In my last post I wrote about getting rid of my guest room and my plan to create a dedicated work space using the whole room for both me and Jules. When I began my blog I very quickly realised that I needed a bigger workspace and so I did a cheap and cheerful home office makeover about a year ago, spending £150. At that time we kept the guest room double bed because my blog was very much a hobby so I didn’t need a huge amount of space and it meant we could maintain the luxury of a guest bed (plus, it was great to crawl into when I was doing a bit of hand sewing or just wanted a little afternoon nap – it always felt so much more comforting than our own bed).

However, I have now decided to try to develop my blog, make and sell some of my sewing projects and work with clients to try to improve their own homes so I  need a lot of extra space and storage. I don’t want to waste any of the time, effort and money we spent on creating my current work space and I also don’t want to make any permanent changes as life will probably change again sooner rather than later. So, I am giving myself a strict budget of £300, plus the £100 I sold our double bed for. This budget will need to cover:

– Desk chair for me:  £0

– 150 x 150cm desk for us to share: £75

– Storage shelves: £275

– Lighting: £65

– Flooring: £0

TOTAL: £415

Desk Chair

A very happy coincidence occurred the other day: I saw Aileen’s blog post about her new office on At Home In Love and ogled over her choice of desk chair and then I won a £100 Out There Interiors voucher as part of their Frame It Friday competition and they sell the same Eames style chair. Perfect! Budget remains in tact – thank you Out There Interiors!

I love this Eames Style chair that forms part of Aileen’s new office on At Home In Love blog.

Image from Decor8 Flickr.

Desk

I’ve always loved the idea of having a square, central work table that can be completely flexible, you can walk round it, other people can sit round it with you, and you can access projects from different angles. That is what I want to create – Jules can have one side and I can have the other.

I am going to recycle and add to my current desk to ensure I don’t waste money on something we may need to change in a couple of years time. The top of the desk is a 220cm length of painted and varnished MDF that cost £40 to buy and paint. We are going to saw off 70cm from the end and buy another 150cm MDF length (£35), which will be supported by our two existing trestle legs, a set of drawers and four Ikea steel table legs for £40 to create a 150 x 150cm square desk that we will place in the middle of the room.

Image from Stadshem.

Image from Trendenser.

Lighting

I really like the idea of hanging a pendant light over the desk; not only will this look great but I could hook it up so that it could be raised and lowered according to what I am working on, which makes it very practical. Loaf have got some lovely new pendant lamps as part of their new summer collection, which could be perfect at £65.

Loaf’s new ‘Workshop’ pendant lamp.

Image from Style Essentials Tumblr.

Image from Schlitzohren.

Storage

The bulk of my budget will be spent on a mid century shelving system for most of our storage needs. I’ve got my eye on one on eBay for £275 but I’m also so tempted by Nils Strinning string shelving system from Haus – I might be willing to spend my life savings!

Nils Strinning string shelving system from Haus.

Flooring

I think I will do my new favourite trick and take up the carpet in the room and paint the MDF boards that are laid under the carpet, which won’t cost me anything as we have plenty of left over paint. I want to leave one wall completely bare and if there is a white painted floor this will make it like a mini-studio, perfect for shooting projects for the blog.

Image from Decor8 blog.

Image from My Scandinavian Home.

I’d better get on with it!

Katy x

Such a controversial decision, it seems. I mentioned the idea to Jules a while ago, and although he generally doesn’t have particularly strong opinions about the design of our flat, he really took offence to the idea of getting rid of the double bed that sits there all year round, perfectly made up, looking a bit sorry for itself. When I mentioned it to family they also thought I was mad: “Why would you get rid of such a lovely luxury?”, “But what about all your visitors?”, “Why on earth would you do that?”.

We live in a two bedroom 75 square metre flat in Bermondsey and we’re very lucky: the flat is a stone’s throw from the river, we can walk into town, we have a huge communal roof terrace, balcony and a big, beautiful park on our door step. Very lucky indeed.

However, as time moves on more stuff is accrued, dogs get bigger, future babies become a consideration, and careers change, which impacts on the way we live in our home. As of September, Jules and I will both be working from home (eeeek!) after I made the decision to leave teaching to develop my blog, start making and selling and help others design their own homes. Living on a budget in London means you have to make compromises (relative, I know) and the guest room, a former luxury, has become a space we really need to use as a work room. Currently, it does house my desk and craft supplies along one wall but the bed takes up the majority of the room.

If we kept our beautifully made guest room bed my daily working life would be that much more difficult. I would have to scrabble around every day trying to find a surface large enough to cut fabric, a blank white wall to shoot a project or have to pack up everything each day instead of being able to leave out resources I need for an ongoing project, just so those six visitors per year can have a bedroom to themselves, instead of using our sofa bed in the sitting room. This may sound selfish to you, but it just sounds like common sense to me. I saw a property show the other day and the advice given to the woman in her twenties buying her first flat was: don’t push yourself financially to buy a two bedroom flat just so you can provide a bed for occasional visitors – with all the money you save you could put them up in the best hotel in town.

Anyhoo, my point is that I think it’s important when you live in a home for a while to step back, evaluate how life may or may not have changed and not be scared to make changes, if needed. I’ll share my ideas for the room in my next post.

Do you have a redundant guest room that could be put to much better use?

Katy x