For her vacation home on the Florida coast, one of Tampa Bay-based interior designer Suzanne Christie's clients wanted to reimagine a small guest bedroom as an inviting, feminine space. "One of the challenges with small spaces is that you have to work with everything very carefully, to make the room functional and beautiful, yet not too crowded," notes Christie, who is part of Decorating Den Interiors, a collective of individually owned and operated design firms across the U.S. But when you achieve all of that, the result is magical. "This ended up being one of my client's favorite rooms in the house," she says. Watch above and read on to see how she went about it.
Jazz Up the Space
To open up the room, Christie started with the walls, with the goal of making them welcoming, and even festive. The brilliant solution: a wallpaper mural of a growing garden. "It's full of all the colors you would see in a live garden," she says.
Balance Beauty and Comfort
For the bed, she selected an eye-pleasing wood-and-upholstery frame with gentle curves that complement the floral wallpaper perfectly. "I love that it's a shelter style that wraps around and kind of envelops the guest as they're sleeping in it," Christie says. "And the neutral color makes it melt back into the wall."
Pause for Reflection
Offering sufficient storage without overwhelming a small room with furniture is an especially tough conundrum. Christie resolved it here ingeniously with a simple pair of mirrored nightstands. "They sort of disappear," she says of how they reflect the other design elements in the space. "It's like they’re there, but they’re not there—and yet they add a bit of glam."
