Love a Good Welcome!

I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about the aMAZing welcome basket my Aunt Mary put together for me in the guestroom! She made it so personal and full of wonderful things - love it all. When you welcome your guest with something, it makes them feel that much more special. I wrote about what to have in guestrooms when I had guests come stay in our new guestroom for the first time. Well, she blew me out of the water, that's for sure!

What a welcome! Looks so fun - great way to display necessities and frills! The tray is from one of my favs, Social Manor.

Her packaging inspires me.

Great idea to tie ribbon around the towels and look at that adorable wrapping on my Starbucks card - presentation is perfection!

She even remembered fresh flowers, which she put in her adorable glitter vase she made.

My Aunt Mary is seriously the nicest, most thoughtful person! It means so much to me that she was so excited to have me come and wanted me to feel extra special. Hope this inspires you to welcome your guests with some gusto!

Side Note - look how adorable my cousins' babies are:

Lacy & Logan made quite the wonderful mess with their confetti pops I gave them!

Logan was very excited about his Little Box of Kid Character!

Lots of Love,

Weekend Guests!

My wonderful friends Megan and Sammy Jo are here to spend the weekend with me and we are having such a good time! I was excited to have my first official guests in the new guestroom. I had to get it all ready and make sure to follow good hostess protocol. First, I made sure the room was clean - and the hall bathroom for that matter. Then I had to make sure they had towels and bathroom necessities. To brighten up the room, I stopped by the store on my way home and picked up Sam's favorite flowers. Always a nice touch. Lighting a smell good candle gives the room a nice aroma when the guests arrive. It's the simple touches that can make your guests feel special.

I like to set out a razor and a shampoo option in case they forgot!

I love gerbera daisies and this Kate Spade candle smells really good.

Funny story about towels...a couple years ago, my friends came to stay with me for a friend's wedding. I was in Omaha for a family deal when they first got there, so I told them to just make themselves at home and I would be back the next day. I get back and see Teddy's (my dog) towels hanging up in the bathroom. I was really confused as to why they would pick the grungy dog towels. They told me the other ones looked too nice to use...guests are supposed to use pretty towels! Silly girls.

To welcome my guests, we had some yummy Prosecco! Paige came over to join us as well. It was a great girls' night. I pulled out my new champagne glasses and adorable napkins I received as birthday gifts. Love a good cocktail napkin.

Glasses are from The Plaid Giraffe - they tied the fun pink bows on them since they were a birthday present! The fun, girly napkins are from Social Manor - thanks Paige!

It was a great night, and we've had a great day as well. Can't wait to hit the town with the ladies tonight! Love a good girls' weekend.

Lots of Love,

Guestroom Reveal!

"Are we opening a bed and breakfast or doing a guestroom?" That is what my lovely husband asked me this past weekend when I was trying to get everything together for the new guestroom. Yes, ok it is just a guestroom, but I want people to feel comfortable and invited when they stay in it. After all the cleaning up, painting, organizing, building and replacing, the guestroom is finally ready to be revealed! I'm so excited and it makes me so happy every time I walk by. Let's start with the before pictures:

This is what the room looked like the day we closed on the house. Then I let my little brother live in there. This room has been through a lot! It needed to be brightened up and I wanted a room that was relaxing and light for my guests.

Drum roll please........the after!

Painted the shelves the same color as the walls and then put a TV and some fun knick knacks. More importantly, put fresh flowers, which guestrooms should have when people come to stay!

Love how the shelves take up that wall and give some fun color to the room. To see how to make them check out my Gutter Shelves post.

Used my childhood iron bed - love the vintage feel - and got all new bedding, down to the mattress pad. Our first guest better feel special because washing and ironing all of that, well wasn't my fav part of the makeover!

Love how this light and ceiling medallion from Menard's turned out.

Important to have a light and clock in guestrooms. I also like having cute coasters for them to set their drinks on.

Took this picture while in London and love the playful feel of it.

Made sure they had pens and paper, our WiFi password and a nice smelling candle.

I had these canvases I painted in college, didn't want to hang them so I used them as a background to my shelves.

In my new storage bench, I put some books and magazines for guests to enjoy. Need to make sure to keep the magazines fresh. 

So excited to finally hang up my grandma's cross stitch she made for me. The rocking chair was a fun find from Dustin's grandparents. We might eventually paint it, still deciding what color.

Love my Pottery Barn Teen bedding set and the pillow I found at Tuesday Morning. The bedding is currently on sale, so check it out if you like it!

The rug, from RUGS USA, really ties the emerald green together. Love how it looks!
Photos via me

I hope you all love the transformation as much as I do. Now we just need some visitors to come and stay with us! We promise to take good care of you here at the Casa de Billings!

Lots of Love,

Guestroom Shelves

Pinterest Project...that I actually tackled! This guestroom is really pushing me to accomplish some Pinterest Pins. I wanted a way to store my Etsy silhouettes and I figured I might as well display them while I'm at it. My friend Anne and her handyman husband have these cute book shelves in their nursery and when I asked her how they were done, I was amazed when she said gutters. When I was staring at the blank wall of my guestroom, I remembered the idea and loved it for my silhouettes.

I went to Home Depot yesterday and called Anne to ask a million questions - thanks by the way! She told me to get the white vinyl gutters that looked like crown molding. I also needed to get the end caps since they weren't going all the way across the wall - make sure to get both a right and a left, they come as a pair at Home Depot. The gutters come 10 ft long, so I asked a very nice man there if they could help me cut it in half. After I explained to him how the shelves would work - he was very interested - he took me over to the tool rental area. There, another nice guy sawed it in half. I decided I wanted two 5 ft long shelves.

Once I got home, I convinced my loving husband that the project would only take a "few" minutes to do. He agreed to help me out and he used his drill to screw the gutters into the wall - we did 4-5 screws per gutter (make sure to drill holes into your gutter before drilling into the wall). Besides his drill dying after one shelf, the overall project didn't take long at all. Drilling holes, leveling and drilling into the wall for two shelves took less than 30 minutes. The hardest part was scrapping the dumb price stickers off the end caps - why do they put those on the most visible places! (Hint: use lighter fluid for removing tough stickers)

I put my pictures on the shelves and I love how they turned out:

If you like any of the silhouettes or want one customized just for you, I sell them on Etsy - Love of Character!
Photos via me.

The best part about this project, it's ridiculously cheap! One 10 ft gutter is around $5 and the end caps are around $6 for the pair. One shelf = $8.50! Awesome.

If you have pictures to display or children books to put out in your kid's room, these are a great idea. I know using them for children's books is the most popular use for these and they look really cute in their rooms - the covers of kid's books make fun decorations.

Couple steps closer to be done with the guestroom! (I really hated ironing the bedding....)

Lots of Love,

Storage Bench - DIY Cushion

We are making major progress on the guestroom and hopefully once the bedding gets out of the dryer, we will be almost done! To distract our little Teddy from laying on the new guest bedding, we wanted to have some kind of window seat for him. I tried making the simple three cube shelves work, but they were way (WAY) too short. The storage cube bench at Target was also too short, but I eventually found the perfect one at Home Depot:

Martha Stewart Living White Storage Bench

It isn't huge, but it is still a decent size for what we are wanting. That cushion had to go because it didn't match my color scheme at all. Plus, I wanted to add some height by adding in more padding. The cover unzipped, which was nice, so I could pull the padding foam out. I also purchased 1 inch foam from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store, as well as my fabric. Having the padding from the actual cushion helps with measuring out the other foam. To upholster the cushion, I used a staple gun. In order to have something steady to staple into, I used cardboard on the bottom. Figuring out a wood situation was stressing me out and the cardboard worked great - had to get creative! The project took about 30 minutes for two people - one building the bench and the other getting the cushion re-upholstered.

Here are the steps in pictures to help visualize:

1. Cut your cardboard to the needed size.

2. If you want the cushion to be thicker, purchase extra foam. It is pretty pricey, so having a special or coupon definitely helps!

3. Cut your additional foam to the correct size. I wanted to add 2 more inches so I used the other half of the foam. It wasn't quite wide enough, but I used the leftovers to cut strips to make it match. That piece was put in the middle so it stayed together.

4. Stack the foam and cardboard on top of your fabric. Make sure it's lined up. If you purchase this exact bench, you'll need ~1 yard of foam length and 1.25 yards of fabric. I would get extra though, especially for the fabric because you need some to pull around.

5. Figure out how you want the fabric to look on the cushion - aka how do you want the corners to fold in? You have to mess with it until you find something you like. I stapled long sides first and then folded up the shorted ends.

6. Staple away! Make sure you pull really tight while stapling. It helps to have someone else with you to pull on the fabric while you staple. Once you are done, it helps to add velcro strips to the bottom. Stick them on top of the actual bench. That way the cushion won't just slide off.

Funny story about stapling fabric. My wonderful friend, Hailey, has helped me re-upholster 10 chair cushions and we used this old school metal fabric stapler on every one. When we were working on the last of the dining room chairs, Dustin comes in and says, "You know I have an electric stapler." ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Well today I was able to use that fancy electric stapler.  Definitely doesn't hurt your hands like the old school style does, but both work just as well.

Ok, so here is the final product!

The Kate Spade storage boxes are definitely a fun touch - thanks Aunt Mary!

The best part, Teddy actually likes it! The neighborhood watch has a new view to check out...

Photos via me

There are a lot of nice, expensive window seats and benches out there in the world. I am very glad I was able to get one completed for $100 - including the bench, extra foam and fabric (depending on your fabric and if you want extra foam, you can accomplish for more or less). This works great for our guestroom because our guests are able to put their bags on it or have an extra spot to sit. I think this would also work great in a kid's bedroom or a mud room/entry way. It's nice to know that you can change the generic cushion these benches come with to something that goes great with your room.

I promise the guestroom reveal will come out very soon! So excited to share with you all.

Lots of Love,

Guestroom Update

Last month my husband had knee surgery (soccer injury) and he can't play soccer, golf or anything with running for the next few months - ah! Well this has it's obvious cons, but I've realized also comes with some pros. A couple weekends ago, he got so bored he decided to paint the guestroom! Awesome, right?! He didn't even want me to help (mainly so he could listen to his podcast haha) and he knocked it all out in one day. Guestroom already looks a million times better with the lighter color and I am giving you a sneak peek before the big reveal:

Our bedding should come this week and our rug arrived last week. This weekend I should be able to get it all put together - so excited! Then I will be ready for some visitors and they will enjoy their stay that much more. Besides the bedding and rug, I need to figure out the artwork I would like to hang in there and how I want to accessorize the book shelves. My Aunt Mary bought me these adorable Kate Spade boxes:

Purchased locally at Dandurand Drugs

I want to use those, as well as some fun frames and accessories on the shelves. We are probably going to put a TV in there, but we have to see how/if the one we have will fit. I'll let Dustin handle that one! The ceiling fan will most likely stay for now until I figure out what light situation I would like in there. The nightstands (you can see one in the picture above) will stay and I will find a cute lamp, candle and clock to put on those. I also want to go see if Target has these gems to put in there:

Great spring Threshold collection!

I will keep you all posted on our progress. I'm very excited and hopefully we will have some guests soon, so they can enjoy!

Lots of Love,