Bedroom/office/craft room reveal

Today is the day guys! I have been waiting for this, working on this and literally dreaming of this room to be done. I am talking about the Bedroom/office/craft room reveal. I have hinted about it, and explained my struggle with this dual function room. For anyone just joining us, here is the quick run-down. I have a three bedroom home that has a living room, dining room, kitchen, and tiny room off of the kitchen that my kids use as their play room.

This home worked for years for us, now that I have this blog and my obsessions with all things DIY/crafting the needs have changed. Since I cannot magically add on another room, fingers crossed for that lottery win! But, for now I have made do with a desk in my bedroom, and a ton of disorganized clutter, boxes and bins. My poor suffering husband is lucky to get a corner of the bed at the and of the day. This simply cannot continue, for my sanity, my marriage, and my home decor loving heart. That died a little each time I walked into the mess that was my bedroom.

**This post contains sponsored product. My opinions of the products are my own**

There, I have put it all out for you to see. The real way my bedroom looked. If you notice, around this blog and my social media I did not share too much of my bedroom. Because it was a mess! I like to keep it real around here, no shame in my game. But, my shame does only go so far, I was not OK sharing how this room looked. Actually I guess I am ok showing it, now that it no longer looks like this. Kind of like pictures from middle school, we cringed at them. However once we are so far removed from that awkward phase we can look with fondness and some self deprecation wondering what we were thinking? This is me laughing at my bedrooms awkward phase.

I was not thinking in this situation with my bedroom, I was surviving. Now comes the fun part of this Bedroom/office/craft room reveal, I had a little help. Help in the form of Good Houskeeping magazine and a wonderful professional organizer they put me in touch with. I got custom advice from Maeve from Maeve’s method. I sent in my before pictures, horrible lighting, projects in the middle of creating. I gave it all to them, and Maeve came to the rescue. I did the work, but she made the process feel doable. The big struggle with this room was the multi-function of it.

I blog, write, craft, record craft video’s, take pictures, and occasionally sleep in here. I did get a fun look when we had trouble with our internet and the maintenance person had to go in the bedroom to look at our internet connection…. I had a camera and tri-pod set up, in our bedroom! Yes, I was mortified and fell into a long winded explanation. Really I froze up and said “I craft”, yep, cleared up that awkward assumption just fine. I can’t help the awkward looks about my camera in here, this room has the best lighting! I also can’t help but need more storage. I have a lot of daily items I use in here, craft supplies that need to be at the ready for me. All of these needs overwhelmed me and I did not know where to start.

Maeve had me envision the room empty and plan what will work where with a blank canvas. This room is massive, but because of the window and entry wall there is only one spot that the bed can go. The set up of the staple bedroom furniture needed to stay put. She also recommended to divide the room in half, take advantage of the big square footage in here. A bedroom side and a work side, this way I can easily separate the two when the time is needed.

I love this idea, and decided to keep the majority of my work on the side by my computer desk. Because of the over sized bedroom Maeve told me to get a big storage cabinet to put on the wall between the bedroom door and bathroom door. Of course this meant a trip to Ikea where I purchased a Billy cabinet, some baskets, and planned my perfect kitchen. No I am not currently planning to redo my kitchen…. Guys, can we just talk about how amazing Ikea’s kitchens are?! I mean, come on. I spent way too much time talking logistics about a room in my home I am not redoing. My kids love to go to Ikea because they walk around pretending we live there, usual Saturday stuff around here.

Back to reality, I redid this cubby cabinet which I shared the full tutorial on the blog earlier this week. Of course, when it comes to craft supplies you can never have too much storage space. Full disclosure, this is not all of my craft supplies. I have a basement that has a corner with shelves and boxes. But, these are the ones I use often. Saving me a trip up and down the stairs. I also run this home decor blog and occasionally I have to “stage” things. I will say I never stage things and then put them away. But I do change things around very often, little knick-knacks get moved, glass hurricanes need filling. I store these quick to grab items so I can pull from them quickly to set up a shot. This is first and foremost my home, but I love decorating it, taking pictures and sharing it with you all. So I need my home decor goodies ready to be used at a moments notice or good lighting streaming in the room.

I know this was all about function, storage and making the multi-purpose space work. You know I had to pretty up the space! I painted the walls a beautiful and fresh light blue. I also got new throw pillows, provided by Bows & Burlap. They are perfectly sweet, calm and not too much busy pattern going on. Just what I was hoping for this room. Because I will be doing a lot of working in here, which with a home decor blog means a lot of clutter and “stuff” sitting out I wanted to keep the look and feel of this room as calming and fresh as possible. I may have given Dale a place to rest his head, but it is on a floral pillow. Baby steps, hey at least the wall color is blue!

I made this frame, and will be sharing the tutorial of it next week. I took a cue from the posters I turned into wall art in my boys’ bedroom. Finding this gorgeous poster  and turning it into wall art for this room. I will admit I never expected to go a pink route. But the mix of blue, green, pink and white is giving me all kinds of home decor happy feelings.

With my plan to keep the room as bright as possible I thought white curtains would be best. Maeve recommended to keep things as light as possible in here as well to help the space not feel overwhelming with it’s multi use. I got these curtains from World Market, I am loving the subtle pattern and texture on them. The geometric pattern mixed with the soft colors and flowers in here helps make it feel modern. The rest of my home has tons of color and patterns, so I had to leave my mark in little ways in here.

These baskets I got from Ikea. I love the herringbone pattern on them.

This bench was in our dining room for the longest time. I recently got new chairs for it and put the bench in here. This is proof of decorating fairies, this color of the bench which I painted years ago matches the wall art perfectly. I am talking, pure perfection match. Yeah,  and they say magic is not real. I was blessed with decorating fairy dust for that happy accident.

The before picture of this room was chair heavy. Maeve even mentioned I should get rid of a few, she said it very nice but I know she wanted to say “get rid of all of those chairs!” So I did, but one of these cane chairs is actually my computer chair. Dale also sits in here often and works on his lap-top in the evenings while I write, we call it couple time.

I redid the cane chairs and revamped the fireplace. Two of my favorite furniture redo’s I have done. Before you all ask me a ton of times in the comments, the gorgeous tree art is from World Market. Anytime I have shared that in a post people go gaga over it. I get it, I stalked that picture for weeks before I took the leap and bought it. Am I the only one that visits items at stores? Just to admire it? Just me…? Awkward…

I went to Ikea with the idea of a storage cabinet, I was not sure what I wanted exactly. I fell in love with this one, the glass doors were what hooked me. I knew I would set it up to have mostly decorative items on top and the heavy craft supplies on the bottom. I do plan to change the hardware and maybe put trim around the bottom, have the appearance of a true built-in.

Maeve was so right, this spot is the best place for a narrow cabinet. I get the storage and use this previously un-usable space. On the top shelves I have my mason jar collection, a few canvas’s with the best quotes ever I gave Dale for Valentines day years ago, and a few items I decorate my home with frequently. I change little decor items around daily. Just how I roll.

This basket will be ever changing. I have some tools or objects that if I am working on a project I use a lot. Usually they end up in a corner of my kitchen counter, where everything ends up. But, this little basket will hold those items. If I am putting together furniture I can put the tool needed in here. I get interrupted a lot when working on things. Kids…. they just don’t care that Mommy is decorating! This is my grab and go tool holder.

I have a lot of sample paints, a lot! The major paint cans and paint supplies are kept in the garage. But these samples are used often for tiny home projects and crafts.

This is for the sewing supplies I use. When I say “I” I mean Dale, he can sew, I cannot sew a straight line. So this is his section, my manly man can build tables, create software, and sew curtains. Yes ladies, he is taken and no he does not have a brother.

These baskets hide my Cricut supplies. I have also used this bench recently to create crafts on. I will be sharing a post next week with pictures of this space in use. In it’s natural habitat. Because, as pretty as these pictures are… this is not natural. I wish! My kids like to literally throw the throw pillows, and I have a few projects generally in progress. Now at least I have a designated space to work on them!

That fan, it was a point of contention. Dale wants it to stay, I dream of a big, beautiful hanging light. I know the fan is functional, but, but, BUT I can make such a pretty ceiling light! For now this fan stays, only because Dale is taller and I need his help to take it down. I will win eventually!

Another beautiful pillow from Bows & Burlap.

I am loving this room, Meave’s advice was amazing and I am wondering why I did not tackle this job sooner!

See, the craft supplies are almost all hidden. It is a craft room in disguise, just like Superman… I mean Clark Kent. Next week I will show off this room in it’s work mode, just like when Clark Kent takes off his glasses and magically becomes someone else. This room transforms into the perfect craft room and work space for me.

We already have the superhero’s ready to use this craft room in disguise! Shameless Mommy moment showing off two of my three cuties! I was taking pictures of this room and they were being caped crusaders, typical happenings around here.

I love the mix of the light wood color of the baskets and the dark furniture.

Such a cozy place to dream!

Just to remind you, this is the before and the after. Actually this is the before from years ago, the actual before was shown in all it’s messy glory earlier in this post.

I did it! This Bedroom/office/craft room reveal is done. I did not do this alone and have to thank Good Housekeeping  for the encouragement and putting me in touch with Maeve from Maeve’s method.  She talked me down from the ledge of despair, helped me see the problems and the simple solutions for this bedroom. More storage, designated stations, keeping the functions separate and get rid of the chairs. I took her advice and ran with it, making the room pretty again because I could not help myself. This was the last untouched room in our home. Now we have white trim in every room, and beautifully painted walls. I shared the full reveal today and next week will be running through more of the process, the work I put in and sharing how I create crafts and craft video’s in this room. Letting you see it with all of it’s function. For now I am going to go and rest in my newly revamped bedroom!

How do you handle a multi-function space in your home? 

       Here are some more room reveals I have done- Master bathroom revealGirl bedroom redoShared boy bedroom redoKitchen detailed tourSpring home tour