At home: An office makeover

We are lucky to have a little bit of extra space in our two bedroom terrace. But just a little more, mind you, in the shape of a 2.5 x 2m part-corridor/part-room at the end of the upstairs hall, just before the bathroom. This has been my craft and sewing room for the past few years, but with the arrival of The Boy it soon became clear that we needed a more multi-purpose office space. Somewhere I could still use my sewing machine and get my craft on, but also somewhere suitable for him to work while he finishes his PhD.

                                 Before:                                                             After:

The original layout had very little storage  - a slim bookcase aside - and a beautiful but impractical oak writing desk. And so, with a heavy heart, I bid goodbye to the desk and said hello to to a practical white desk top and legs from Ikea and lots of shelving from B&Q. As tends to happen, I had the vision and The Boy put in the hard work. This division of roles along normative gender lines bothers me less than it could: until he moved in, I put up every shelf, assembled every flat pack, drilled every hole and hauled garden waste to the tip (in fact, I still do all of that except the drilling and shelves), so it's not that I can't do the heavy labour, I just choose not to.

And what a transformation! Our formerly dingy and messy space is suddenly light, bright and tidy. My craft supplies - colourful jars of buttons and threads, spools of washi tape - are still on display and easily accessible, while the less pretty things are kept in white storage boxes from Ikea.

Meanwhile, The Boy's books and work papers are all tidied away on the highest wall shelves: at 6'3" he has no trouble reaching them when needed. I also found a kitchen vegetable trolley in a local junk shop, and it's the perfect storage solution for my vintage maps and papercraft supplies. A string of colourful ball lights, from Tiger, brighten up the space on dark evenings.

We re-used the bookcase, putting it side-on to form more of a corridor effect into the bathroom, for my craft books and fabric stash, and repurposed a faux-Eames chair from eBay, which used to sit in the living room, as desk seating.

I'm thrilled with our new-look office/craft room. Sharing the space has meant I'm much better at tidying away after sewing (where previously I'd leave half-finished projects lying around for weeks), and The Boy enjoys having a quiet space in which to work. At a total cost of £58 - £35 for timber and shelf brackets, £11 for the lights and £12 for the storage boxes - it's been a bargain makeover to a previously neglected corner of the house.