Room Planning // Inspiration

Fail to plan, plan to fail 

We moved a year ago now ( I can't believe it's been a year!) & we have a 'spare' room.  My hubby has his study & garden & I have my room.  Now, the plan was to have a craft room, with meditation area, a desk for studying, a dressing area, just a general awesome room to call my own.

However it has turned into a dumping ground come wash room.  The desk is unused but full of papers with no chair.  No crafts can be done because you can't move for stuff! & it is far from relaxing with piles of laundry & a messy bookshelf taking up half the room.  I thought about taking a picture to show you but I am embarrassed at the state of the room (I'm also not keen on showing my bras & pants online).

Well this year my goal is to get that room sorted.  Time to make it everything I want it to be.  The first step was to sit down & get clear on what I want the room to do

1. I want an area to do crafts - a place where I can get my sewing machine out, get started with my paper cutting, may use my foldy paper thingy - with the space I'm sure I will be inspired to do more!
2. I need a relaxing space to meditate - it keeps my head in a good place, having a place where I can go that's dedicated to relaxation will just make keeping up this habit a little bit easier.
3. We need a spare bed - a bed for when my mum comes to stay to get her off the sofa!
4. I would like a place to store/display my scarves - I have a massive collection.  At the mo they are crumpled in a bag with some lying around that have been worn recently but it would be great for them all to get worn or seen.

Not asking for much, just a well functioning room, right?  Did I mention that it is 8ft by 7ft? So it's a wee room & to get it do all of these things I need a plan.

My hubby gave me a budget to get this room ship shape so I now knew what I wanted int he room & how much I had to spend.  To the shops …..  well, I could aimlessly wander round shops buying a few pieces that could work but the geek in me wanted to do my research as much as the shopper in me wanted to spend spend spend!  My hubby is the impulsive one but I enjoy researching & planning to make sure I get just what I want.

Work with what you got

I already had some furniture for my room, solid oak pieces we bought when we moved.  It goes with all our other furniture & when we get a bigger house the plan is that all the pieces could come back together, so the stuff I already had was staying.

• a console table/desk
• x2 chest of drawers (clothes storage that could possibly be moved to our main bedroom but it would be tight)

So I needed some storage (for crafty stuff), a chair for my desk (so I can finally use the desk!), something to hang scarves on & a spare bed.  All this stuff in a small room, it was going to have to be fully functional.

Need inspiration?

Create a board

Since my new found addiction my first go to place when planning any project is Pinterest.  You can search for ideas, furniture, decor it's just fab for inspiring you to get started.  So I set up a board & started pinning.

Follow Clare BeeHappyHealthy's board Spare Room Ideas on Pinterest.

Visit the Showroom

Next a trip to the magical land of great storage solutions & multi purpose furniture - Ikea!

I took my mum & we wandered round, spending 3 hours searching for inspiration, taking pictures & noting down prices.  The showroom is always a great place for ideas & solutions & I was impressed.  I did keep having to remind myself about the budget & the size of the room!

I had my inspiration, now to pull it together into something that would work for me & my space.

I am getting there!

I will be sharing my next instalment of my room planning soon but for now I need your help - I can not decide on a colour palette.  I don't want too many colours going on but I like the idea of a few colours working together.  I have went for pastels as I want to keep the room relaxing, I want to walk in & feel calm in my own wee world.
I found a few pins & I think I've narrowed it down to these 4 - so what do you think? Blues, Pale pinks & lemons or purples?

Follow Clare BeeHappyHealthy's board Colours Palette on Pinterest.

Come on, help me out - which would you go for in a wee room with big expectations?

Do you plan when you're redecorating? Top tips for small spaces?  Do you also have a dumping ground? (please say it's not just me!)

I'd love you to leave your comments below, thanks