Create A Colorful, Festive Christmas Guest Room!

Introducing Our Guest Contributor

Hi, Friends! Welcome to our newest edition of “Designing Women Tell All” for our Christmas series. This month we are especially excited to welcome our first guest contributor….none other than the vivacious, energetic, talented, creative KariAnne Wood of Thistlewood Farms fame! Most of you are already familiar with her, no doubt, and today you’ll get to see her latest inspo on how to re-work and re-use last years Christmas decor in new ways this year. In fact she lists 17 ways to do just that! Now I’d call that some useful inspiration and information!

Can’t you just feel her energy exuding from this photo? She’s so fun, so sincere and truly thrives on helping others whether it be growing their social media, encouraging those on Instagram or sharing all her fun design ideas. Her beautiful blog, Thistlewood Farms, is full of family and faith and features hundreds of the home decor projects KariAnne creates for readers. Her blog was awarded the Country Living Decorating Blog of the Year and was named one of the Top 10 Decorating Blogs by Better Homes and Gardens. In addition to a great many other accolades she has been featured in numerous magazines and online sites. We are honored and thrilled to have her join us this month for our Christmas series. Welcome KariAnne and thank you for joining us!

Getting Started!

Okay, let’s get started! This month I’m sharing some fun ideas on how to create a colorful, festive Christmas bedroom without spending a fortune. I mean…doesn’t everyone love to stay in a cozy, inviting guest room? One where you can tell someone has gone the extra mile to create a lush, snugly, warm vibe just for you? Of course they do! And, at no time is it more important to create this kind of coziness in a guest room than at Christmastime. The magic of Christmas permeates the air everywhere we turn this time of year and my guest rooms are no exception. My kids and grandkids stay over Christmas night and I like to make sure each of their rooms reflect a little Christmas magic. It just makes things fun!

However I, like most others, don’t have unlimited funds to do to transform each space into a cozy winter wonderland. So today I’m sharing some ideas on how I created each of my cozy Christmas looks. One of my guest rooms is more elaborate than the others simply because it affords me the space to do it, but it was still done on a budget. Others just have a few simple touches. But all lend themselves to a bit of the Christmas magic we all enjoy.

My Grandkid’s Bedroom

Of course there is no room more important to make cozy and festive for the Christmas holiday than my grandkid’s room. And, really no room more fun for this Mimi to do. The first thing I always do is always, always, always keep my eyes peeled for a good sale or the lowest prices I can find. Let me just try to explain the details here in what I call “Grandmunchkin Junction”.

1. The comforters at the end of the bed were actually one full size comforter that I purchased for $27.00 at At Home a couple of years ago. I simply cut it in half and sewed up the seams to create two comforters and save some money. I don’t have a lot of extra storage so this helps both financially and in storing it away after the holidays as well.
2. The Buffalo check pattern on the wall board is simply inexpensive wrapping paper that I cut to fit to the white board.
3. The mini stockings hanging below on the hooks were purchased from the Dollar Tree a few years ago when they were literally $1.00 per item. These stockings came in packs of two.
4. On my Dalmatian is simply the added touch of a Dollar Tree Santa hat….again, purchased when they were actually $1.00 as opposed to $1.25.
5. The Dr Seuss hanging on the bed pole is one we have in our stash of stuffed animals here year round for the grands. I bring it out at Christmastime.
6. I purchased this slimline online tree from At Home on sale and decorated it with ornaments that came mostly from Dollar Tree.
7. Unfortunately I can’t remember where these pillows came from, but I can assure you I didn’t pay more that $20.00. That’s basically my limit on holiday pillows.
8. The snowman sitting on the shelf – again from good old Dollar Tree.
9. The Merry Christmas sign hanging on the wall plaque above and on the tree below was purchased from the Dollar Tree and painted white.

You’ll notice here that I added an extra Christmas touch in my grandkids room….this fun valance to match the comforters. I added this last year to finish off the Christmas feel of the space. I found some inexpensive fabric at Hobby Lobby and simply purchased a yard and half – on sale of course – and added these pom-pom tassels that I purchased from Joanne Fabrics. My sweet granddaughter who was 13 at the time came over and helped me make them.

I love the extra touch of Christmas this valance brings to the space and it was very inexpensive to create. And, the nice thing is that it folds nicely so it can be easily stored away in the closet after the holidays. Love that!

This is my sweet granddaughter, Kaisley, who was happy to come help. She did the hot gluing and I must say she did quite a good job.

The texture of the flannel-like fabric adhered to the current valance very nicely and I just reinforced it with straight pins. Easy-breezy.

Easy to attach, easy to remove.

It’s so fun for this Mimi to make my grandkids room feel magical and special at Christmastime.

This sign was from Big Lots and this decorative box was from At Home. Again, I purchased these items over a period of time and always on sale or at a great price. As a retired interior designer “budget” has become my middle name. LOL.

My French Farmhouse Guestroom

This is the guest room I tend to do up more than the others because, like I mentioned earlier, it affords me the real estate to do just that. With my faux mantle I have in here I’m able to have fun with this wall in particular. Most of these items were also purchased over the course of a few years, not all at once. And I rarely, if ever, buy anything that’s not on sale unless it’s from HomeGoods, Marshalls, Ross or At Home, simply because they have such great prices already.

What you see here:

1. The flocked garland was $15.00 from Walmart a couple of years ago. They have them again this year as well.
2. The wreath was one I purchased from Walmart a couple years ago as well. Also $15.00. I’m not sure what they are priced this year, but they are back in stock.
3. The tree is a slimline tree, also purchased from Walmart on sale one year.
4. The ribbon was on sale from Hobby Lobby as were most of the picks and fun candy ornaments you see here.
5. The striped balls were from Big Lots.
6. The ladder is part of my everyday decor – I just moved it here for a Christmas “look”.
7. The adorable tree stand is one I did a collaboration for and I absolutely love it. It breaks apart in sections for easy storage.
8. The small Christmas tree on the mantle was from Marshalls several years ago. (Again, these are items I’ve collected over the years. Not something I just ran out and purchased all together.)
9. The “most wonderful time of year” sign was from Big Lots a couple of years ago and the sleigh was a clearance item from Walmart a couple of years ago.

To continue on….

The striped pillows were on clearance from Hobby Lobby and the red pillows, the elf pillow and the red blanket were from At Home. The small sleigh on the tray is a piece I’ve had for years and years and have no idea where it came from. I used to use it downstairs, but it has since made it’s move to this guest room.

The Cottage Guest Room

For this guest bedroom which I’ve since recently refreshed and re-named “The Cottage” all I did was add this Christmas bedding from Amazon and these clearance pillows from Home Depot and it instantly transformed it to a little Christmas wonderland. The mini wooden Christmas trees on the tray were hand me downs from my mom.

My Hollywood Glam Guestroom

I don’t do a whole lot to this room we call “Hollywood Glam” with its mirrored furniture and custom velvet bedding and drapes, but I do add little touches that create a bit of that Christmas magic we all love so much.

Here’s what I do for this room:

1. I add this small silver tinsel tree that’s in the tall white vase. (The tree does light up I just don’t have them plugged in yet.) The vase stays out all year…I just added the tree to it this year instead of using the stand that came with it. It looks a bit more elegant this way.
2. I always hang this white blingy, wreath on the mirror.
3. On the bed tray I added this silver sleigh which was, of course, a clearance item one year. On top is my mercury glass container and a crystal bowl for extra bling. I’ll be adding my ornaments to the container – I just haven’t unpacked them yet this year.

And, the final little Christmas touch of glam in here is this fun, blingy Christmas tree dress. I used to place this in my office downstairs when I was still working, but now that I’ve turned my office over to my hubby I use it up here. This was from At Home several years ago as well. You’ll notice in here I have nothing that doesn’t lend itself to the rooms natural glitz and glam vibe. I think she’s a perfect fit.

In Conclusion

Creating a colorful, festive Christmas look for your house guests or simply for yourself to enjoy does not require breaking the bank. Remember, as I mentioned several times prior, most of these items have been collected over the years and most, if not all, were on sale, on clearance or at a discount store at a discounted price. Be sure to check out clearance items as the holiday drawers closer or even after the holidays are over and start adding things to your collection. I store the items away in the closet of each room they go in. This way they’re here and handy when I’m ready to decorate.

Be sure to check out my fellow Designing Women Tell all below. I’m sure you’ll glean some valuable Christmas inspiration from each one of them!

Our special guest KariAnne with Thistlewood Farms – KariAnne Wood is the author of four best-selling books including, So Close To Amazing, The DIY (Decorate It Yourself) Planner and The DIY Style Finder. She writes the decorating and lifestyle blog Thistlewood Farms from her project-filled historic home in the busy Dallas Metroplex where she lives with her husband and four children.

Crystal with Sweet Valley Acres –  Crystal with Sweet Valley Acres – An artist and dreamer since birth, Crystal loves creating beautiful spaces in her home and garden for her family and friends to enjoy. She also loves pushing her builder husband, Bentley to his very limits when it comes to building and renovating. After 33 years of marriage and taking on 11 homes that were the worst house on the block and turning them into show stoppers along with three new builds later, Crystal has a wealth of knowledge and experience. In addition, she has won many awards for garden design and used to own a home and garden decor store for many years.   

Kristy with At Home With Kristy –  Homebody at heart and very passionate about creating a warm & welcoming home environment for family and friends BS Interior Design Interior Designer with 35 years experience specializing in Residential Interior Design, perfectionist, & big picture thinker, but also loves getting lost in the weeds perfecting every detail Love sharing my knowledge and expertise to inspire, encourage and empower others  

Happy Decorating, Happy Holidays and Happy Life by Design!