If you are an addicted blogosphere surfer, you are probably aware that there are two contests being sponsored by Home Goods right now. If you blog or write about your own personal Mom Cave, you could win $250 to spend at Home Goods! And what Mom couldn’t use that?!

Enter Your Mom Cave at Centsational Girl or at Between Naps on the Porch.

So, I wracked my brain trying to think of a space I could makeover into my own personal Mom Cave. Then I realized – HELLO – I already have a Mom Cave! My guest room is just that, a retreat from the 3:1 boys to girls ratio in our home!

From the moment I enter my Mom Cave I smell sweet blooming roses,

and a potpourri of floral soaps in a dish by the window.

This is the room where I sit to sew and create,
or read a new design magazine.
This is the room I can lock myself inside and stop being Mom for a while.
Among the fluffy pillows is where I sleep…
…when Pretty Handsome Guy is sick.
(Secretly, I can’t wait for him to travel for work so I can sleep in my girl’s retreat again.)
 
The walls are the perfect english cottage garden green.
A perfect palette to display fresh flowers and greens against.

Lest you think I spent a lot of money in this room, you will be surprised to learn that almost everything in this room was a trash-to-treasure creation. You can read more about my finds for this special room here.

 

A small desk and chair both broken and discarded.

 

And this little trash bench was made new again and given a  home by the window.
 

So, do you have a Mom Cave? If so, definitely show it off! Give us mamas something to drool over!

Whether you do have a Mom Cave or not, I encourage you to enter the Mom Cave contest here or here. Good luck y’all!

Having guests over is such an exciting opportunity to catch up and show off your home. Here’s a tour of our guest room for you to enjoy. Come on in, kick your shoes off and stay overnight if you wish!

CountryLiving

The room had humble beginnings. These are the before pictures.

GuestBefore1
Not a bad color, but just not what I had in mind.
There were several holes that needed patching in the walls.
That gave me another reason to re-paint.

GuestBefore2 What was I thinking?! That little ikea dresser just does not fit!

Before I show you the after pictures, I have to explain. As the mother of two boys (and the only female in our home), I am careful to keep my decorating from being too flowery, frilly, and – well – girlie. But, after a week of sleeping in the guest room because everyone had the flu except me (you know Mom’s can’t afford to be sick!), I decided to throw my femininity into just this one room. I told Pretty Handsome Guy that it was the one room that I needed to be girlie! He knew better than to protest. I guess he figured it was better if I got it out of my system in just this one space.

So, here she is, all gloriously girlified:

Roses
Fresh roses, I wish you had smell-o-vision. Freshly cut roses, displayed in a recycled jelly jar.

Doorknob
Detail of doorknob from the nightstand made from a curbside door and picket fence.

3.4Nightstand
Better view of the nightstand. The lamp is from Goodwil

BirdSeedPillow
The center pillow was a sack of birdseed that I ordered from here.
Then I washed it and stuffed it with stuffing and just re-tied the top.
The patchwork rose pillow was purchased in a gift shop during our visit here.
 
GuestBed
The painting over the bed was painted by the very talented, Shari MacFarlane (who also happens to be my Mom.)

FootofBed

The bed frame was rescued from the curb when we lived in Charlottesville, VA. The side rails were broken, but I found sturdy new ones at a rummage sale the very next week!
I sanded the rails down and stained them to match the headboard and footboard.

Daisyart
You can just barely see this piece of art from the previous picture. I purchased this little painting from a gallery in Asheville, NC on my first getaway weekend after having kids. The artist signed it Cap Man 2005. It is painted on a salvage floor board.
I just love it and the Jimi Hendrix quote

Flowerscloseup
Spray painted floral vases and a peek at my birthday gift from a dear friend.
It was her grandmother’s hand towel!
She was the recipient of this present for her birthday a few years ago.

WindowsonWall

Daisy, the rescued chair and an adorable kidney shaped desk. I think it fell off a pick up truck because it was busted up and upside down on the side of the road.
The desk matched the style of my bed perfectly!

DaisyDesknFlowers
I glued the broken pieces, and re-stained it. Then added a ribbon and bead pull.

Salvage windows. The larger one was a gift from a friend and fellow blogger. I cut mat board to fit in each individual pane and then used double stick tape to mount family photos on the boards. Then pressed the boards in the back of the window and hot glued around the edges.

WindowDetails

Close up of chipped salvage window. I painted one coat of flat white paint on top of the window and then used packing tape to peel off some of the paint.

downshot

Sweet smelling soaps in a bowl. Pitcher and silver tray from Goodwill. Top view of the upholstered bench.

bench3.4view

Can you believe it? The bench was also a curbside find!

This concludes my guest room tour. Did you enjoy? You can view my full home tour here. Thanks for visiting.

PHGFancySign