Sometimes a room needs a little facelift.  And in the case of my guest bedroom, I wanted to bump up the sophistication a little and add more interest to the room, especially with my neutral walls.

I started with the bed, not only because I've had it for a long time but because this room is small and the footboard got in the way of safe movement around the room (i.e. bruises on my thighs from running into it).  I shopped all over the place online for an upholstered headboard and finally settled for one on Overstock.com that was a cream damask.  As is commonly the case, when the headboard arrived, it was not at all like the photo on the website.  Rather than sending it back, I decided that I could just recover it.  But first, I had to choose my new duvet.  I have a history for loving duvets from Pottery Barn, so it wasn't hard to check that box off my list.  Now that I had the duvet, a brown and cream pattern, I set my mind on finding a pinstripe fabric of the same colors.  After searching the entire store at G Street Fabrics, right before giving up I found, tucked in the small section of linens, the perfect pinstripe.  Unfortunately, the stripes were horizontal, so I had to actually sew two sections together to get the vertical look I wanted.  Once I had my fabric piece, it was super simple to cover the (yes, brand new) headboard using a handheld staple gun from the craft store.  To complete the bed, I had to swap out the wood frame for a simple metal frame purchased at a local mattress supplier and then attach the headboard.

Next, I wanted to tackle the very boring wall behind the bed.  Recently, I found some great black and white photos of New York neighborhoods from the early-mid 1900s on a website called  20x200.com.  There are many photos to choose from, but here are a few of my favorites:

Central Park Model Boat Regatta, 1963
Coney Island, Luna Park and Surf Avenue, 1912
Swimming Contest, Astoria Pool, 1936
Using these photos and various frames with different design elements but a consistant black color, I set out to create a photo collage behind the bed.  I turned some of my own photographs into black and white to supplement the ones I purchased.  The last element to the room was the small little shelf on the one side of the bed to act as a nightstand, where the closet doors prevented an actual nightstand from fitting.  The shelf is a floating shelf from Urban Outfitters, completed with some hardcover classic books.  As a redesign bonus, I found some towels at Target from the new Nate Burkus line that are cream with brown accents (and even a brown pinstripe edge!) to bring the design from the room into the bathroom.  Perfect!

Before:
After: