decorating on the cheap

I've been wanting to redo our guest room for a while.  It sits in the center of the house just off the kitchen, you have to go through it to get to the main bathroom, so everyone who comes here sees it on their trip to the potty.  It has been bright yellow with large floral prints for several years now. 

This is a hard room to decorate around.  It has five doors and two eight foot tall windows and eleven foot ceilings.  All the woodwork is painted white, and needs a new coat.  The carpet is industrial blue-grey carpet squares and not old enough to be cool or to replace.  The room is also the pass through to my workroom/studio and the office.  Oh yeah there are also three large cabinets full of dishes and I need to keep toys for the grand kids stored in here.  It's 12x17 so a good size, but a lot has to happen.  And did I mention it needs to be done dirt cheap?

I want the room to have a cottage look,  simple and uncluttered in soft aqua, cream white and blue.  My sister gave me a gorgeous blue, aqua, olive and cream fabric.  A GS steal at $10 for about 7-8 yards. I think I'll pair it with lace curtains, a white bedspread and a few touches of burlap.

We used the fourth of July weekend to strip the wall paper on the one wall, paint all the trim and get the walls painted a pale aqua..  I did everything as high as I could reach without a ladder and AH finished the top part.  When you are vertically challenged and have a knee replacement, ladders are not your friend.  The hardest part so far has been getting all the stuff out of the way, so it's everywhere.  The kitchen, living room and office all have things piled in them, but we are making progress.  I can see the top of my kitchen table for the first time in a week.  I'll keep you updated as we go along.

Top picture wallpaper before, bottom AH striping the top of the paper I can't reach.  He's great about things like that.  My fuzzy little helper and the fabric I'm using.  The moire water marking just doesn't show up in the photo.