Room Tour: The Spare Room

Wow, thank you for all the love you gave my unfinished holiday embroidery! I have just four images left to sew and I'm really hoping I can find time to work on it a little this weekend. 

I mentioned that over the summer we finished our spare room and thought you might like to see some photos. The room was Angus's bedroom before (you can see what it looked like here), while our spare room and office/toy storage were downstairs in what it now Bella's bedroom. This room is an awkward shape; it has a partially sloping ceiling, two large storage cupboards on one wall which go into the eaves, a window and radiator on another, and is all angles and alcoves. It is both cosy, thanks to the airing cupboard, and light, thanks to the large window, so it's also a really nice room. The plan was to turn it into a room in which guests could stay, but which we could also use as an office, and as an overflow sitting/play room for Bella and Angus.

We ordered a sofa bed (this one). The size of the wall the sofa would stand against meant that we had to choose one without arms but that is fine.

To the left of the sofa is a little alcove, the perfect size for a small table.

John built us a simple desk using an off-cut of ply and four hair pin legs. Above the desk, just under the wall light, was enough space for a small shelf, again made from ply and a couple of cheap brackets.

I like that it's a good use of a small, tricky area where no space is wasted. I have put a few favourite bits on the shelf for now; a vase of feathers, an old printer's block I bought in about 2001, a stone, a postcard from IKEA and a glass candle holder which used to belong to my Grandpa.

These drawers hold all our craft supplies and stationery, while the cupboard stores the filing cabinet and printer, as well as all the toys. It's a really deep cupboard and provides fantastic storage.

On the opposite wall is an old bookcase which used to live in my Grandpa's house and until recently held all Angus's books, but now groans under the weight of all John's CDs (Ok, maybe a quarter of them are mine.)

The vintage travels prints I bought in York years ago and the skull canvas was from Graham and Green - funny, I am not mad about any of them individually, but I really like how they work together.

Other cheap and cheerful decoration comes in the form of houseplants and sheets of fancy gift wrap hung on poster hangers, while broken Emma Bridgewater mugs hold pens and pencils. 

We tried to keep spending in this room to an absolute minimum since we had to buy the sofa bed. The carpet, blind and light fittings are the same as before, and I repainted one wall in white paint as it was badly marked but left the others. All the furniture, pictures, cushions, blanket and other bits and bobs came from other rooms in the house - other than the sofa bed, we only bought the table legs, a small amount of ply and some cheap shelf brackets from B&Q. 

It's a really nice room. The carpet makes it cosy and quiet while the airing cupboard means it's warm in the winter. We haven't had any guests stay in it yet but I hope they are comfortable there.

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Hasn't the weather turned cold quickly? I have been wearing my coat to and from work and there is a definite edge to the wind at the moment. I'm not ready to say goodbye to my sandals and summer clothes just yet, so I really hope it warms up a bit again before autumn arrives properly. I hope you all have something nice planned for the weekend. John is working so it's just the kids and I. Apart from swimming lessons and a library visit tomorrow morning there is nothing particular I need to do other than then usual weekend washing/ironing pile, then some gardening and baking, a couple of dog walks, and hopefully there will be time to sit down and sew.