Guest Room Makeover in a Historic Mansion

It's been a little while since we checked in on the progress of the young couple that is restoring a historic mansion in small town Indiana. To help refresh your memory, Christian and Dea Rust purchased this home that was built in 1871 and have since been doing their best to restore it to it's natural glory in the eighteen months they have lived here. I have loved seeing the transformation as it unfolds and I hope you have too! I'm a sucker for an old home, having grown up just a few blocks from this house in a historic home of our own, I would often find myself riding my bike past this house and staring mouth agape on more than one occasion in elementary school. There has been a lot of wallpaper striping and painting in the home but out of all of the rooms we have seen transformed so far {parlor, living room, foyer, master bedroom}, this update was mostly cosmetic, but what a change!

Just so you can get an idea of what the room look liked before, here it is in all it's blue and floral scalloped border glory! It's not hard to be able to look past the ugly color and the dated wallpaper to see the beautiful moldings, the tall doors and that marble fireplace. I'm a sucker for a transom window too! 

Here's another side by side of the transformation. Not to worry.  There is plenty more where that came from! Come see the update of this guest room. Wouldn't you love to be invited to stay for a bit? 

Christian and Dea have plenty of room for guests. It's just the two of them {right now} in this nearly 4000 square foot home with four bedrooms and two and a half baths.  

These windows are probably my favorite part of the whole room.

They just don't make houses the way they used to do they? This room is so much brighter with all of the window coverings removed.

In fact, this room is covered in windows. It's a corner room with windows that stretch almost up to the top of the 14 foot tall ceilings on two different sides. Even on a dreary day, the room is still bathed in light.

Dea told me that she's been looking for something to hang above the bed for quite some time. She's hoping to find a Moroccan wedding blanket. It's totally OK to leave a space unfinished until you can find exactly what you are looking for. If you try to fill in the space with something you don't like, you will end up just wasting money on a temporary fix. Trust me, I do this all the time myself.  Just leave the space blank and wait until you find {or create} what you are looking for.

I'm always a sucker for the decorating details Dea uses throughout the room. If you are afraid to mix metals, don't be! Look at this brass nightstand with a silver clock and candlestick on it. It looks amazing!

I was looking at the fireplace in the guest bedroom and couldn't help but notice some similarities with the decorating on the fireplace in the parlor. The parlor fireplace is on the left, the guest bedroom fireplace is on the right. See how the design details are similar but not identical? It helps the whole house design stay cohesive.

Another thing I noticed is that the bedroom color in the guest room is similar to the accent color used in the master bedroom.  Again, just another way to keep the design of the whole house cohesive.

One more look at the before and after of the room. It's not hard to see what a difference the cosmetic changes have made in this space.

Do you have a favorite room so far? Anything you are interested in knowing about taking on a historic remodel? Feel free to drop your questions in the comments.

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