Moving on to the guest bedroom

Our guest bedroom has been empty for a long time. When we first moved into our house, all we bought for the guest bedroom was a queen bed frame and a mattress. I've slowly collected an old gray chair and some clearance rods I found at Target to go in that room. Here are the before pictures of the guest bedroom. The room itself isn't very big so we won't really need much furniture. We haven't had any real guest over our house yet except for my brother's friend. It was on such short notice that I couldn't do much.

After two years of being sad and empty I've decided to start decorating this spare room. 

Here are the in progress pictures on Valentines day when my brother came to visit. I am challenging myself and really trying to keep a budget on everything. I found a cheap bed in a bag set in red with the adorable pattern for $35 at Ross. It comes with two pillow shams, three decorative red pillows that I plan to give a facelift, bedskirt, and comforter. Its not really my color but I really wanted to try out brighter and bolder colors since our house is so boring. I also moved the bed away from the wall and added an $8 TV tray/table from Target. Lastly, I hung our clearance rod I found a while ago and got some Ikea curtains for $35. So far, the room feels really inviting compared to how it was prior. The room is far from finished but I plan to add accessories and decorate the whole room on a budget.

Here's a better picture of the small side table and thrift lamp I got last week. I still need to refinish the base of the lamp. I'm thinking of doing plain white to brighten up the whole corner and adding some dark blue trim to the shade. I also wanted to mention the Ikea curtains. They are a great length and extra wide, very affordable, and IMO pretty thick quality fabric that blocks out just the right amount of light when used in conjunction with blinds. 

Here's the wall opposing the bed. The space is very narrow since the room isn't very big. I'm in the search for a very narrow dresser to go in that space. I'm spying on the Ikea Hemnes shoe cabinet because its only 8.5 inches for the width. I figured guests won't really store too much in the dresser and really just need a surface to lay their keys or random belongings when they first enter the room. I will be emptying out the closet and guests can use that space if they want to.

Since the nursery was completed in under $400 I will try to complete this whole guest bedroom with a budget of under $300.

Here's the cost breakdown so far:

Comforter set $35
Henny Rand curtains from Ikea $35
Small tv tray/table from Target $8
Plain white queen bedsheets $15 from Ross
Two blue decorative pillows- DIY project from a while ago.

Total $93

Future plans include:

*hanging some artwork on the wall to the left of the bed- I'm spying some free frames at my mom and mother in laws house but they are all mismatched.
*giving two of the red pillows a facelift
*find a cheap lamp for the side table -already completed, just need to refinish it
*find a small and very narrow dresser for the wall opposing the bed. I've been spying on some affordable options at Ikea.
*After getting the dresser, maybe bring in some large scale art or mirror to go above the dresser. Its currently a very plain and boring wall.