What we did with Bethany's room...

Almost exactly a year ago, during my "week as" vacation, Bethany  invited me to decorate her room so I could live my "week as a designer."  (Low risk for Bethany since she knew she would be moving out in a year.)

Two weeks ago, she moved to her apartment near college.  Her new room transported with her leaving us with a blank slate.

Hmmm....what to do...

The primary goal was that the space still needed to function as a guest room so that each of the kids would have a place to sleep during holidays. But as you saw in an earlier post this week, we already have a guest room, so we had opportunity to make it more than a bedroom. I was hoping for a place that I could go through my morning yoga routine with the door closed to keep our four legged family members out.  (The dogs think it is play time if I am in the floor, and they look so hurt when I tell them to go away.)  And we also had the chance to remove a function from John's office--which is also the library and TV room.

So...I introduce "Rocking Horse" Zen. 

Bethany's daybed--which had previously been living in the attic--was a perfect solution for both sleeping and seating.  It has a trundle to create more sleeping space. (Which will be perfect when I invite my girlfriends out for BFF weekend next May.) We picked up a new mattress from Sam's and Overstock.com had a great deal on the linens. (I agonized over cream vs. red...so glad now I went red.)

Also in the attic was the beautiful rocking horse my in-laws made for the kids. We put it away when Chase, then Bethany stopped riding it. It was really exciting to polish it up and have be in our home again.

Until this house, we've always had some sort of library--usually John's office and occasionally the living room or our bedroom.  We greatly downsized our collection--with John letting go some 600 paperbacks--when we added a loveseat to his office. The room creates a new home for the remaining books and makes a great place to slip away just for reading.

Best of all, with the minimal furniture, removal of the carpet in favor of new vinyl and open floor space, the room is perfect for yoga. 

I left the wall by the door blank for my favorite "legs-up-the-wall-pose" (if you don't do yoga you can stop laughing now) and now that the closet no longer houses hundreds of shoes and piles of laundry it is a great place to stash all the yoga gear in one spot.

When Bethany saw the room she said she liked it, then..."wow, the horse looks really little."  Last time she saw "Kowah" the horse was just below her shoulders.

I love my "Rocking Horse Zen" room.  Now, I think I'm going to go make use of that wall...