One of the reasons we bought this beautiful property we live on is so that we can share it with our families and friends. We have done what we could with our home to allow for more overnight guests. We have a sleeper sofa, a Murphy bed in the craft room, a queen bed and a a crib in the guest room. The house holds a lot of folks. More than once it has held 20 + young men. (We stayed with friends those weekends… that was too much of a good thing.)
As our family and friends have come to visit we have realized that we need a separate space for visitors. I even see us heading out to the guest house when our friends with a lot of kids or when both of our kids come with their families because we are early risers and noisy. We also have an early riser dog. She is noisier than we are.
This is my idea for a guest house:
I call her the guest shed. I have dreamed about redoing her since 2015 although the colors have changed, I still want that mid century vibe.
The previous owner used this space as his woodworking shop and “man cave”. He installed a sink, hardwood flooring reclaimed from a gymnasium, and cabinets. He also built a wood burning stove that is the craziest looking thing ever.
It needs a good coat of high heat paint. ( Can you tell he was a welder? )
We are going to add a bathroom to the space, move the sink location, set up a kitchenette. More on the bathroom later.
The vibe is going to be mid century-kitsch. The walls are going to be a really pale turquoise, there will be plenty of red and white. Think light, bright and airy.
I have collected some fun mid century furniture and a mint condition chrome UFO light. The light was still in the original box, unopened. I am smitten. When it is on the pin holes look like UFO lights- yay for mid century atomic. That bulb thing on the light is a pulley to adjust the height of the light. There is a frosted glass light diffuser that attaches to the bottom of the light.
I picked the light and two mid century walnut framed low slung chairs up at a garage sale for $2.00 each. No lie. $6.00 dollars total. ( Here is the post about the finds at the garage sale.)
At that same garage sale I got a porcelain cast iron sink to use in the kitchen. ($5.00). The sink is stained and there are a few worn places but overall it is in great shape. It is getting a coat or three of epoxy.
I also have picked up a vintage kitchen upper cabinet set that are getting painted white.
Before I can get started we need to replace the shop board along the back wall that is all full of holes for tools and paint the walls then install a drop ceiling.
This is what we are planning to use.
After the dropped ceiling is in, I am going to use the same stuff we used on our garage apartment to restore the floor without making it look brand new.
I have a double modified to be a queen sized iron bed going in along with the funky dresser and a chrome 1950’s table and chairs that are currently kicking my hiney. Mr. Math did a much better job than me, but the back of them still isn’t done. Soon I will share what we learned from this process. There were lessons learned!
I am so excited about this fun, funky, kitschy, bright space we plan on working on this summer. It is going to make me happy to just walk in. As soon as it is all finished I think we are thinking putting it on air bnb when we don’t need it for guests. With the huge Houston area Boy Scouts camp going in down the road I think there will be a need for parents who want to stay nearby.
