sponsored by Sherwin-Williams

Honestly, how are the holidays already here?! Why did the years not pass this quickly when I was waiting for Summer to come along the first 18 years of my life? In a mad dash to prep our house for the holidays, and we finally finished our guest room before and after weekend makeover.

Technically we got everything in shape over a course of… two weeks because we had a million other things happening at the same time, but we could’ve knocked it out in two days easy. While we still want to redo the floors (goodbye disgusting rust color cement floors!), our main goal was to make this room intentional, crisp, and clean, and do it quickly. That meant no major floor or wired lighting overhaul, but more of a freshening up.

We have two guest rooms, the one that I shared with you before here (with a bed fit for hobbits, ha!), and this guest room that’s where stray furniture went to live. It wasn’t hideous, but it was very uninviting and stark. It still had the old mismatched white paint from the previous renters from when I first moved in a little over three years ago.

I’ve been loving the look of the navy, grey, and emerald tone walls that are trending right now, but because of how dark the room can be most of the day with only one small window, we opted to keep the white and make a single accent wall instead…

Not only did we want to create a (literally) clean slate from the previous renters, but we also used the Sherwin-Williams Paint Shield® which is a breakthrough microbicidal paint with the power to kill certain bacteria on painted surfaces. Basically my inner germaphobe was FREAKING OUT with excitement.

I think we can all agree that everyone loves the new, clean feeling of a fresh coat of paint, but Paint Shield actually kills more than 99.9 percent of Staph, MRSA, E.coli, VRE, and Enterobacter aerogenes within two hours of exposure on painted surfaces. Plus it lasts for up to four years, as long as the integrity of the painted surface is maintained. I.e.- it’s not a built in maid service for dirty rooms, but it will definitely fend for you in well-kept spaces.

We wanted to use it in the guest room since it gets a lot of holiday visitors. When we buy (which we’re in the process of, but shhh!), we 100% plan to use Paint Shield microbicidal in the bathrooms and kitchen for it’s bacteria killing power.

Also important to note, our favorite Sherwin-Williams white to use is “Extra White (SW  7006)” but the microbicidal paint only comes in eg-shel sheen, which is something to keep in mind when planning your space. We painted all of the surfaces in the guest room minus the base boards and door/doorframe because we’ve found that a semi-gloss finish makes those easier to keep clean with pet fur flying around like hot cakes. And you’re accustomed to using Sherwin-Williams for home projects like we are, Paint Shield® microbicidal paint goes on just as thick as their usual paints, so don’t feel like you have to overcompensate with extra gallons/extra coats just to get the bacteria fighting perks.

And thank goodness for family with handy skills! Between my Dad and Jared’s Mom and Aunts, we basically have an entire construction crew. It’s the best! I can’t even begin to tell you how many times they’ve saved us when it comes to DIY’ing. There’s power in numbers, my friends!

Though we opted for the wallpaper print accent wall instead of a solid paint color, we did also use the Paint Shield paint in Reclining Green (SW 6744) for the accent shelf since it’s home to the TV remotes and handled quite a bit. I love the way it ties in the palm leaf print colors!

As for furniture, we kept the same bed frame and bedding, and only added to velvet pink pillows. We moved the same white desk to the other corner of the room to add room for white campaign style nightstands.

With the print being pretty busy, we used simple, modern wall sconces and a single neutral print as the focal point over the bed.

I also fell in love with this gold accent chair that I HAD to find room for somewhere. I’m sure you’ll be seeing this in more styled corners for DIY’s because I just love it so much.

On the flip-side, I fell short with the rug choice I ordered online and ended up getting this one in a pinch but it was still too much of a warm white (which you can totally tell in the photo above!). I’m going to end up replacing it with something else, just not quite sure what.

To add another hint of pink, I made a pink version of this DIY watercolor throw blanket.

It’s always a pet peeve of mine when we’re visiting somewhere that doesn’t have a good place to work and/or get ready if we’re there for multiple days. When it came to the desk area, I wanted it to serve as both a vanity and a work space depending on the guest, so I added a round gold mirror to tie them together.  

There’s still some fine-tuning to be done, but I love the way it came together for a quick re-do before friends and family come visit! What do you all think? Are any of you prepping any rooms for the holidays?

room sources: palm jungle print wallpaper / gold peacock accent chair / round gold mirror / white desk / white bedframe / wall sconces / campaign style chests / velvet pink pillows / gold shelf brackets / framed animal prints / retro white desk lamp

sponsored by Sherwin-Williams