Just Give Me a Deadline...

And see what I can do!

My friend called a week or so ago and told me she was coming to stay for a weekend. My dad, if you remember, only gave me a couple of days. Ah, the difference between a wedding and a funeral - one gives you at least a little bit of preparation. Here's what the guest room looked like for them:

Back to the wedding. The couple getting married only decided to get married two weeks ago, so that's why I only got a week and a half to prepare. But that is still more than the two to three days you normally get before a funeral, so watch me put together a guest room!

Each time I have a guest, you know, I have to up the ante a little. Right? RIGHT?

So I started priming. This was when I also primed the girls' room downstairs, so the painting stuff was out. Why wait?

I'll give you one good reason to wait: poor little Sophia, who was being watched alternately by her two sisters. This is one of their ways of watching her:

Yes, she is tied to a chair. With her daddy's ties. Sophie thought it was pretty funny. Mostly.

It was at this point (in priming, not with Sophie tied to a chair) that Doug asked about the color. I told him it was going to be a yellow room. Then he gave me one of his looks. This particular look was "are you kidding me? Why are you going with yellow? Didn't you just get rid of a yellow room?"

I told him to trust me. I don't use colors I don't personally like. Even if the kids beg. Collin's favorite color is yellow, and he also wanted red. Not a combo I would ordinarily choose. But, I try to be open-minded. So I went off to JoAnn's and picked up a few samples that I could live with.

My favorite is the zigzag, although the florescent yellow and gray leaves are cool, too.

 Collin made his choice, sticking with just his two favorite colors.

Next was paint. I took the sample and actually went a shade darker. Collin's room has that chair rail, so I was doing white on top and the yellow/gold on bottom. With the chosen fabric as curtains, I figured I could get away with a more intense color.

Intense, huh? And let me tell you, painting over that dark blue and brown wasn't a picnic. I probably should give it another coat - even though I primed and put on two full coats. But Doug loves the color (hah!). So party on, time for shopping!

Target's comforters just happened to be on sale. Yes, I love Target. They seem to walk the line between fashion and cost and keep everything in balance. Most of the time. Target also just happened to have just the colors I was looking for - I didn't want a white or ruffled bedskirt, and typically you can only get neutrals and ruffles in open stock sheets. The comforter that I wanted also came with shams and a bedskirt too, so score! A red bedskirt!

And here it is, put together:

My poor guest didn't get the artwork until the day she was leaving...sorry about that, girlfriend! I do love that I already had several pieces that worked well. The question now is, what will I do the next time I have a guest?

Oh wait, I already know the answer to that one: we need a new bedside table. And carpet...and those curtains I promised Collin from his fabric swatch. Um, never mind. Plenty of projects still in the wings.

Here's your question: which fabric swatch would you have chosen?