Chapter 1: Spare Thoughts

I’ve never written a book before.

Well, actually, that’s not completely true! I did try and write a book when I was little, but clearly it didn’t take in the industry, as we’re not exactly rich and famous. But dang it, we were #thisclose. If only I had been as motivated a child author as I was a child artist… 🙂

It’s never too late, though, right? Right. Which is why I’m starting now. Welcome to the story of our Spare Bedroom and how we just can’t quite get it right. We’ve tried. Best that we can. To CAAAAAAAAARY ON (name that tune)! Some things worked and others didn’t… so we’re back to the drawing board. But FIRST: Memory Lane. Here is the Spare as it looked when we first built the house:

Then we replaced the carpet, painted, and added the futon, a desk, bookshelves, and a few other odds and ends.

And most recently, we shifted things around to create a “desk nook” (because what else do you call a desk and a few bookshelves floating around in the middle of the room?).

I mean, it’s a fine space and serves all of its many functions- guest bedroom, office, library, place to put your feet up and read (which I guess would still be a library), etc. BUT, it still feels a little awkward. Like the furniture does not really all fit together. Pieces don’t know their boundaries. The futon is all up in the desk’s personal space and the egg chair is moody and needs a corner to be happy. And don’t even get me started on the “bedside” tables. They’re a hot mess.

SO, we’re on an adventure. And get pumped, friends, because you get to come along for the ride! Each week (or so), I’ll be popping in with the next chapter of the journey to re-imagine the Spare (or at least parts of it). Let’s start with some goals- things that we want the space to be able to do:

• Library and Office- house our books and our staplers
• Place to hang out- the futon stays. as does the egg chair.
• Guest Bedroom- another reason that the futon stays
• Craft Room- my hot glue gun and Mod Podge need a home… they’re tired of being nomads.
• Usable- a room that we’ll actually go in (see this post for more about that)
• Better Arranged- it’s annoying to bump into things every time you turn around

Yikes. Yikes yikes yikes. That’s a pretty tall order! Buuuuuut we’ve been thinking on this for a long time and I think we might have a plan. So let’s break this down…

After living with the current arrangement (desk and bookcases jutting out into the middle of the room) for awhile, we came to this conclusion: the “office space” just does not work for us anywhere in the room. It is just adding to that awkward, everything-is-on-top-of-each-other feel. So it has to go. Gasp. Take out the office? That’s right! We are taking the office feature out of the room… and putting it in THE CLOSET. Whaaaa? Let me explain…

see the original photo here

You see, I’d been pinning a lot of these “can you be using your closet space better?” things on Pinterest and it got us to thinking… could we do something like that in the Spare? Truth be told, the closet in the Spare had been bothering both of us ever since we’d moved in, but neither wanted to say anything. The problems with the closet are as such:

1. The doors are heavy and cumbersome to move.
2. You can only ever access half the closet at once.
3. There is no light, so things are hard to see.

And thus, the idea to transform the closet into an office space was born. We’re excited to see how this turns out! As for the rest of the furniture, well, let’s start with what we’re working with. Here is what the current layout looks like:

And this is the new plan:

The futon will move back to the far left wall, under the map. The bookshelves will sit right next to each other, under the window- almost like a long console table. And the bedside tables… Oh, the bedside tables. We’ve lived with the “not identical, but still similar in size” combination for awhile now, hoping that they would work. However, I think I’ve resigned to the fact that we may be in the market to dish out some moolah and snag ourselves a matching pair with a small footprint that won’t be bulky and take up space, but will also add interest to the room (I’ve had my eye on a few… can’t wait to show you some of the options!). And finally, the beloved egg chair. So far, the plan is to place it on the same wall as the door, just to your left when you enter the room.

Whew! There they are- all of our initial thoughts about where this space might be headed. Exciting! Stay tuned for Chapter 2, coming your way next week! Hint: there’s some “demo” involved… You’ll just have to come back next week and see. 🙂