Preparing for Guests: Ideas on How to get a Bedroom and Bathroom Guest Ready

I have had many requests to share how I get my guest bedrooms and bathroom ready for when we have company so I put together this post sharing all the things I like to do to make our guests who come to stay with us feel warm and welcome when they are coming to visit. Keep scrolling for my tips on how to prepare your home for guests.

The Guest Bedrooms

I have two guest rooms at our home in Utah and I recently did a little refresh of both bedrooms. I updated the bedding in both rooms and figured this was the perfect time to share the things I do to get the guest bedrooms and bathroom ready for company.

Did you notice the pineapple on the left side of the bed? I learned from a friend of mine who is from the south, that pineapples are the sign of hospitality so I put a pineapple on the nightstand!

Navy Blue Guest Room

To refresh the blue guest room I switched out the bedding with this new comforter and sham set from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy’s.

I added new white sheets and they have the prettiest stitching detail.

I added the new pillow shams on top of the sleeping pillows then added a throw pillow. I usually add a light or heavy blanket under the comforter depending on what season it is.

Light Blue Guest Room

To refresh the light blue guest room, I also added new bedding from Boll & Brach as well as some new throw pillows and this gorgeous blanket from Minky Couture.

 Jack and Jill Bathroom

The two guest rooms share a jack and jill bathroom so I refreshed that as well. There are two vanities and a separate area for the shower and toilet. There is also a linen closet to store fresh towels, bedding, and toiletries.

Special Touches to Make your Guests Feel Welcome

I like to add special touches to each bedroom and bathroom.

Launder the Bedding

I always launder all the bedding and make sure everything is fresh and clean. I like to make the bed with lots of pillows and I usually add a pretty throw blanket at the end of the bed or in a basket.

I always have a mattress cover on my beds to protect the mattress and I put pillow case covers on the pillows too.

Clean, Dust, and Vacuum

I give the room a good cleaning which includes dusting, and if needed, (if you have a pet) I use a lint roller on the comforter to make sure there’s no lint or hair of any kind on the bedding. The last thing I do is to vacuum.

Add Flowers to the Dresser or Nightstand

I like to add fresh or faux flowers to the room. What says “welcome to my home” more than a vase full of flowers?

I arranged some faux apple blossom stems in a vase for the blue room and for the other guest room I added some faux hydrangeas to a glass vase.

Put Water on the Nightstand

I put a glass and carafe full of water on the nightstand in case my guest get thirsty in the night.

Sometimes I leave chocolates on the nightstand if I remember to do this!

I love this little carafe and the glass that goes on top of it. It’s perfect for a guest room.

I like to add candles to each room too. They are both decorative and smell nice too. You can also add a decorative reed diffused to your guest room or bathroom.

Special Touches in the Guest Bathroom

I like to add some items to the bathroom for my guests to use when they are here visiting. These extra things also make your guests feel welcome. The first thing I do is clean the bathroom.

Once clean, I lay out a pretty bar or soap or some body wash and a new bath scrunchy for my guests to use. I also add fresh or faux flowers. Here I used faux lambs ear in a sea glass vase and set it in the corner.

I only use white towels in my home. I like to bleach my towels to keep them fresh and germ free. Adding bleach to the washer with your white towels ensures that they are clean and smell good. I also use fabric softer to keep them fluffy and soft. I promise you’ll never have smelly towels if you bleach them.

I love these towels from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy’s and I like to leave them out on the counter for my guests or in their bedroom on the stools at the end of the bed.

Another special thing I like to do is leave a bathrobe out in the bathroom or hanging in the bedroom. This is another added touch that reminds me of going to a hotel. We jokingly call our home the “Holly Hotel” because we have a lot of visitors so this is fitting!

My favorite place to buy soft and fluffy bathrobes is Keiki Co.

I also leave a magnification mirror (for those of us that are blind!), a basket of hand towels, hand soap, and cotton balls and Q-Tips. I leave extra toothpaste and new toothbrushes, (my husband is a dentist so we always have a lot of them) and razors in the drawer.

I also leave bathroom spray or poo-pourri and flushable wipes on the back of the toilet. I leave extra toilet paper and sanitary items just in case someone needs them. Sometimes I fold over the last square of toilet paper into a triangle and then press it into the bottom of a wet faucet. This imprints the toilet paper like you see in hotels.

Here’s a few more photos of each of the guest bedrooms and the bathroom.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and that you found it helpful in preparing for guests. If you don’t want to miss a post from me, make sure to subscribe to my blog and follow along with me on Instagram @homewithhollyj.

xoxo,

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HOW TO PREPARE YOUR HOME FOR GUESTS

The post Preparing for Guests: Ideas on How to get a Bedroom and Bathroom Guest Ready appeared first on Home With Holly J.

Transitional + French Country Master Bedroom

Every Spring I like to do a little update to our master bedroom so I set out to create a transitional + french country master bedroom vibe. I love the new updates to our bedroom in the Highland house and how simple it was to give it a fresh look. The main color in the bedroom before was a sea salt blue and I wanted to change it to more of a french blue color.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I wanted a rug that was a little bigger. This size is a 9′ x 13′ which is the perfect size for my master bedroom.

Boutique Rug: Devine Area Rug 9′ x 13″

Use my code HOLLYJ55 for site wide 55% off plus another 5% for a total of 60% off!

The Rug

An area rug can make a big statement and transform a room. It adds color and texture and instantly warms up any space. The standard rug for placing a rug under the bed is three feet from the end of the bed. Depending on the size and shape of your bedroom, you can place the rug vertically or horizontally but I prefer horizontal with the shape of my room.

I love the quality and thickness of the rug. This is my first time using a Boutique Rug and I’m so impressed with the quality and price. This is an over-sized rug which is usually a lot more expensive but this was priced extremely well.

Update Your Bedding

Another inexpensive way to update and refresh any bedroom is to update the bedding. I have collected a lot of bedding over time and I reuse the bedding for different rooms in my home. The only thing I bought that was new was the blue blanket at the end of the bed. I had purchased this awhile ago and had never used it. When I pulled it out of the linen closet, I found that it matched the new rug perfectly.

I decided to keep the rest of the bedding neutral by using an ivory colored blanket I had bought  last season that is reversible. I flipped it over to the ivory side and added a second ivory blanket underneath it that had a ruffled edge. You can see in my above, before photo, how I used the ivory blanket at the end of the bed in last years decor.

I changed out my darker throw blanket with this beautiful knitted throw and swapped out all the throw pillows too. The euro shams match the top blanket and the pillow shams match the ruffled under blanket which were a Homegoods find.

Update Accessories and Flowers

To freshen up the room, I added new spring faux flowers in a vases and added some new books and candles. I like to keep it simple in my room and I don’t like a lot of clutter. I think of it as less items I have to dust!

New Artwork

I had purchased this artwork awhile back for my room and finally convinced my husband to help me hang it up! It’s a lot larger than what I had there before and I like the bright and bold colors. I’m not sure it goes with the new colors and bedding but I don’t dare tell my husband that now! It might be staying up for awhile until I can ask him to change it back to the old artwork.

Rearrange Your Furniture 

Another way to refresh, repurpose, and reuse your existing furniture is to rearrange it! I swapped spaces with the french blue chair and the chaise lounge chair to change it up.

I also swapped the light and added a little pouffe!

Freshening up your room every springtime with these simple changes and is an affordable way to make your room feel fresh and new. I usually do a deep cleaning of my room during this time of year too. I shared that in the post here: Refreshing My Master Bedroom for Spring.

I love the reflection of the bed in the mirror!

I’m still undecided if I should hang the mirror of leave it.

The pattern on the rug is so beautiful!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Please feel free to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss any of my posts!

XOXO,

Sources:

Pompom Quilt/Shams: Ballard Designs

The nightstands and dresser were discontinued a few years ago, so sorry!

Boutique Rug: Devine Area Rug 9′ x 13″

Use my code HOLLYJ55 for site wide 55% off plus another 5% for a total of 60% off!

The bench is discontinued but I’ve linked a similar one below.

The chaise lounge chair fabric is Nobletex Platinum. Chair linked below.

Here’s another option for a chair.

The post Transitional + French Country Master Bedroom appeared first on Home With Holly J.

Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links for your convenience. This is at NO additional cost to you but earns me a small commission. To read more, check out our disclosure policy.

Fifty Shade of Gray Guest Room Reveal

I’m so excited to finally be sharing another one of the bedrooms at the Highland, Utah house.

I decided to title this post Fifty Shades of Gray Guest Room Reveal because there are so many different shades of gray and, it’s just like the Blue Room, which I shared earlier this year, in that there are many shades of blue.  (Click here to see Fifty Shades of Blue Room Guest Room Reveal)

The Bedding

I layered the bedding by using dark gray sheets, a lighter gray blanket, and a white comforter.

I like using a lot of throw pillows and throw blankets. I also used pillow shams that match the comforter.

It gets cold here in Utah so I like using a lot of layers during the winter months and when it gets warmer in the summer, the comforter can be folded down.

I also used a bed skirt on the bottom to cover up the bed frame.

My FAVORITE sheets and blankets to use are from Cozy Earth Bedding.

The bamboo sheets and blanket are the softest sheets I’ve ever found and they help regulate temperature while you sleep.

I have a set of the white sheets and a white blanket that I like to use that’s under the more decorative comforter. They are linked here (sheets), here (comforter), here (duvet)

If you use code HOLLY50 you can save 50% off too!!

Furniture

When we bought the Utah house in 2016 I knew we’d have a lot of company so I needed to get beds right away.

I already had a set of full sized mattresses so I bought this upholstered headboard online and it arrived just in time.

I had a lot of rooms to furnish in the house and I didn’t want to spend a lot of this room. The headboard and frame were under $350!

I brought the ottoman bench at the end of the bed and the dresser from the Washington house and they matched perfectly. (both Homegoods)

I still needed nightstands and some lamps and found some for a great deal at Osmond Designs Furniture.

I kept my eye out for some lamps and found these at Homegoods as well as the mirror over the dresser and some accessories for the room.

Window Treatment

When we bought the house there were no blinds in any of the rooms except the blue room.

When I priced out window treatments for the arched window, I was shocked at how much they were!

They had to be custom-made and are large windows and the best price I could find was around $1000!

Yikes.

The window blind in this room cost more than the entire bed and bedding! It took me about a year before I had blinds in all the bedrooms upstairs.

Accessories and Knick Knacks

One thing I love to use that adds warmth and color to any room is throw blankets and pillows.

I purposefully chose a white and grey neutral color palette because it’s so easy to change it up by changing those items out.

I recently added some pink into the room to give it a fresh look.

The ottoman at the end of the bed also has some extra blankets inside for when I want to change it up.

I added some picture frames with family photos, fresh flowers, a clock, ginger jar, and a basket full of yarn (someday I’ll get to crocheting a blanket with it) to add some coziness to the room.

I put the white wood mirror above the dresser and a basket full of towels for my guests to use.

We have so many guests come to stay so I have 3 sets of sheets that I rotate after guests come.

I store them in the closet of each bedroom so I can change them out quickly and easily after guests leave.

I also like to leave some nice scented soap in a dish for my guests next to the towels.

The Jack and Jill Guest Bathroom

There is a jack and Jill bathroom between the Gray and Blue guest rooms.

Each has it’s own sink and counter and the shower and toilet area are separate so two people can be using the bathroom at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed this Gray Guest Room Reveal and all the different shades of gray!

I have a few more things I want to add to this room including a hanging light in the arch of the window, a rug, and maybe wallpaper the wall where the bed is.

Stay tuned because I’ll probably change it up soon!

XOXO,

Room Sources

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One thing I enjoy doing is refreshing the master bedroom every so often without having to buy a lot of new furniture. Because my furniture is still fairly new, I just changed up the duvet, linens, pillows, and throw blankets. This is an inexpensive way to freshen up your room and add some new colors into your decor. Your bedroom should be a warm and cozy space that you want to spend your time in.

Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links for your convenience. This is at NO additional cost to you but earns me a small commission. To read more, check out our disclosure policy.

The Bedding, Linens, and Pillows

For the bed, I bought an inexpensive sea salt colored duvet cover for the top blanket, a new quilt to go at the end of the bed, and new euro shams. I added a few new throw pillows and a light colored throw blanket on the chaise lounge chair. I am always on the lookout for inexpensive pillows and throw blankets.

I decided to try some 100% organic cotton sheets from Doplnok. I had heard good things about them, and now they are my new favorite sheets! I love getting new sheets and climbing into my bed when they have been freshly laundered. These cotton sheets are sustainably sourced and of excellent quality and come in a variety of colors. Mine are champagne color and I like to use a neutral color that go with any of the bedding colors I have.

Add Some Flowers

Adding fresh or faux flowers is an inexpensive way to add beauty to your bedroom. I like to make my own floral arrangements but you can buy them already made if you prefer. You can find inexpensive ones at stores like Homegoods.

I filled a small vase with some pretty white faux flowers and placed them on a gold tray with a few books, candles, and some wooden beads. This small addition creates warmth in room and makes me want to curl up in the corner and read a book. The only thing missing is my cute fur babies on the bed!

I also made a larger arrangement in a pretty vase that I placed on the side of the dresser.

The Mattress and Spring Cleaning

Spring is the perfect time to turn your mattress if it needs rotating, wash the mattress cover, duvets, pillow covers, and to clean under and around the bed. Each spring I lift the mattress up and vacuum and dust under the bed and behind the furniture. It’s amazing how much dust accumulates under the bed and it feels so nice knowing its clean and all that dust is gone. I also have my carpets and rugs professionally cleaned.

Speaking of mattresses, we purchased an expensive pillow top mattress when we moved into the Utah house. The longer I slept on it, the worse I felt. I’d wake up in the morning and my shoulders hurt so bad I could hardly do my daily crossfit workouts. I had just started blogging and sharing my home on Instagram when I received an email from Sleep Frankly. They asked me if I would try one of their mattresses and give them a review. If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I will only share things that I actually like and that I honestly use. When I share something, it has to be because I love it and it’s added some value to my life. Frankly sent me some information on their mattress and I agreed to try it out. I told them I wouldn’t give it a great review unless it was a quality mattress and was everything they said it was.

A week later a box was delivered to my porch. I opened the box and was surprised that a mattress could fit in a box that small! With the help of my son, we switched out the pillow top mattress for the Frankly mattress.

To speak frankly,(no pun intended) I have an expensive memory foam mattress in my other home in Washington. It’s a great mattress but, it also cost over $13,000.00 and it had a chemical smell for the first 6 months that caused me to have an allergic reaction to it. It took me awhile to figure out it was the bed that was causing this reaction. My allergic reaction finally subsided about the time the chemical smell went away so I can only guess that was the cause. Anyhow, the reason I’m sharing this is that when the Frankly bed arrived, there was no chemical smell and the king size Frankly mattress costs $845.00! I was really impressed after my other experience with a memory foam mattress.

The memory foam mattress also came with a washable cover and looked exactly as shown in these photos. It was wrapped in plastic and easy to slide onto the bed. I kept my same box spring underneath.

The Frankly Mattress was a little more firm than I was used to but I gave it about three weeks to get used to it. Soon my shoulders were not hurting as much when I woke up and I was not tossing and turning all night. Before long, I realized that I was sleeping much better and my shoulders were back to normal.

I was impressed with the quality of the Frankly Mattress and how simple it was to have it delivered to my door and set up in about ten minutes. I keep a pretty hectic schedule and the thought of mattress shopping makes me cringe. I had never heard of a mattress in a box that’s delivered to your door and I’m grateful that Frankly asked me to review their mattress and to share my experience. I can honestly say that I love the mattress and if you’re in the market for one, definitely consider trying a Frankly Mattress. There is a 60-night trial period and easy returns if you decide it’s not for you and they have a 10 year warranty.

Adding Simple Accents Pieces and Rearranging

There are other simple things you can add or change up in your room to make it feel refreshed. Rearranging furniture is always an option. Sometimes just moving things around gives your room an entirely different look. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option in my room with all the windows and how the fireplace is situated.

Adding a bench to the end of the bed is an inexpensive way to refresh the room and it gives me a place to stack my pillows at night!

Placing a rug under the bed is another way to update your bedroom. The rug should be about three feet from the end of the bed and centered with the bed on the sides.

I wanted a chaise lounge chair in the corner and had been looking for the perfect one to go in that space. The one I chose had many fabric choices so before I picked a pattern, I ordered swatches of my top five fabric choices. This made it so much easier to decide once I could see them in person and up close to the other fabrics in the room. I chose a neutral fabric that would go well with the other colors in the room.  (Nobletex Platinum is the fabric on mine)

I searched forever for the perfect full length mirror and finally found this one. It arrived the day before I photographed my room for this post! It still needs to be hung on the wall but I had to sneak it into this post because I love it so much! Adding mirrors and artwork are a nice option to bring more color and beauty to your bedroom.

As always, thank you so much for following along and allowing me to share my home and ideas with you all!

Wising you all a happy Spring!

XOXO

I’ve linked all the items here for you. Some items are no longer available so I’ve linked similar items where possible. I’ve also tried to link some items that are at different price points.

Frankly King Size Memory Foam Mattress

Audree Pom Pom Quilt Spa/Beige and Shams Beige

100% Organic Cotton Sheets: PRIME PECALE SHEETS CHAMPAGNE COLOR FROM DOPLNOK

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