Before and After: A Grown-Up Bedroom Chock Full of Stylish DIYs

When your home grows up with your family, itgoes through a lot of changes. AtMeg Lowery’s house, the bedroom of her youngest daughter got a couple transformations in the just three-and-a-half years the family lived there—starting as a bubblegum pink little girl’s room, then getting a tween-worthy upgrade (pictured above). And though Meg’s youngest daughter loved the style, the bedroom started to show its age over time. “The carpets went from bad to worse thanks to a middle school slime making frenzy and lots of acrylic paint,” Meg says. When her oldest daughter moved out to go to college, her youngest moved into the bigger, cooler boho room she left behind.

That meant that this room was free for the taking—good news for a family that had never had a designated guest room. “We absolutely love to host and are blessed by a steady stream of company,” Meg says. “The lack of a guest room meant that we were constantly asking our children to ‘move out’ of their rooms to accommodate whoever was coming to visit. It was becoming more and more apparent that a dedicated space allowing us to be ‘guest ready’ at a moment’s notice would be a gift to us all.”

What’s more, Meg hoped that a guest room would allow company to relax and spend more time with the family. “A guest room would really allow us to not just say ‘Welcome friends! Stay awhile! We’re so glad you’re here!,’ but to show it as well,” Meg says.

Over six weeks, as part of theOne Room Challenge, Meg gave the space a total grown-up revamp. The whole project was a team-effort DIY, with seriously impressive results. Meg fell in love with the color and pattern of a pretty peacock shower curtain but couldn’t find the exact right match in wallpaper—so she used thecurtain as wallpaper! The walls below, fitted with new board-and-batten wainscoting, are painted a pretty bluish-green (HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams’s Valliant Blue).

Recognize the nightstand? It’s an IKEA RAST chest, which Meg hacked with new caned fronts and pulls she got from Anthropologie. And the bed is the same one as before, just spray painted sleek black.

The carpet had to go, so Meg replaced it withcustom plywood floorsin a unique geometric star pattern. “Those plywood floors nearly killed me but I can’t tell you how often I find myself just marveling at how stunning they are,” Meg says. “I’m just incredibly proud of how well they turned out, and truly, they are even more gorgeous in person.”

Though she’s thrilled with the results, Meg says she’d probably do one thing differently: “I would 100% hire out the crown molding installation. I am certain it’s significantly cheaper than therapy and divorce which is almost what it cost us,” she jokes.

But the end product was worth the hassle! “Is it lame to say that I love everything about this space?” says Meg. “Because honestly, I loveeverythingabout this space.”

Inspired?Submit your own project here.