Just kidding. This is what our guest bedroom looked like after we packed up the airbed and acquired our neighbors' used futon. As awesome as this looks, I decided we could do better.
Ta da! Here's our new "den," as we shall call it. Still functions as a guest room, but now we can use it for other things besides storing an enormous queen size
Aerobed.
Here's my freehanded wall art. I learned it's enormously scary to stand in front of a freshly painted
Japanese Maple wall with a loaded paintbrush in your hand. I used a white pastel pencil to make tiny marks for the top, bottom, left and right edges of where the tree should go, and then I held my breath and hoped for the best. The little canvases are 5"x5". Their design might look
familiar...
I love this Ikea fabric I bought to make pillows and the wall art (I'll tell you next time
how to stretch it.) And this
bookcase, also from Ikea, is cool because you can put in drawer units, cupboard doors, or wicker baskets as you like. I've got a mix of drawers and baskets for crafty stuff.
Here's a little reading/writing table. And that concludes your tour of this enormous 10'x13' room.
[P.S. Remember when I was going to paint it
orange? I changed my mind at the very last second and made it a dark color, just to see what it would be like. I think I love it.]
[P.P.S. To clear up a bit of confusion: the paint color on the wall is called Japanese Maple. I didn't mean it's a Japanese Maple tree. I don't know what kind of tree it is. It's just a tree.]
This photo is from the Barbie Murders series by etsy seller Wildemoon. Buy a print here or see the other tragic Barbie victims.
Here's an entry in the "Deadly Cute" Photoshop contest at Worth1000, where innocent little animals are retouched into nasty creatures. Via Boing Boing.
I have a new portfolio website, programmed for me by a wonderful friend. So if you know somebody who needs graphic design work, send 'em over to jessicajonesdesign.com. Or go there yourself to grab some desktop wallpaper from the Goodies page.
Left: Funny Houses by Sarajo Frieden. Right: Pistachio Ice Cream by Vanessa Tam.
Here's how to make a giant piece of wall art for your room.
Choose some fabric with a large-scale pattern. Go to your local art supply store and buy 4 lengths of wood frame made for stretching canvas. The wood strips have corners designed to interlock. (Or you can cover an existing blank stretched canvas, but it will get pricey if you go very big.) 
Position your fabric the way you like it and use a staple gun to tack it down. I stapled along a long edge, then did the opposite side, pulling it very tight. Next do the short sides, one at a time. Trim off any extra fabric that hangs past the inner edges of the frame. To finish the corners, tuck in the extra fabric as if you're wrapping a present and then staple it down. It doesn't matter how you do it as long as it looks tidy from the front. The art store gave me a wooden tool to help with this, but it's not essential. Attach a picture hanger (or maybe two if your panel is large) and hang.
Just kidding. This is what our guest bedroom looked like after we packed up the airbed and acquired our neighbors' used futon. As awesome as this looks, I decided we could do better.
Ta da! Here's our new "den," as we shall call it. Still functions as a guest room, but now we can use it for other things besides storing an enormous queen size Aerobed.
Here's my freehanded wall art. I learned it's enormously scary to stand in front of a freshly painted Japanese Maple wall with a loaded paintbrush in your hand. I used a white pastel pencil to make tiny marks for the top, bottom, left and right edges of where the tree should go, and then I held my breath and hoped for the best. The little canvases are 5"x5". Their design might look familiar...
I love this Ikea fabric I bought to make pillows and the wall art (I'll tell you next time how to stretch it.) And this bookcase, also from Ikea, is cool because you can put in drawer units, cupboard doors, or wicker baskets as you like. I've got a mix of drawers and baskets for crafty stuff.
Here's a little reading/writing table. And that concludes your tour of this enormous 10'x13' room.