Would you sleep in your own guest room?

Billy Baldwin, the famous decorator, used to advise his clients to occasionally spend the night in their guests rooms to judge for themselves how comfortable they were and to determine if and where improvements could be made.  I recently completed a guest room with my colleague, Donna Russell of ProVisions Interiors.  Our goal was to create a room that was not only the serene, feminine retreat our client asked for, but also a physically comfortable and convenient place for guests.  We started with a creamy, neutral wall color, accented with the soothing spa blues that our client loves.  We pulled these tones from the client's existing rug used to anchor the seating area.

An assortment of pillows and layered bedding allow the guest to customize their sleeping arrangement, selecting the number of pillows and weight of covers they prefer.

Similarly layered window treatment, roman shade, sheers, and interlined draperies, allow the guest to adjust the level of natural light entering the room.

A small writing desk and stool provide a place to write, use a laptop, or apply makeup with the portable makeup mirror from the adjoining bath.

A seating area provides a place for guests to relax or read in private.

For interest, we used a hanging light from New Orleans designer Paul Gruer instead of a floor lamp.   The cream fabric on the chair only looks like linen--it's actually an upholstery weight polyester for ease of cleaning.  By using an inexpensive fabric on the chair and making our own welting from robin's egg blue linen, we were able to splurge on the beautiful embroidered fabric for the pillows.

To keep the color scheme for being too vanilla, both literally and figuratively, we painted the adjoining bath in the client's favorite blue.  Since we didn't have the budget for real Venetian plaster, I mimicked the look with regular latex paint.

For interest, we mixed abstract art, including my tarp creation above, with tradtional art and furnishings.