Craft room/ guest room transformation!

A few months ago, I wrote about a "junk room" in my house which I hoped to transform into a craft room/ guest room. I'm delighted to say that it's now almost finished, and what a difference! 

Before... eeeeek!

The room was completely unloved- broken, squeaky floorboards, badly-fitted and damaged

skirting, holes in the walls and ceiling. No wonder we ended up filling it with all our junk, and making it "the box room". However, I was desperate for a proper space to create things in. Somewhere I could keep my sewing machine out and functional, and store all my crafty bits and pieces neatly and logically. With a new baby, we also needed a guest room- and somewhere to escape to without waking our daughter if our new addition was rather noisy in the middle of the night! 

So here it is! Getting the floorboards fixed, walls plastered and skirting replaced used up almost all our budget... so the rest of the transformation was well and truly frugally done. 

Presenting my functional guest/ craft room

I chose this striking colour scheme in contrast to the darker hues in the study next door. It's a very small room, and I feel that the yellow combined with the light carpet really brighten the space and make it feel bigger. The sofa bed folds out to make it a functional guest room, but looks pretty as a comfy sofa in the meantime. The room is full of bargains and thrifty finds. The bedside tables were old pine ones we had in storage, painted to tie in with grey chalk paint. I found the tripod lamps in an Argos clearance sale for only £5.99 each. I have admired almost identical lamps from other retailers for upwards of £20, and I think these could certainly pass for more expensive. 

Well, I do love tea!

The pictures I chose are from various places. I want all my wall décor to be original, and not just the generic, mass-produced art which adorns many walls. I love this quote from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and I bought it from a graphic designer called Abbie Imagine, on Etsy. The sewing machine print was free, printed at home (read about my favourite printable websites here) and I found the typewriter advert a couple of years ago at an antique fair for only £2. 

A great philosophy!

This cute little antique plate was upcycled by Heart Vintage, and I bought it from her Etsy store. I love the wartime "Make Do and Mend" philosophy, and it's one I do try to stick to. Where better to display this than next to my sewing machine? I thought this antique advert for Tootal sheets was totally appropriate in my guest room, and I found it on eBay for a couple of pounds. There are loads of vintage and antique adverts to be snapped up for next to nothing on eBay, if you know what theme you are looking for.  

Antique Tootal advert

Of course, I still have work to do! Here is my work station at the moment. The old pine desk needs painted to tie in with the rest of the room, although I did re-upholster the seat using a scrap of fabric from my stash. Shelves need to go up to house my growing vintage fabric collection, and I still have a few pieces of art ready for the wall. Nevertheless, I love my room, and already I've spent far too many wonderful hours crafting away in it. 

Still a bit of work to be done!