Sarah Sherman Samuel's Basement Guest Room Makeover—and the One “Easy” Project She Always Leaves to the Pros
Photo by Nicole Franzen
By the time interior designer Sarah Sherman Samuel had decided to turn a space in her basement into a guest room, she had already gone through more than one major change in a short amount of time. Her family had recently relocated from California to Michigan, and she orchestrated the gut renovation of the common areas in their new home. Meanwhile, Samuel had given birth to a daughter, too. "We had a lot going on when we renovated the main living spaces," she says. "By waiting to update the guest room, I was able to tackle it with fresh inspiration and without a serious case of decision fatigue."
As it stood, the guest room was a blank slate—to put it nicely. "There was just the concrete subfloor, and the walls were clad in faux-wood paneling that was so popular in the 1970s and 80s," Samuel says. "The walls had been painted white, but the irregular texture was still prevalent."
