Guest Bedroom Essentials For The Holidays

The holidays certainly aren't the only time of year that any of us may have overnight guests, but during the holiday season — the season of merriment & counting one's blessings — we all want to go the extra mile for our guests.

I've put together a list of essentials that every guest bedroom/suite should have, but this isn't any ol' essentials list — no ma'am (or sir). Each of these items was hand-picked by yours truly to make the holiday guest experience comforting, special, and memorable. But before we start shopping, let's talk about some practical steps to pulling your guests' home away from home together.

Entryway Essentials with The Container Store

When we bought the house, there was very little in terms of the footprint that we took issue with. The layout of the house is actually what we loved most about to because it was perfectly compartmentalized for the way we wanted to live - walls where we wanted em & no walls where we didn't... well with the exception of the wall separating the kitchen & the dining room. The only thing that proved to be a real problem for us was that there was no mudroom off the garage and no foyer off the front door.

We needed to find a proper place for our outerwear, footwear, and accessories as we would come in & out of the house.

For the garage, since it's not our main entrance point, we purchased a hall tree. The front door was more of a challenge since we use it on a daily basis, multiple times a day.

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsNovember 23, 2021the container store, entryway, organization, the hygge ranch

One Room Challenge Week 8: Reveal Day For The Hygge Ranch Flex Lounge

If you've been following along the past 7 weeks, then you know that this is actually a multipurpose area, aka The Flex Lounge... with it having flexibility in terms of its current function, flexibility to change over time as our lives change, and a total flex (as the kids say) because this room is straight from my "must be nice" Pinterest board.

One Room Challenge Week 7: Finishing Touches?

Oh happy day!

Oh happy day indeed!

And not reveal day... it's "finishing touches for photography" day! This day, for my last 4 major reveals at #thehyggeranch, is always a day that gives me a lot of angst because there's always so many little things to day + it's not just about cleaning & styling for use... it's about cleaning & styling to share & inspire.

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsNovember 10, 2021one room challenge, home office, the hygge ranch

Tablescaping for the Winter Holiday Season

While I love to shop — duh! — I don’t believe I always have to buy everything all new every time I want a new look, because no one has that kind of money or storage! When I decided to set the dining room tablescape, this year I pulled out my fav tablescaping pieces from last year — because that’s when almost everything was purchased — and started to plan out place settings with what I had on hand.

One Room Challenge Week 6: Removable Wallpaper Installation

It should come as a surprise to no one that this project involves removable wallpaper - this'll be my second removable wallpaper project here at #thehyggeranch and my 4th wallpaper project in the 6 years since we've been in Washington.

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsNovember 3, 2021one room challenge, home office, the hygge ranch

How To Create A Tablescape: Easy Tablescaping Tips & Ideas

Tablescaping isn't exclusive to dining tables, although this time of year, it's often assumed that it is. Any time you're decorating a tabletop surface and/or creating a sort of flat surface vignette -- dining table, coffee table, fireplace mantle, console table, sideboard, bar cart, bookshelf — YOU'RE TABLESCAPING!

One Room Challenge Week 5: Creating A Year Round Home School Area

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsOctober 27, 2021one room challenge, home office, the hygge ranch

5 Easy Steps To Choosing Color

So often when I'm working on a design the biggest dilemma tends to revolve around color -- picking colors, matching colors, using colors -- so I thought it be cool to share some of my "wisdom" on color!

DesignAlbie KnowsOctober 22, 2021design therapy, free resource, color

One Room Challenge Week 4: Creating A Space Saving Fitness Area

One things that has been a priority for me in this space is having a fitness area. I have resolved that I won't be returning to the gym in the near (or even distant) future but I also can't let my hesitation/distrust of public gyms to cripple my fitness journey. In the past year, my health habits have tanked, specifically my physical health, and so I needed to give myself a space - even a small one - to comfortably workout.

To accomplish this, I made a few considerations -

my preferred type of workouts
my workout schedule
my equipment storage when not in use

So where does that leave me?

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsOctober 20, 2021one room challenge, home office, the hygge ranch

One Room Challenge Week 3: What's In My Cart?

Last week I shared my design intentions for the flex lounge... and I say intentions because things are always liable to change...

In starting this project, I've already resolved to spend as little as possible, even resisting the urge to buy all the organizing things is harder than you'd imagine. There are things I need and then there are the things that I want. My very rough draft shopping list includes -

• a new desk for more surface area

• a new ergonomic desk chair

• a proper place for our printer (and maybe even a new printer eventually)

• wall storage for the mini

• contained storage for fitness equipment

• paper organization

And within the aforementioned list, things get a bit more detailed and itemized... a wishlist of sorts depending on what direction the design ends up taking.

Design, ShoppingAlbie KnowsOctober 13, 2021one room challenge, home office, the hygge ranch

One Room Challenge Week 2: The Design Plan

I consider this to be our "flex" space because it is a multipurpose room - our shared work area, the mini's homeschool turned activity area, and my workout area (the mister prefers a gym environment). It's also our flex space because we need it to be, well, FLEXible - unlike the other areas I've completed so far (living room, media room, laundry room, bonus bedroom, and kitchen) a year from now... three years from now... five years from now... the way we use the space could be completely different. Agility, when comes to the design of this space, is a top priority. That said, I don't want to make too many permanent decisions and I don't want to spend a ton of money. I hope be able to use things we already have & where purchases need to be made, hopefully they'll be with us for a while.

And lastly, this room is in many ways, as the kids would say, a "flex" because we went from not having dedicated areas for activities, work, and fitness to now having a whole room to do exactly that... aka another one of my "must be nice" rooms crossed off the design bucket list.

P.S. in case you don't get the "must be nice" reference, you may wanna check out this ORC post from last year.

DesignAlbie KnowsOctober 6, 2021one room challenge, the hygge ranch

One Room Challenge Week 1: Introduction

When I got the call to be part of this year's One Room Challenge — one year after being a featured designer for the first ever virtual ORC — I knew it was exactly the kick in the pants I would need to (1) start blogging again, because it has definitely also been 8 weeks since the last time I posted, and (2) to finally finish work on one room in the house that we've been tip toeing around since the day we moved in — the flex lounge.

DesignAlbie KnowsSeptember 29, 2021one room challenge

Behind The Design: Our Kitchen Renovation

Now that it's over, and I can finally catch my breath, I've been thinking about all the details that went into actualizing the complete renovation of the kitchen. Usually with my behind the design posts, I get into the nitty gritty of the project, including the costs — the dollars and the cents. Needless to say the kitchen renovation has been my largest project to date, and with that, the most costly.

As a full time content creator, however, the kitchen also became my job, with one of the benefits being able to partner with brands to bring my design to life. These partnerships offset a lot the typical costs of the renovation... also making it a touch more difficult to give you an accurate final total.

DesignAlbie KnowsAugust 2, 2021reno therapy, kitchen, the hygge ranch, behind the design, decorview

Reno Therapy: Electrical Upgrades with Leviton

Throughout this renovation I've always maintained that I never wanted to sacrifice style for function, or vice versa. In order to truly improve our quality of life it had to be an equal balance and Leviton's products allowed me to achieve that.

In comparison to many of the other upgrades we made, these were minimal changes... minimal with maximum impact that makes every routines easier. It's always been said that good design is in the details, and taking the time to be intentional about these details paid off.

DesignAlbie KnowsJuly 22, 2021reno therapy, renovation, leviton, sponsored post, lighting

Reno Therapy: DIY Tile Installation with The Tile Shop

DesignAlbie KnowsJuly 15, 2021the tile shop, reno therapy, renovation, kitchen, sponsored post, diy, the hygge ranch

Design Daydreaming: Getting Our Garage Organized

While renovating the kitchen and doing other projects around the house, we leaned on the garage — A LOT — and in doing so, we realized that the garage had a lot of deficiencies. As a result, hubs and I unanimously agreed that we wouldn't take on any more projects — big or small -- before tackling the garage first. So I've been day dreaming...

DesignAlbie KnowsJuly 13, 2021garage, storage solutions, the container store, the hygge ranch

Reno Therapy: All About Our Formica Countertops

You guys have heard so much about my countertops, and yet I've never gotten a chance to actually tell you all about my countertops! All you know is that it took a while before I got them; and can I just say... totally worth the wait!

I've always been familiar with Formica, however, only for their laminate surfaces. While I was doing my research, Kim & Scott of @yellowbrickhome were revealing the kitchens of their 2 unit flat. Unit 2 featured supermatte black shakers cabinets from Semihandmade — yep... the same ones in our media room! — with a white countertop... a design that paralleled exactly what I had in mind for the hygge ranch.

DesignAlbie KnowsJuly 8, 2021the hygge ranch, kitchen, renovation, formica, sponsored post, reno therapy