Our French Vintage Style Guest Bedroom

Our guest bedroom was one of those really sad, untouched spaces in our home that was desperate for a makeover.

Because it is a guest bedroom, I felt like I could really get creative with the design. My goal was to create a French vintage look with a whimsical, cozy feel. Ultimately, I just wanted it to feel like a boutique hotel and have it be a fun experience for our guests. I couldn’t be more proud of how this space turned out.

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Before + Afters

Here’s a few side by side before and afters, but there’s more photos throughout this post!

Flooring

Our guest bedroom had carpet to start, but we decided we wanted to rip that out and install our own flooring. Honestly, we kind of just wanted some experience installing flooring so that was a big part of our decision to try it out in here!

We went back and forth about what type of flooring we wanted to install, narrowing it down to either LVP or engineered hardwood. After our search I wrote this blog post on LVP vs. Engineered Hardwood: 5 Things to Consider.

We decided on this Lifeproof luxury vinyl plank flooring from Home Depot. It was very doable to install on our own as well! If you’re interested in that process, here’s my step-by-step blog post on How to Install Vinyl Plank Flooring.

Millwork

If you know me at all, you know trim work is my favorite design element in any space! I wanted our vintage inspired room to have a unique look, so here’s what I added:

Baseboard Enhancement

I’m a big fan of beefy looking baseboards, so I wanted to enhance mine in some way! It made the most sense to keep our original baseboards since I like them! They were just over 7″ tall as it was, but I wanted a little something extra!

We had some leftover base cap moulding from when I installed box moulding throughout our entire first floor (here’s my blog post tutorial on how to do that) so I figured I could put that to good use.

Last year when I did my beadboard entryway makeover I used base cap on top of the baseboards for a taller look and I loved how it turned out!

But this time, I installed the base cap molding a couple inches above the original baseboards and just painted it all the same color to almost give the illusion of super tall baseboards! I’m so happy with how this turned out!

Picture Rail Moulding

This is one of my favorite parts of the room! If you’re wondering how the heck I hung art and a mirror from a piece of trim, check out my blog post for all the details on How to Install and Use a Picture Rail Hanging System.

Crown Moulding

Can you believe this is foam crown moulding? It’s impossible to tell unless you get up on a ladder and touch it. I decided to try it out since it was my first time installing crown moulding.

If you’re interested in why I chose foam crown molding or how to measure, cut, and install it, check out my blog post on how to install crown moulding!

Ceiling Medallion

Another favorite detail of this French vintage inspired room is the ceiling medallion! Suddenly I’m wondering why I don’t have these in every other room in my house…

Here’s the link the ceiling medallion I used! The installation was really simple- I just applied some caulk around the underside of the ceiling medallion, pressed it up to the ceiling (make sure the placement is center) and nailed it in place with brad nails!

Vintage Wallpaper

Wall coverings are of course a huge aspect of any room and once I knew I wanted a vintage look for our guest bedroom, my immediate thought was wallpaper! I used some fun leopard wallpaper as an accent wall in our powder room a couple years ago and it’s still one of my favorite spaces in our home!

If you’re not sure what type of wallpaper you want to use, check out my blog post on the 3 Types of Wallpaper and the Best Choice for Beginners. This post goes over the pros and cons of 3 popular choices; pre-pasted, traditional, and peel and stick wallpaper.

I decided to go with this gorgeous wallpaper from Divine Savages (I’m in love with their vintage wallpaper designs- each pattern is such a unique and bold aesthetic wallpaper).

Between the cats, birds, the small flowers in the pattern, and the French blue… I was sold on this perfect aesthetic wallpaper. (P.S. it comes in multiple other colors!)

This was my first time installing traditional non-pasted wallpaper, but overall I had a really great experience! Here’s my step-by-step blog post on How to Hang Wallpaper!

Paint Color

Choosing paint was extra difficult for this space since I knew it had to compliment the wallpaper. My thought was to pull a blue from the wallpaper and use that for the trim and doors.

I ended up using this ColorReader device on the wallpaper. It’s so cool! You just place the device against any surface and the closest paint color matches (from popular paint brands) will pop up in your app!

After narrowing it down I ordered a bunch of samples from Samplize. (If you haven’t heard of Samplize, check out this fun ad Dan and I made for them!)

You can move these samples around the room and see how the paint color looks in different lighting and different times of day. Samplize was monumental in deciding on a color for this room!

I ended up going with the color Bachelor Blue by Benjamin Moore and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. I love all versions of it!

Do you see how different the paint color and wallpaper look in different lighting? That’s why it’s so important to really test your paint colors.

The Fandelier

A fan + a chandelier= a fandelier. Did you know these existed? They’re so cool! As I mentioned, I wanted our guest bedroom to be an experience and I thought this fandelier would absolutely contribute to that goal.

If you’re curious if fandeliers are as strong as regular fans, this blog post shares my honest experience with fandeliers: 5 Reasons You’ll Love Having a Fandelier!

Bedding

I’ve never been that great at pulling off the cozy or luxurious bedding, but I was determined to figure it out!! Months ago, I found a beautiful vintage quilt on Facebook Marketplace so I knew I wanted to incorporate that! How beautiful is this?!

Initially I was unsure of how I would style the quilt, but thankfully my friend Lauren has a blog post on how to get a luxury feel bedding on a tight budget. She recommended using a duvet insert as the first layer and just put a quilt over top… perfect!

I also ordered the set of two pillows she mentioned and now they’re my favorite!! I put our older pillows in these cute little ruffle shams. Lastly, I got this chic black lumbar pillow and I love how it adds a modern feel and ties in with the other black in the room!

The sheets are my favorite! I just love the timeless herringbone pattern and they’re so ridiculously comfy. Unfortunately they don’t sell them anymore 🙁

Hardware

To really play into the French vintage style, I got some stunning antique brass hardware with crystal knobs from Nostalgic Warehouse for the doors. Not only are they incredible quality, but they totally make the room.

Funny story- I was sharing about these on Instagram and someone messaged me asking why we installed them upside down or if they were meant to be that way. Dan and I were so confused so we looked them up and sure enough… they were meant to be installed with the crystal knob up top!

Nostalgic Warehouse responded to my Instagram stories saying that some people actually install them this way intentionally!! I really loved how they looked so I decided to leave them as is 🙂

Just in case you’re wondering, the set we got can be locked! I know it can be a little confusing ordering door knobs but I just used this guide on how to measure your door thickness and backset size. It’s really so simple!

In case you’re wondering exactly what we ordered, we got two of the Chateau knobs privacy- 2.375″ for the doors and then one set of the crystal double dummy knobs for the closet doors.

French Provincial Dresser

French provincial furniture is all over Facebook Marketplace in my area and I just love the curvy, feminine details. But I didn’t necessarily love the creamy yellow color that come with the French provincial look.

I wanted to incorporate some black into this vintage bedroom since we have a lot of black in our home. So I decided to paint it Limousine Leather by Behr. Here’s the tutorial for this French provincial makeover.

Window Treatments

Velvet curtains are a personal favorite of mine and I thought they would give a nice luxury feel for our guests. Of course I ordered multiple colors of curtains to try, but I went with this chartreuse/gold color!

This was my first time trying the layered curtain look with sheer curtains too and it definitely won’t be my last! I love that I can have the sheer curtains to let light in while still providing privacy.

I used this double curtain rod and these very budget friendly ivory sheer curtains. For a fuller look, I used four panels of the sheer curtains… especially since they’re so affordable!

Decor

To add to the vintage charm, majority of the decor in this guest bedroom came from thrift stores, Facebook Marketplace, or antique shops!

I hope this vintage bedroom design inspired you!!! Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for being here 🙂

Elisha