - Why do you always work a$$ backwards?
Suzan says - I don't !!!
John says - You've decorated half the room - and you still have to paint the floor on the other side
Suzan says - It gives me hope when I can look up and see the other half done

He doesn't even realize I've only painted half the ceiling also LMHO

Oh and here's the seller's photo from MLS and how it looked when we visited the house

Later on in bed...................

Suzan says - Maybe our next place should be a loft
Suzan says - You're becoming quite the carpenter you know
John says - The next time I move it'll be in a pine box
John says - In fact - that may be the next project I work on.....................

Have a wonderful day everyone - and weekend for that matter.
I'm praying I'm finished this room by the end of it -
Please don't let it take another week

Much love,
Me ♥

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