Tweaking the Guest Bedroom

Happy Labor Day everyone!  I think most of us consider this the official end of summer, although here in the south, we'll have several more hot days before summer's truly over.

You may remember when I posted our guest room reveal back in April of this year.  I mentioned that we'd be getting a vanity/dressing table that was part of the bedroom suite, and I showed you the dressing table in this post.  After cleaning, polishing with beeswax and orange oil, and touching up nicks, chips, and scratches, I can finally show you the dressing table.  This is as good as it will look without paying a professional to completely re-finish it.  We think it turned out pretty well.

The dressing table is made in the Hepplewhite style.

We just love this mirror.  The mirror that came with this vanity was in really bad shape, and we weren't sure we could make it look presentable again.  You can see a picture of the original mirror below.

Next week, I'll probably write a post explaining what I did to improve the looks of this dressing table.  It was in pretty sad shape, folks.  We hope to get a chair for it soon; I don't know what ever happened to the original chair/stool.  Most of these dressing tables came with stools, I believe.

 Above is a picture of the original mirror.  The base that sits on the table has lost a lot of its finish, and the finials are broken off the posts on either side.  We have the finials, but we were going to have to attach new dowels and get the old dowels out (they're still stuck down in the posts).  The glass is in bad shape, too.  Hubby and I decided to look around and see what we could find as a replacement for the mirror.

I cropped this picture to create a close-up of the mirror so you could see the details better.  Do you see the guitar case in the background next to the window?  Sometimes it's easy to forget what's in the  background reflection when you're taking pics of a mirror.  ;)

We found some mirrors that were obviously made to sit on a dressing table because they had the wooden base like ours, but they were in bad shape too.  We found the above wall mirror at an antique and consignment shop in Greensboro called The Red Collection, and we were thrilled to find it.  It was a bargain at $75, and it's in great condition.  The tag identified it as a Chippendale Mirror, and I do love the cutwork at the top, along with the pretty acanthus leaves and the dental molding.

The mini hydrangeas came from our grocery store, and the pitcher belongs to my set of Staffordshire "Liberty Blue" ironstone dishes.  I'll be posting about those later, too.  I found the sweet blue and white bunny at Hobby Lobby at 50% off several months ago.

I continued the red, white, and blue theme in here by adding transferware plates on either side of the mirror.

"Liberty Blue" dinner plate depicting Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Johnson Brothers "Old Britain Castles" salad plate.  Sorry about the color differences in these pictures.  The lighting is really tricky in our house, which makes it hard to get consistent pictures.

A close-up of the bunny --

and on the other end of the table, I've placed a coaster with some tiny seashells.  I got the idea to do this from Cindy's blog, Dwellings The Heart of Your Home.  Cindy has such a pretty home, and she has decorated it beautifully.  This coaster is also part of my "Liberty Blue" dishes.  I purchased the dresser scarf online Here.

Since my guestroom reveal back in April, I also purchased two more summer throw pillows with red and blue.  They came from Kohl's; they're Ralph Lauren Chaps, and they were part of a complete bedding set called Brittany.  I'm about to reach maximum capacity on throw pillows around here; Mr. Forest Manor is wondering if we really need this many pillows.  ;)

I love the red and blue stripes on this pillow; I think they have a bit of a nautical feel.

This is the other throw pillow.  It has a quilted fabric on one side, and a smooth cotton fabric on the other.

I think this cushion goes well with the curtains.  I also brought our Scottie doorstop in here.  It used to reside on our hearth, but our real-life Scottie keeps knocking him over.  ;)

Remember these vintage pillow cases I found at an antique store in Southport?

I added those to the bed, as well.

The last project I want to do in this room is to paint this chair with chalk paint.  I found a chalk paint dealer in our town, and after looking at ASCP colors online, I visited the local store and looked at the paints.  I narrowed it down to these two colors -- Napoleonic Blue and Greek Blue.  I've decided to go with Napoleonic Blue, the deeper shade of blue.  I hope I can get around to this soon; I think this chair sticks out like a sore thumb now.

I also switched a few things around in the bookcase.  It's so dark, you have to arrange things carefully or they disappear into the shadows.

That's it for the changes to the guest bedroom.  I wanted to show you the room one last time this summer, before I switch out to the fall and winter look.  :)  Thank you for reading me and have a wonderful week!!  If you're a new visitor to House at Forest Manor, I'm so glad you're here and would love for you to come back.  :)

Best Wishes,

Denise

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