Where to begin??

When faced with trying to turn a house into a home, it's a pretty daunting task. Hanging pictures and placing furniture in an effort to decorate a home is a bit like throwing drops of water on a fire attempting to put it out. Small changes get lost in a sea of blah. I had lots of ideas but no real direction, and I knew I would need to make some big changes in order to make this house feel like home.

One day as I was folding laundry in my guest room, I had a light bulb moment. A friend had given us her bed, including the mattress, box spring, down comforter, bed skirt and bed frame, when she moved in with her soon-to-be husband. We just plunked the bed in one of our two guest rooms and called it a day. I didn't really need the bedding she gave us, but took it because she was in full-scale purge mode and just needed to get the stuff she had accumulated out of her house. Here is the bed as it sat in our future nursery (aka: guest room) for months:

Nothing particularly inspiring in this room......unless you look closely at the bed skirt. I liked the color and I liked the pattern, but I didn't have any of the other bedding that matched the bed skirt. I knew the bed skirt had come from Crate & Barrel, but the set had long since been sold out. I first contemplated using a white duvet, but quickly decided that would be too bland. I needed more color. So, I randomly decided to search ebay and was lucky enough to find the matching duvet cover and pillow shams. Score! Finally the direction I needed!!

Once the duvet cover and shams arrived in the mail, I set out to decorate the first room in our home.....the guest bedroom. I invite you back to see how the room evolved from bland and boring to welcoming and cozy.