Remember when this odd little 6′ x 6′ space…
…became our reading room?
Well, it needs to act as our guest room now, so a couple weeks back, we started clearing it out…
…and patching the walls…
…and talking about how to build a bed with a little more storage, and create walls with a little more character, and a little less stuff on ’em. I started having crazy visions of a sunburst mirrors landing on my Mom’s head in the middle of the night, so it was time for them (and the shelves) to say buh-bye!
After the room was completely clear, we loaded the car up with a bunch of wood from the home improvement store…
…and (spontaneously) decided to take a 2-hour road trip to Cullman, Alabama for some old gymnasium flooring from this place…
It’s called Southern Accents and they carry all kinds of awesome architectural salvage.
What a fun day that turned out to be!
Back at home, and after some hardcore rub-a-dub scrubbin’ with mineral spirits and soap & water, we started attaching the old floor boards to the back wall in the room…
Here’s what we eventually came up with…
(Note: We’ve still gotta add some trim molding below the baseboards.)
Simple, Moonlight White-painted board and batten on the side walls, a rustic gym floor back wall, a Moonlight White-painted plywood floor, and little cheery pops of color and texture here, there and everywhere!
The daybed we built was inspired by Pottery Barn’s $749 Stratton Daybed…
I think we spent around $75 to build, caulk and paint ours. If you’d like info on how to build one too, click HERE to visit Ana-White.com.
(Note: Because Kev and I each have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to directions, we didn’t actually use any plans to build our bed- but if you’re lookin’ for some rock solid instructions, and wanna cut out all the guesswork, definitely check out Ana’s plan!)
On the left side of the room, we used our leaning ladder / magazine & book rack. We haven’t secured it to the wall yet, but we do plan to do that in the near future…
For the board and batten on the side walls, we just used pre-primed MDF 1×2’s from Home Depot. They were super simple to put up with our nail gun, and because our baseboard and crown molding are flat, everything finished out nice and neat. (After a couple of tubes of caulk!)
I got the little green and yellow bucket from Ashley and Myra during our trip to Nashville this past January…
I’m such a sucker for brightly-colored vintage metal! I got the red, white and blue Bingo tin on Etsy a while back…
I’m SO gonna hide surprises in that sucker every time my Mom comes up for a visit!
We got the Pottery Barn Stratford wall sconce on eBay…
I camouflaged part of the cord by hanging one of our framed quotes on top of it…
The light has a dimmer switch- which I love. It looks so warm and cozy in there at night!
The rest of the frames hanging on that wall were also swiped from our old guest bedroom…
(My Mom’s birthday is June 13th!)
We decided to go with a more random arrangement than usual this time, and we’re really diggin’ the way they play with the board and batten.
It was such a fun little redo to work on together!
Just gotta add that trim below the baseboards, and attach a curtain rod and some curtains on the inside of the doorway for privacy, and we’ll be done!
I think.
Source List:
Paint on ceiling: Sea Salt – Sherwin Williams
Paint on side walls: Moonlight White – Benjamin Moore
Paint on floor: Moonlight White – Behr Premium Plus Porch & Floor Paint (Home Depot)
Pottery Barn Stratford Wall Sconce: eBay
Rug: TJ Maxx
White Pick-Stitch Quilt and Euro Shams: Pottery Barn
Floral Pillow: Ikea
Red Stripe Euro Pillow Cover: Ikea
Natural and Red Stripe Lumbar Pillow Cover: eBay
Ceiling Light: Ikea
White “Ribba” Picture Frames: Ikea
Wood Picture Frames: Walmart
Large Seagrass Baskets: HomeGoods
Blue Step Stool: J&G Flea Market, Prattville, AL
Ivory Throw Blanket: gift from our realtor
White Storage Containers: Ikea
Side Table: HomeGoods
Ladder: Nashville Flea Market
Green & Yellow Bucket: The Rare Bird Antiques, Goodlettsville, TN
Red Bingo Tin: Etsy.com
Blue Button Tin Photo: Etsy.com
Red Door Photo: LetteredCottageArt.com
Layla,
You and Kevin are so crazy talented I can hardly stand it!!! I mean, seriously?!
How do you do it? That room is breath-taking!
I would give a million bucks for an ounce of your talent and vision. And I’m not just saying that. God has blessed you both with a serious gift!!
Thank you for sharing it with others.
Luv u!
Traci
Traci you are so stinkin’ sweet!
So glad you like the new “do”.
We are enjoying it too!
🙂
What a cozy….cute…..comfy ~ room.
Loved the before (that you did) and love the after. Do you ever miss the mark when you have an idea or do you always nail it?!
LOVe, love, LOVE this! How talented to turn a room the size of a closet into this AHMAZING space! Love that you are from Alabama, too! Me too!!! 🙂 The largest “city” close to me, is Gadsden, well, I am actually closer to Jacksonville. I am a new follower and LOVE your awesome blog! Have a wonderful day! 🙂
Crysta
http://www.homemakerinheels.com
You guys would have the most rockin’ Bed & Breakfast if you ever opened one. You know…. in all that spare time you have between making great music, decorating a beautiful house, preparing yourselves to be parents and everything else you guys take on, I’m sure you have plenty of free time to take on that extra project just so I could come stay in a Layla & Kevin decorated room. I’m totally kidding, kind of. 🙂
Anyways, love the new room. And pretty much everything you do. But this room is seriously dreamy.
Ok, I’m done rambling.
Took my breath away. It’s my favorite redo so far. Love it all. I adore that floral pillow. The wall, there are now words, but yummy comes to mind!
Goodness, you are so fabulous, I can’t even stand it!!! hehe Although Clearly I can because I’m your biggest fan, This room is sooooo fantastic!
Love you guys,
Ashli
I love your redo, but how do you easily make the bed as in changing sheets, etc.?
Well, I’ve only had to make it once, and it was pretty easy peasy. There’s enough room for my hands to tuck everything in! 🙂
Oh my…..genius and gorgeous! I’m intrigued by the painted plywood floors — I’ve wanted to rip up carpet and paint/or stain the plywood beneath it. Tell the steps! how? why? where? Dos and don’ts!
No steps! Just vacuum, crack open the paint can and roll away….four times! 😀
I am the billionth person to tell you this, but you guys are sooo talented and did such an amazing job with the room!
Wow, wow! I think it’s your best room, yet. The gym floor wall is brilliant. Love it!
I love what you did with this little room. You can still use it for a ‘reading room’ when you don’t have guests. Since the room is so small, I’d get one of those expandable curtain rods for the doorway and just put it and the curtain up when you have guests. Otherwise, I’d take it down and leave the room open. Just a thought.
i love the transition between the 3 phases, such different personalities in all three! i especially love the ‘magazine rack’! i’ve had the rummage sale itch for about 3 months now, can’t wait for summer to come to MN so i can search out some treasures for our home! love the post layla. thank you!
I knew we were meant to be BBFF’s ! We own the same ,beautiful, pillow. Okay, well maybe that’s not grounds for being bloggin’ BFF’s . But, we do have impeccable taste, eh?
(pillow link- http://mommahenscoop.com/?p=783)
Beautiful! You are both very talented and creative. Your blog is a real treat to visit, thanks for having me!
I just keep coming back and looking at this adorable room! I am so in love with the gym floor walls. You are so creative it blows my mind!! Would love it if someone would follow my blog, ourvintagehomelove.blogspot.com!
Wow!!! I love it.
WOW WOW WOW – I love EVERYTHING you touch – so creative and beautiful!!
That’s just amazing! I loved the room before, but that wall is just………..WOW!!! What a great place for your mom to have a sleepover! 🙂
Like the 5 zillion other folks here i just love love love it! You guys did great!!! I am especially thrilled to see the accents of RED in a design world that seems to be living in the land of blues (although I love Kevin’s little blue stool in there with the red and the pop of yellow from the tin.) And the wall -it is pure gorgeous-ness and the perfect accent to it all. Your car packed to max with lumber looks like our crv does on many occasions. Isn’t it crazy how we can make our small cars behave like trucks??
Stay safe out of tonight’s storms.
Going to take down the outside red umbrellas right now!
kelly
Thanks Kelly! I’m starting to get a little worried about the storms rollin’ through…got all my candles in a row though! 😀
BEAUTIFUL! i have that flowered pillow from ikea too 🙂
I love that wall! It adds so much visual interest to the room. Great idea!
Wow, wow, wow!!!! Such amazing inspiration for small spaces!!!
So, SO gorgeous Layla!! I just love your photography too. You got mad skillz baby! And whenever I go and visit my family in Decatur, we go and get fried chicken in Cullman! I don’t remember the name of the place but it sure is good and greasy. 🙂
I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!!! I was just thinking about what we should do for our guest room in our “new” house and this is perfect. I am so in love with the daybed and love that you made it yourself. You are AMAZING!
Layla, this is just gorgeous. I wish I had an ounce of your vision. I can’t ever picture how things will turn out and look when I’m done!
Want to fly to colorado and help me decorate our new house? lol
I LOVE this!!!
Wonderful! Gorgeus! 🙂
I LOVE that! It’s gorgeous!
When I first read that you were redoing the reading room, I thought, “NO way! It’s adorable!” But, I swear, it looks even better. That gym floor wall makes the room! I’ve been eyeing one of those PB beds with storage drawers.
Layla, this re-do is lovely. Peaceful, cozy, practically perfect in every way. P.S. I’m a June 13th birthday too. 🙂
Layla and Kevin,
Stunning! You two are amazing! I am in love with the wood flooring on the wall. I think I may need to plan a trip to Cullman.
Y’all come up with the greatest decorating ideas. I would sure love to hire you to come decorate my house!
Sandra
Just when I think your ideas can’t excite me anymore–you come up with something even more amazing!! I soooo love the old gym floor on the back wall–how creative is that?? You guys are awesome–keep up the incredible work!!
Sorry everyone – Layla & Kevin are coming to sunny California. I am so flying the two of you to California and have you redo every room in my new house! HGTV is really missing the boat by not giving the two of you your own show. AND, the first episode would be my living room.
I loved it before, I LOVE.IT. now…
Amazing! Nice work you two! And you did it in an hour, right??? Hee hee! My boyfriend would love the old Gym floor on the wall idea!! He coaches basketball at a high school.
Thanks for always been so inpspiring!
Have a great week!
~michelle~
When you wrote that you were changing up that wonderful little room my first thought was “Oh no!” But I love the new treatment even more. The gym floor walls are genius.
You are absolutely amazing! The room was gorgeous before and you just made it more beautiful and so very functional. You truly inspire me!
It looked amazing before… and now it looks amazing all over again! You make it look so effortless! 🙂 LOVE your style and your blog.
Wow and more wow. I didn’t think you could improve on the reading room but of course you did! Love love love this! That wood on the back wall is gorgeous. I adore old wood, so much character. You and Kevin are quite the team!
This is just beautiful! I wish I had an extra room to do something fun with! I love, love, love the idea for the back wall. You are so creative! A couple weeks ago I watched your adorable video of you guys painting your kitchen cabinets. I found it over at another blog and was interested b/c I’m currently in the middle of {and have been for almost a month} painting my cabinets. Your video was so cute and so inspiring that I immediately became a follower! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas and creations!
Jen
Scissors & Spatulas
Gorgeous! You have done wonders with such a tiny space! I love the bed and the creative storage underneath!
What’s all this talk about it being a room for your mom??? My birthday is Jan 12 and I am packing my bag (and my baby) right now!!! It’s seriously insane friend. beautiful. You constantly blow it right out of the water. Bravo!
Oh, my gosh! I thought the room was nice before but this is just amazing. GORGEOUS!!!!
Seriously? You guys rock!!
I am speechless. I really liked that old room. But THIS is a.ma.zing. Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaa!
another AMAZING redo!!!!
– {darlene}
fieldstonehilldesign.com
Board and batten seems to be the hot thing on diy blogs the last few days! Love love them, wheels are turning! I’m not sure what the hallway looks like for that room, but I’d say that’s the room that need the sliding barn door on the outside of. I have seen those sliding things at ikea for drapes or panels too…just a thought…love it, keep up the good work…if you came to my house, you’d think you are in yours, I just copy everything you do, but its hard to keep up!!! lol
The reading room was just lovely but the spare bedroom is even more lovely. Digging the simplicity, the lovely white storage bed, the white bedspread with tan, red and (just a touch of) pale blue accent pillows. You have inspired me to redecorate our spare room in a similar style.
Ummm WOW! I don’t know how you continue to absolutely impress over and over again! You two are geniuses! Your decorating style takes my breath away. I want to completely “letter cottage” my whole house lol. 😀
Good gravy! Wowzers! You two are amazing!
Oh my gosh – definitely one of my favorites! You guys rocked those walls and the lighting! I love the whole thing!