The Lettered Cottage is featuring guest rooms right now so I thought I'd share ours.  We're rather happy with how it turned out.  Pretty dramatic change don't you think?

There was a chimney on the back side of this wall that was taken down.  That's why there is a big hole in the wall.  There was wallpaper from just above the baseboard on one side of the room up the walls, across the ceiling and down the other walls to the baseboard on the other side of the room.  The floor was painted dark red.  There was carpet covering part of the floor; it was bright red.  By the time these pics were taken, we had already gotten rid of the shades.  They were dark green canvas and had been installed about 18 inches above the windows. 

Under the wallpaper, the paint was a mustard color.  There were lots of gouges in the plaster that were repaired.  You can see the dark red woodwork and the brown metal bed in this picture.  I painted the bed white later. 

I'm not sure where the rest of the "before" pics are so we'll move right along now to the during and after pics.  We had an idea of colors but weren't entirely sure so we painted squares of about 12 inches or so in size to see what they looked like on the walls rather than just in our heads.  The X's show the ones that were ruled out. 

Here is the floor before.  It was actually darker red than it seems here.  The pipes on the upper right are no longer hanging out of the wall as they show here. 

Here is the final product!

Our decorating style is "early garage sale".  :-)  The bedside table came from a garage sale.  The yellow cloth on it was given to us by a friend.  The chair in the corner was my grandpa's favorite.  I slipcovered it with a blanket.  The bed was given to us.  I painted it white rather than leaving it the original dark brown.  The desk and chair came from a garage sale as did the dresser.  The lamps in the room came from garage sales, too.  I painted the one. 

What do you think?  We are quite pleased with it!  Cost was minimal.  We did buy the bedding and valances at JC Penney.  Otherwise, we already had everything in the room, and paint made all the difference.  Hubby did all the painting, and I think he did a marvellous job!

I've linked up with:
The Lettered Cottage Guest Room Re-Do's
Make it 4 Monday at Cottage Instincts
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

$40 giveaway

The Virginia House is having a giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores.  Go check it out.  They are giving away a $40 gift certificate. 

Introduction

Hi!  I'm just tiptoeing into the blog world.  I'm so amazed and impressed with so many of the blogs I read.  From time to time, I may post my own thrifty ideas, fix-up projects, etc. 

We are very thrifty around here but not suffering a bit because of it.  The best things in life really aren't things at all.  I love a good bargain, love raising our own produce, love making silk purses out of sow's ears, etc.  So much of life is how you look at things.  We can look at what all we don't have, etc., but if we look at all we do have, all we can do, etc., we have such a lot to be thankful for. 

Thanks for stopping by.  We may get off to a slow start around here, but hopefully soon we will have something to share that will make your visit worthwhile.