Basement Guest Room

 (Before)

The picture above showcases part of our gooorgeous basement on the day we bought our home.  I think I've shared this picture a few times already.  (And someday, someday, someday I hope to have a little before and after link to all the before and afters of all the different rooms in our fixer upper.)  But for today, I just wanted to share another little big project that we worked on this summer. 

Don't you just adore the "before"??? (please note the sarcasm, ha!)  When my husband and I were walking through this home for the first time, all I could say was "Wow!".  And not a good kind of "wow".  More of a "Holy cow, what were these people thinking when they designed this space down here???", kind of wow.  Those barrels were some of the first things out on the curb on garbage night after we signed on the dotted line and bought this place.

So... fast forward three years.  And yes, it took us this long to get to most of the rest of the ugliness down there... and it began to look like this:

 (During)

(After)

And then this.  New sheet rock, new paint, new molding, new carpet, new blinds, new light (not my favorite style, but it's what fit the budget), and new door. 

I love this new space now.  It's so much nicer and cleaner and prettier.  

For now it's being used as a guest room and the closet is being used for storage.  In a few years when my kids are a bit older, we may turn it into a bedroom for one of them.  

It's just so nice to have another space in this ol' house fixed up and checked off the to-do list.

I'm slooowly finding items to spruce the room up and add some life to it.

I made a rectangular chalkboard with a scrap piece of wood from the garage and chalkboard paint.

I bought a "fake" succulent from Target.

I found an old lantern from Goodwill ($4), primed it and spray painted it white.

And I purchased that cute white bowl from my nearest local grocery store for just $3.00.  It's fun to put different kinds of chocolate in it for me when I'm downstairs doing laundry guests.

I wrote "I Can Do Hard Things" on the chalkboard for many reasons, but one of them is for when I might be doing a hard workout video down here.  You know, trying to work off all that chocolate I just snuck down here to eat, ha!

...anyway.  I hope everyone had a great long weekend!  I'll be back here later this week to share a handy dandy little useful craft.  Until then, I hope you all have a happy week!