Guest Room – Prep and Planning

As I had hoped, the guest room plaster repair and prep for painting is going along without a hitch. I am currently working to remove all of the existing drywall patch that was smoothed over the plaster in a previous repair attempt. One of the best things about plaster is that it is not greatly affected when it is exposed to water on a limited basis. The same cannot be said for drywall and drywall patch. They do not respond favorably to moisture. They expand, mold and blister.

In the other rooms that we have repaired, we have been happy with the look of the drywall patch used in place of plaster. However, in the guest room, once we removed the paper that was ruined by the ice dam leakage, it was clear to see that drywall patch just doesn’t hold up to the rigors of an extreme winter, and none of us can be sure that “the perfect storm” of events of this past winter will not happen again. We are taking precautions by getting a new roof and insulation, but Mother Nature trumps everything. Nature always wins.

Despite being happy with the look of the boys’ bedroom repairs, I have been feeling the tug to move more closely to restoration of the plaster vs. repairing it with a modern product. Seeing the condition of the patch behind the wallpaper in the guest room was a good nudge in this new direction. Research led me to The Craftman’s Blog which is a fantastic resource. From that blog, I was directed to Limeworks.US, a Pennsylvania company that specializes in products for plaster repair and other masonry projects. One look at their inspiring mission statement, and I knew that this was a company that I wanted to support.

After poring over their information, I still felt a bit confused about which products I should order. I gave them a quick call, and my questions were answered. The plaster repair items have been ordered, and they should arrive within a week. I am apprehensive about working with this new product, but I am hopeful that once we get over the learning curve, we will have learned a useful new skill that will benefit BHH as our home continues to age.

In the meantime, I have been trying to decide on the decorating scheme for the room. In fact, previously, I expressed my intention to decorate the room around these beautiful organic cotton sheets that I bought at Target:

Grey everything is currently a big trend in the blog world. I admit that I felt myself heading in that direction at first. I tend to be a follower, and I have always been much better at tearing stuff up than putting it all together. I like the calm and serene feeling that grey invokes, but after a full six months of winter here in NY, this house needs some color. I have been poking around on Pinterest, and I created a new guest room inspiration board. I am very drawn to bright yellow now.

Here are a couple of rooms that I love:

Photo credit

I may attempt to incorporate the organic sheets into the design, or I may just use them on another twin bed in the house. They will definitely get used by somebody here.

Do you have any favorite yellow rooms or accessories pinned that you would be willing to share? We also welcome other color ideas (except green!) that we may not have considered.

This room is going to be so fun to put together.