Decorate a Guest Bedroom In 2 Hours – before and after
Article may have affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a tiny commission at no extra cost to you. Big thanks for supporting my small business.
Want to give your guest bedroom a quick makeover? Decorate a guest bedroom in 2 hours with new bedding (layer it like a pro!), swap out wall art and add some fluffy throw rugs and decor accents.
A few weeks ago, I helped a friend decorate a guest bedroom at her house that served as her daughters room until she recently moved out. One of the benefits of your college graduate moving out is you get a bedroom to update and decorate! 😂 Her daughter’s bedroom was already a lilac color and repainting it was not an option right now so we worked with the lilac wall color adding coordinating cozy bedding, beautiful decor and refreshed the artwork. This post includes affiliate links – disclosure here.
Two colors that coordinate well with lilac are off white and yellow. I honestly didn’t have a plan to use those colors so I decided to shop the isles of Home Goods to see what jumped out at me. That’s typically how I decorate, on the fly!
Decorating Ideas for a Guest Bedroom
Style Tip# 1 Layer Your Bedding
The cream and yellow waffle bedding is from HomeGoods. I found something similar like this cream waffle bedding set to help you get this look. This butter colored cream quilt would also match nicely. If you are looking for a cream upholstered bed, this one is gorgeous and has great ratings. If you are on more of a budget, this queen upholstered bed by Zinus is perfect for this look. What I love about the Zinus brand is their bed frames do not require a boxspring and are very sturdy. Perfect for a guest room! If you are in need of a mattress, Zinus also makes very comfortable pillow top mattresses (we have 5 of these pillow tops at the lake house!) and the best part they are free shipping!
Here is the bedroom before.
For under $350, we bought new bedding, wall art, a lamp and a few bedroom decor items to update the night table and desk space.
Guest Bedroom Wall Decor
When decorating this guest bedroom, our goal was to add sophisticated yet casual wall art (like this one) above the bed to help balance the solid tufted headboard. The round wooden medallion artwork pieces are from Homegoods and were perfect to help add visual interest to the room and create a focal point in the room. If you can’t find them at Homegoods, this white floral medallion artwork and this one is similar as well. Depending on the size and style of your headboard, you can use multiple artwork pieces or one centered above the headboard.
Guest Bedroom Essentials
I like to add a small bench at the foot of the bed for visitors to store their bags or have a place to sit while putting on their shoes. It also says, “come sit on me and welcome!” 😉 If you do not have room for a full bench, try a small stool or chair in a corner. A folding luggage rack like this one or even this one in gold, is also a nice alternative to a bedroom bench.
When decorating a guest room, try to think in functional terms as well as decorative.
This weave coastal bench is an amazing Homegoods (this bench from Target will help you get the look) find from 4 years ago that now lives at my friends house. You may remember that I had it for a couple years in my coastal guest bedroom that we recently turned into our master walk in closet.
Style tip #2 – Layer Your Throw Pillows
I wrote a blog post last year about how to layer a bed like a pro so be sure to check that out here if you need help layering a bed. All of the throw pillows are from Homegoods and for the life of me, I couldn’t find a similar cream tassel pillow to share with you. Any boho style embroidered cream pillow (like this one) would look good! This pillow cover would look great too! What I love about pillow covers are you can simply change the look of any throw pillow by adding a new cover. I have so many throw pillows that I often times use the pillows inside “new” pillow covers. 🤷♀️
Style tip #3 – Add one large rug or smaller scatter rugs
Boho styled 2×3 sized rugs (like this one) would look great on either side of the bed and a larger 3×5 at the foot of the bed would help ground a bench. If you prefer something a little more fluffy and cozy, faux sheepskin rugs (that are washable) like this one are perfect for a bedroom as well. We opted to reuse the rugs that my friends daughter left behind in her bedroom for this guest bedroom makeover.
Decorating a guest bedroom can be easy and simple especially if you try to reuse items you already have. For this project, we invested a couple hundred dollars on a new comforter set and quilt and added throw pillows and wall art as new items. This guest room now looks comfortable and ready for visitors or refreshed for her daughter when she comes home to visit.
Meet Jessica
What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.
