Before & After Home: Office/Craft/Guest Room

This is where the designing, crafting, blogging and sewing happens. In my home office/craft/guest room. I'm sitting in that green swivel chair right now, typing on my beloved imac. Kinda strange to be talking about the very place I'm sitting at the moment. Now you know where I make things. And make a mess.

When we first moved into our house, this room made us wonder what to do with it. Our initial thought was to get rid of the wood panel accent wall immediately. Boy, am I glad we didn't. It adds character and has a "woodsy study" feel. We decided to make the room into an office, a.k.a. the "computer room."

Here's a look at the BEFORE. I think it was primarily a kids' play room. That would explain the carpet stains and crayon on the walls. What's up with the red blinds? These are the only two photos I have of what it used to look like. Not too pretty.

The white walls and window treatments had to go. We chose a dark teal blue which worked with the existing carpet. I'm trying to remember my thought process at the time. I liked the idea of a deep color against the lighter wood paneling, with black and brown furniture. Sounds a little odd, but it worked once it was all together. It went from being a "what do we do with it" room, to one of my favorite rooms in the house.

This is the guest bed. I got a bed in a bag comforter set at Bed Bath and Beyond for something like $25. I love it. The colors match perfectly. At one point, we had a bunk bed in here with a futon underneath. Then just the futon, until it broke. Now, it's just the bed, with a soft fluffy white rug in front of it. 

Here is my work station. I looked for a simple corner desk with storage, and found this one at Office Max. I really liked the silver pull handles. Details. The khaki roman shades are from The Christmas Tree Shops. So is the large square black framed wall art. They really do have it all. The series of flower pictures and glass frames are from Target.

On the other side of the room is a walk in closet where I keep craft supplies, wrapping paper, Christmas decorations, DVD's, books, the vacuum, junk. Anything I want out of sight. It's very handy. It's also a walk through closet, which means there is another door on the other side that leads into another room. I'll save that intriguing tidbit for another day.

My sewing machine sits on the desk that my husband and I refinished, plugged in and ready to go at a moments notice. You never know when you'll need to fix a pair of pants. Or sew a pillow. You have to be ready at all times.

The black shelf, which houses my organizational cans, was a junk-swap gift from Morgan, one of my favorite crafty ladies. Thank you Morgan for making me take it! It looks perfect above the sewing desk.

That's where it all goes down. And by "down" I mean sometimes it ends up looking like this. A complete disaster. The result of creativity at work. I used to have a fold down craft table, until it became the cutting-bathroom-tiles-with-a-wet-saw table in the garage. It never made it back after that.

What do you think of the transformation? Here's a side by side of the before and after.

There's no giant duck float anymore or red blinds, but I think the space looks much better!