Feeling Crafty

Our guest room, a room where we slept for our first few months in our new home, has served us well over the years. It was one of the first rooms we painted before we moved in and one of the few room that we redecorated after getting it the way we though we wanted (granted, the changes just involved linens and lamps, but it felt dramatic). It served us well during the pandemic when we ended up with a long-term house guest. But through it all, it always felt like a large amount of space dedicated to a spare room that gets used for a grand total of probably two weeks per year in normal circumstances. That said, we didn't want to convert it completely away from a bedroom, since it is obviously pretty handy for those two weeks. Most of the time though, it felt like an underused space, especially on the days that D and J both ended up working from home while hiding from the children (J had to get hers done up in the master bedroom since the kitchen desk was much too accessible for constant rounds of "MOM, can you...?")

There wasn't a ton of space to work with--here's the bed and night stands:

And here's the double dresser. Under the window (not visible) is a cedar chest.

All the furniture was being used, so there was no easy way to gain space. Unless you treat the trunk like a seat for a desk/sewing table.

That seems like a relatively easy choice, but it turned out that the 37.5''-wide chest was just a little too wide for almost EVERY desk that we liked. Even though the desks, which averaged about 42'', seemed sufficient, most of the legs were set in from the edge by a few inches or tapered in at the bottom. The worst part was that many websites didn't even post that particular dimension, making it very hard to decide what would work.

Finally, we found one, a "campaign" desk from Target that fit perfectly (since we also couldn't choose a giant desk since it still had to fit along the wall). Of course I immediately put it to use.

We made this work by removing the mirror from the dresser and putting it under the windows. Due to how the closet door opens, it isn't centered on the wall, but it works pretty well there.

Though of course removing the mirror from the dresser meant we needed a mirror in the room (trust me, NOT having a mirror wasn't an option, as the kids' loved to play dress up and then get on the bed and dance in front of the dresser mirror). We found a "cheval" mirror (seriously, all these styles of furniture apparently have names) on Overstock that fit the bill. 

To gain more space in the room, we also removed one nightstand to allow us to push the bed closer to the wall. Now it is just far enough from the wall to let us get in easily to change the sheets. We shifted the bed exactly enough to give us room to move the rightmost picture of the tryptic over to the left.

You'll notice from the picture of my new desk/sewing table that we suddenly have a VERY LARGE GRAY WALL. Now the fun begins. What should I put there? I have a wall-mounted thread rack that probably needs to get moved from the office where I store all my crafts/hobbies but do not have space to actually work.

Should I just hang pictures (I have no more art nouveau but I have a pretty cool picture of sheep that helps tie the sewing area to my knitting hobby)? Should I get extra crafty and create a Pinterest-worthy pegboard for ribbons, elastic cords, and all other trimmings? I'm leaning towards the former, because I feel like shelving and pegboards can get messy quickly, but if you have an idea, please share it!