River House Guest Bedroom | Office Makeover – Mood Board
It’s the One Room Challenge! And I’m back!!!For those of you that are new to the One Room Challenge, its a bi-annual design challenge where designers from around the world completely transform one room in a mere eight weeks! This is my 8th time participating and I’m stoked!!! It’s super fun participating with so many fellow DIY | Designers and its a great way to get a room done.
River House Guest Bedroom | Office Gets a Makeover!
This room has one of the best views in our river house. We live in a 1950’s bungalow on the river where there has been two major renovations to the house over the years and not executed properly in my professional & humble. lol. The house was previously owned by a couple who rented the home out for over 10 years so the house has been challenged and neglected needless to say.
Every. Single. Room. in the house needs updating. Hubs & I have go back and forth, and back and forth on which room to do. Its funny, because alot of people ask me when you buy a fixer upper, which area should you do first and I can usually help them narrow it down and give them a relatively quick answer. But this one is different because this one is our forever home. We’re not flipping this one!!!
I picked the guest bedroom | office because, frankly I need an office that is not part of another room. AND it would be nice to have a welcoming bedroom when guests come over. AND it has one of the best views in the house!
Isn’t this view stunning? This is why its worth fixing up this 1050s river house fixer upper.
As with ANY room makeover, I ALWAYS start with a mood board. A mood board helps you visualize all the thoughts and dreams that in your head and how it will appear in a room.
With any room design, you ALWAYS start with an inspiration piece. It can be a feature like a stunning ceiling light, a picture, or something memorable from your travels. For our guest bedroom, I have chosen this beautiful wallpaper for the ceiling. I think it will be an amazing focal point when you walk into the room.
It appears that the room hasn’t been touched since the 1950s with either of the renovations. There is no overhead light, which is an issue, and the adorable closet are two tiny his & hers closets with built-in drawers that someone must have done at one point. This room is likely the primary bedroom, but we use the gorgeous second floor attic space that has amazing views so the original primary bedroom is the guest bedroom and we’ll put a small desk and chair to function as an office also.
Read: Why you should always start a room design with a mood board here
Read: How to create a focal point in a room
Color Drenching! The new color trend in 2025
I’ve decided to color drench the room because I love the look, and probably more importantly, the look will hide the many imperfections in the room until we want to do a real renovation. There are other rooms that require real attention first so this room is going to get a slap of lipstick on it basically.
What is color drenching? Color drenching is when you paint the walls, ceiling, AND trim all the same color. Its trending right now but it actually originated in the early 20th century. I would also argue that I’ve seen the color trenching technique done much before that in my History of Design class at design school, but I digress.
Read: What is Color Drenching + 4 Tips you need to know before you start!
I need to test the right colors as I tell my clients, lol, but it will be a dramatic bold, coastal blue, green or teal color as we do live on a river.
The room will have a coastal feel but I don’t want it to scream cutesy coastal. I want a more sophisticated look and feel to it.
Here’s the dreaded before pictures:
Chip, our Bouvier, has claimed this bedroom as his, lol
This area will be the new office space.
See? Even designers don’t have EVERY room in the house perfect.
Be sure to follow all my updates. Its going to be a fun 8 weeks!!!
Click here to check out my online color & design consults!
Hi! I’m Debi Collinson. Designer. Color Consultant & Real Estate Investor.
I grew up looking at blue prints, going on construction sites and helping my dad, an Engineer|General Contractor and Co-Owner of a Design|Build|Engineering firm pick out paint colors for his buildings. Since 2006, I have been helping hundreds of clients to create a home that they absolutely love through my online design & color consults.
