Our Very Own Design Challenge

I wonder if all mothers come to a time when they feel the need to sort those items that their children, who have left home, leave behind.

Up to now, boxes and bags, videos, dvds, posters (oh posters and blue tax!), books, school papers, puzzles, etc etc, have been pretty much left and ignored in a loft room.   This month though I decided that the room really could be put to better use.   Returning grown up children no longer stay over in this room, preferring to use another with a double bed.  So, feeling strong, it was well over time to tackle this mess.

I admit I was inspired by the The Great Design Challenge, it motivates me each year to tackle something that should have been tackled before.   But space is still a premium in our house and at this time of year you can't move items to the garden.   In addition we decided that not only long left treasures needed to be moved to a second loft room, but furniture needed to be swapped with that in other rooms too.   It was a task and a half.

Once we had cleared half the room, we began to see daylight.   We were able to paint some walls.  One of the advantages of loft rooms is that there is little ceiling to paint!  No mood boards here though, we tend to make decisions as we go.   Our budget was simply to spend as little as we could.  We had white exterior paint left over from painting the outside of the house so used that for

a textured effect.  The carpet is in good condition, we plan to rent a machine to clean it.

Paper hanging began, horizontally.   We choose paper on the net, searching for the best value, and feeling we were taking a chance with a firm we had not used before, GoWallpaper.   We needn't have worried, the paper arrived exactly at the promised time and did not let us down.

After several days of busy clearing, cleaning, painting and papering, we now have a small twin room ready for guests.   So pleased with the space that we have made, really for the cost of a couple of rolls of paper and the investment of our own time.

 

On top of that I now have a work space in the corner for my sewing machine with shelves above, yarns are stored away in a chest, fabrics neatly stowed.

And someone already feels at home :-)