Transforming My Neuro Divergent Doom Room Into a Respectable Guest Room

The cats out of the bag. I'm not perfect. There are doom piles and doom rooms. I'm guilty of the later. Here's how I'm tackling the urge to throw things in a room and close the door.

It’s such a gift to be able to have space to host family and friends. As a former Manhattan resident, I almost never had overnight guests. Even though I had a two bedroom pre war apartment - that spare room was very much a sometimes office but, mostly a closet/doom room. After my first year of living in Los Angeles and deciding I wouldn’t immediately run back to NYC, I upgraded to a 3 bedroom little bungalow. The largest room became my home office - handy since we went into lockdown a week after moving in and the other spare room would be for guests. The room saw absolutely no guests with the exception of my sister coming in once for a mutual wellness check. I managed to avoid the doom.

In my most recent LA apt, I had so much fun decorating and redecorating the guest room. Always with family and friends in mind. The room got so much use and that brought me a tremendous amount of joy. The third bedroom went from home office, to shooting studio to what ended up being referred to as “the warehouse”. A sea of props, furniture and decor waiting to be styled and God knows what else. I’d collect and purge and collect and purge but because of my work, the cycle felt endless.

My current home, about 1000 square feet smaller than that massive LA pad simply cannot handle the neuro spice hurricane of clutter that I can unleash. I’m fighting for my life to stay organized and to keep certain areas fairly minimal.

The home had two guest rooms whilst I was renting it out, one of which is now being converted into my home office. Exciting things coming soon on that front! The other guest room is what I affectionally refer to as my sister’s room. Yes, I let other people stay in it (ha!). The below photo is the diabolical set up when I came to view my house before buying it. I regularly think back and shudder at the laser printed art and 3XL screws used to hang the freakishly light art work.

Yuck.

I did set it up in a “cute enough” sort of way which would quickly unravel on say, laundry day. I’ve been wanting to get it fully together and feel like the design was complete. I find that the more “finished” a room is, the less likely I am to destroy it. We finished the room!

Shop the look | Bedframe | Nightstands | Sconce | Table lamp

Other things I do to prevent the utter destruction of a room:

Finish it: What I spoke about above. The more I like, am inspired by, geeked about a room. The less likely I am to treat it poorly.

Closed storage: Creating the tools I need to feel like “everything has a place” is key for me. The storage might be unconventional but as long as it works for my habits it’s ok!

To thyself be true: Speaking of habits, if I know that I hate clutter in my actual bedroom - this is why the doom rooms happen because funny enough, I hate mess. But, if I know I dump the laundry in my room vs the guest room or office, I’ll put it way vs being able to ignore it. Anyhoo! She’s finished and cute and I cannot wait to host. My sister is coming into town this week and I hope she loves it!

Love you, mean it!
Kellie