Aruba and Pretty Guest Bedroom Redo

I took a little break from posting due to a family trip to Aruba last week.   So much work needs to be done before you leave for vacation and then there's catching up when you return but the trip was well worth the extra work!  Below I share some pictures from our trip plus our recommendations in case you are planning a trip to Aruba.

Also, I recently helped my mother-in-law with updating her guest bedroom, that's right my mother-in-law!  Luckily, I married into a super nice family, so I was more than happy to help out.  I've worked with her on several projects in her home and she keeps asking me to help out more...so I must be doing ok!

Here's a before picture of the bedroom.

Before the room felt cold and uninviting.  I wanted a deeper color on the walls to make it more cozy, replace the smaller rugs with a one larger rug to help anchor the bed and add texture, and soften the room with more fabric by adding an upholstered headboard and long panels on the windows.  My in-laws already had a couple of great old dressers and a rocking chair for the room so we kept the style of the room more casual and rustic with a homespun feel to go with these pieces.

The bedding is always a great starting point for a bedroom.   The paint color can be found in the quilt.  The window's woven wood shades tie in with the wood tones from the dresser and chairs.

New furniture, lighting, rug, and bedding was obtained from a variety of sources...Pottery Barn, Somerset Bay (trade only), and Sundance Catalog.  Window treatments and accent pillows are custom and we used existing artwork and accessories.  

I think guests will enjoy staying in this room!

ARUBA

Between our veterinarian and our taxi drivers we were given great advice on things to do and places to eat in Aruba. 

We stayed on the "high-rise" part of the island.  We had a great view from our room....

Walks along our beach were very pretty. 

But due to lots of water sport activity near our hotel, the water was cloudy.  So all our beach time was spent at other beaches, such as Baby beach and Arashi beach.  These beaches had beautiful clear water and great snorkeling.  

Restaurants were fantastic including Driftwood offering local seafood, El Gaucho offering argentinian steak, Madame Janette had great outdoor seating, and Le Trattoria el Faro Blanco at the lighthouse was a great place to have a cocktail at sunset.

We enjoyed a couple fun excursions.  The first was visiting snorkeling sites by catamaran.  The snorkeling was great but watching the crew with Charlie, the very friendly pelican was fun too...

The second excursion was to De Palm island, a great family place because of the activities it offers such as a waterpark, tubing by boat, and the easy snorkeling site.  Here's our kids waiting for the boat to take us to the island.

If we had an extra couple of days we would've added Eagle beach and a tour to the natural pool on the rocky side of the island to our agenda.

The taxi drivers loved to talk so we learned a lot about the island's history, politics, their favorite sports (soccer and baseball), and their favorite US destinations (Chicago and NYC).   Dutch influences could be found everywhere, especially in their architecture...

But the most common house, or cunucu, was built with geography and climate in mind.  Slanting roofs allowed the heat to rise and small windows helped keep the air cool.  The one below is more traditional but more recently built cunucu houses include narrow but elongated windows, bright roof tiles, patios and ornamentation like the second one. 

Next week I'll be highlighting another recent project, a master bathroom renovation!

Have a good week!