Creating a dedicated Work and Storage space?

[Geila]

Dh and I have a 1460'sq home. Way too big for just 2 people and all the extra space has enabled lots of clutter accumulation which I've been working hard to eliminate. We have turned one bedroom into an office and taken out a bunch of walls to make the house more open and conducive to how we like to live. That still leaves two extra bedrooms. One has a queen bed and gets lots of use throughout the year from friends and family. The other one, not so much. It has a twin bed and tends to accumulate all the odds and ends. It also has one wall of floor to ceiling bookcase and we store most of our books there. I keep trying to make it into a usable guest room but it just won't take.

I'm thinking of taking the bed out and making it into a proper room for sewing and home storage. It already holds all the clothing we don't use - dh has 2 trench coats and several jackets that were given to him by family members and he wont' get rid of them. We live in a climate in which a flannel shirt or fleece jacket is all that is ever needed. And dh has those, he uses them, but can't bear the thought of getting rid of clothes. Ok, they live in the spare closet.

So I'm thinking, why not just change the function of the room? I have a tall cabinet (the old pantry from our kitchen) and a nightstand that would work well for organized closed storage. My rectangular kitchen table will be perfect to set up a sewing station on, and I will replace that with a small pedestal I've been wanting. And moving the big cabinet will free up lots of visual space in the kitchen area now that I'll have a big fridge in there.

My only concern is that a work room will quickly devolve into a junk room. That room faces my bedroom and I don't like to see a messy room every time I walk by it.

Has anyone tried this? Did it work, not work? Any issues that came up?

[KayLR]

We have an extra bedroom and it is now my sewing room. No apologies. I think it's a perfectly legitimate use for it. Hubs has his garage and the living room is basically his and his remote's.

[Yppej]

I demolished my deteriorating shed so now all garden tools, etc are stored in the basement. Papers are in the guest room closet. These are mainly from my genealogical endeavors and also include photos I want in a drier environment.

[ToomuchStuff]

The room will only devolve if you let it. Part of me is thinking multi function, where the sewing machine, if in a cabinet, could fold up to be the nightstand. You could have a multi use table/murphy bed/ bookcase setup. (forgive the commercial sight, but I have seen kits or premade)
https://www.wayfair.com/Wallbeds-Modern-Birch-Murphy-Bed-WLB1177.html
And depending on how many jackets/coats, put a chair (good for reading or sewing), and make some storage bits for the closet, move those won't get rid of jackets into the main closet, so he keeps seeing (why are we storing these here) waste of space.
Hope this gives some useful idea's.

[Tybee]

I really like that birch bed toomuchstuff; I wish it were cheaper. IT would be great for a guest room.

[Gardnr]

I really like that birch bed toomuchstuff; I wish it were cheaper. IT would be great for a guest room.

We bought a kit for the murphy bed and built the frame/cabinet. Less than $600.

[nswef]

I think you could keep the bed, use a sewing table as the bed table, too. Keep it looking pretty for guests, but still have useful areas.
Our 2nd bedroom is small, 8X10 at best, has a double bed, desk that serves for the sewing machine that sits under it unless I'm using it, a small dress/bedside table and a small dining room chair for the desk. It's worked for years and is usually decent looking until DH got a golf club holder that holds two bags...can't put it in the garage as it's too cold, so it stays in
"my" guest room....

[Float On]

I think you have a great idea.
I homeschooled the boys when they were young and we turned a bedroom into a school room. Tall cabinet with shelves, drawers, doors for all our material and a work table. I then turned that into my reading/tv room so it had a chair and really nice futon (so it could double as guest room/really pays to pay for the best futon mattress available). Bookshelf. Dresser with TV on it. Then it became a bedroom again for one of the boys. I still eye it to make it a TV room again because I hate having the TV in the living room. Another bedroom I turned into a big laundry room (off-season clothing storage) sewing room (a table under the window). It also has a comfy chair and a small file cabinet for taxes. Our houses are similar in size we're right under 1500. I wish my dining area were bigger and we don't have very big closets.

Adding pieces that close really helps keep things look organized and neat. A tall cabinet with shelves and drawers and doors for your sewing stash would be nice.

To me this is too cluttered 1846 but I like this one 1847

[Geila]

I think you have a great idea.
I homeschooled the boys when they were young and we turned a bedroom into a school room. Tall cabinet with shelves, drawers, doors for all our material and a work table. I then turned that into my reading/tv room so it had a chair and really nice futon (so it could double as guest room/really pays to pay for the best futon mattress available). Bookshelf. Dresser with TV on it. Then it became a bedroom again for one of the boys. I still eye it to make it a TV room again because I hate having the TV in the living room. Another bedroom I turned into a big laundry room (off-season clothing storage) sewing room (a table under the window). It also has a comfy chair and a small file cabinet for taxes. Our houses are similar in size we're right under 1500. I wish my dining area were bigger and we don't have very big closets.

Adding pieces that close really helps keep things look organized and neat. A tall cabinet with shelves and drawers and doors for your sewing stash would be nice.

To me this is too cluttered http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1846&stc=1 but I like this one http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1847&stc=1

Yes, I like #2!

I'm keeping the tall pantry in the kitchen area because it works well with the new fridge. So there is room for the bed, but I'm not loving it. It feels like too much going on in there. I'm probably going to get rid of the bed, once dh recovers from my frenzy of activity. He finds it difficult to get rid of things so I have to be gentle with him. I think having one guest bedroom is enough. The last time this bed was used was about 5 years ago. And if we hadn't had it then, my BIL could have slept on the couch.

I've already cleared out a space for the sewing table and will be moving it in once dh gets home and provides additional muscle power.

Float - we took the walls out of one of the bedrooms and made it into a dining room, and it looked really nice but we never used it. So now it's our open computer space and we use it all the time. But I can see how you might use a dining space more with having kids.

p.s. the second sewing room reminds me of my kitchen. I have those exact chairs with that red cushion.