Here’s exactly how the online e-design company Havenly works and why I used them to plan my guest bedroom makeover to save me time, money, and stress.
For the last two years we have been remodeling our 1970s fixer upper one room at a time. We are at a point now where we’ve done Phase One to almost every room. Except the guest bedroom. It kept getting pushed aside because we don’t have many guests, and we also ended up stuffing all the leftover things from other room makeovers into this room as a temporary holding place.
My husband and I are going out of town for me to speak at a conference next month, and my mother-in-law will be staying here with our pets while we’re gone. She’s stayed in the boring gray guest bedroom many times in the last two years, but I really want her to know how much we appreciate her for leaving her home and routines in order to stay with our fur babies for a week. So I made it a priority to give her room a makeover before we leave.
Full honesty, I’m just coming off a month-long garage cleanup project and I am mentally and physically exhausted. My brain can’t handle picking paint colors and coming up with design plans and shopping for furniture and decor. I have used Havenly before for my living room and Studio, so I decided to order a design plan for the guest room and just let a professional designer do it all for me.
If you’ve been thinking about giving Havenly a try, here’s the process for how my experience went this time for the guest room and how it helped save me time and take some unnecessary stress of my plate with this tight project timeline. (And check the end of this post for for a Havenly 25% off promo code!)
Guest Bedroom Makeover Kickoff With Havenly
First things first, I ordered the Full Room Plan from Havenly. They also offer a Mini package that doesn’t include a layout, just mood boards. But I needed a little more direction for this space so the Full package was the way to go for me.
I measured the room, submitted my measurements and suggestions, then went back to my regular day to day routines while I waited for my Designer to finish her other projects. I did have to wait about 3 weeks for my turn, but that’s because I wanted to work with the exact Designer I had used in the past, and she was already committed to other clients at the time. If you’re flexible on who you work with, you can get started way sooner.
I won’t get into the specific details on how the Havenly design process works, because I already covered all that in this full Havenly review blog post. So if you’re looking for my review as a Havenly newbie, that’s the post you should visit next.
The Guest Bedroom Design Plan Options
Once my designer started on my room plans, it took about two days to get these three design plan options. With Havenly, you get three initial mood boards to start based on your beginning questionnaire answers. The only thing I gave my designer was some inspiration photos and the link to the accent wall mural I had already ordered. The rest was up to her to put together.
You don’t have to pick one and that’s the concrete design plan, though. Instead, you’re asked to rate each of the three design plans and share what you like and don’t like about each. Here are the three initial plans I got, and I’ll be honest, all three were spot on for what I asked for. (The perk of working with the same designer 3 times who knows your style)
Option one was the most traditional of all. When I shared it on my Instagram Stories, I got a few comments that it looked like a Grandma room. Well…it is for a grandmother to stay in…sooooo….that seems like a good thing in my eyes. But I love the traditional and classic style she put together.
Option two is a little more calm and neutral. My Instagram audience said it looked most like the rest of my house, which is true. I don’t do a lot of color or pattern in my house, so this design fits in perfectly.
Option three is combination of classic and neutral styles. It’s not too fussy but not too neutral. The clean lines and modern accents make it feel like an updated space while still pulling in the charm of our older home.
The Instagram Polls Lead The Way
I really wanted to include my IG audience in this process and thought it would be fun to let them be the deciding factor for everything that goes in this room. I promised them I’d put up polls for every decision and whatever the majority picked would be what I did. Essentially, this room was designed for me by not just Havenly but a collective audience of internet friends.
After 24 hours of the Three Options poll running, here’s the poll results:
- Option One: 40%
- Option Two: 39%
- Option Three: 14%
Option one and two were SO close! So I gathered the feedback I received in my DMs about options one and two and asked my designer to keep both in mind when creating my Concept plan.
The Guest Bedroom Design Concept
A couple of days after I sent in my ratings and feedback, well, my audience’s ratings and feedback, I received my design concept. I had asked my Designer to combine elements of option one and two, but also mentioned a few things I liked about option 3 as well.
This magician of a Designer was somehow able to combine all three mood boards into the most perfect compilation. With Havenly, you can ask for edits and additions if needed once you receive your Concept, but I shared it with my audience and they all agreed that nothing needed to be changed. So far, everyone is in agreement with the plan.
What’s Next For The Guest Bedroom?
Now that I have a clear plan of what the room needs and how all these decor pieces will flow together, I can start working on the room. I’m going to hold off on buying all the items until we get the final layout from Havenly, which should be ready next week. In the meantime I’ll go ahead and start applying the wall mural and painting the other three walls.
My concept shows a rich neutral greige paint for under the chair rail, and I absolutely love that suggestion. I ordered some paint samples (more on that in another blog post soon) and I’ll narrow down the shade and order the paint asap so I can get it up on the walls. My goal is to get this room done within the next two weeks, so I hope the furniture ships quickly!
Make sure you follow me on Instagram because I’m sharing the entire process in my Stories. Every paint color decision, every furniture and decor order, every placement of things on shelves, and every organization solution are being decided by polls in my Stories. Get in on the fun @lelaburris on IG and shoot me a DM to say hi!
Havenly Discount Code
The team at Havenly has offered my readers 25% off a Mini or Full Design Plan with code LELA25. I can honestly say that after using Havenly three times now, this is a company that I can 100% recommend.
They take all the stress and time out of planning a room makeover, and that is just the convenience I need right now. If you end up ordering a design package, drop a comment below and let me know which room you’re having thing design for you. I’d love to know!
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