Downsizing from a house to a condo is something we enjoy a lot more than we thought we would but the lack of space to work on hobbies and projects can be a challenge. Tom and I are very fortunate that our building has a theatre room we can utilize and he has a little space that he rents outside of our home where he can drum and create art. However, lately I’ve really been wishing for my own workspace more and more. I plan on starting my first quilting project this fall and I knew that if I had to lug my sewing machine and supplies out every time I wanted to work on it, it would never happen. I did a lot of brainstorming on how I could rectify my situation and was inspired by this piece on smaller office spaces. I quickly decided that having a small, dedicated space in the condo was better than having to do a full setup and tear down each time I wanted to work.

I started looking at how to transform half of my bedroom closet into a little nook for my hobbies. The closets in our bedrooms are split in half and you walk through to get to the bathrooms. Luckily, because I’ve downsized so much for my capsule wardrobe it wasn’t too hard for me to move everything to the other half of my closet, aside from keeping some storage bins on the shelving above my soon-to-be “office”. Here’s a before shot:

It was hard to find a desk that wasn’t too big, but was also sturdy enough to hold my sewing machine. My goal was to keep the furniture simple and streamlined so my already small space wouldn’t look too overcrowded. I looked at a TON of options and finally found a desk that fits the space really well.

When considering storage I knew that I didn’t want to clutter up my desktop, so I hung one of those shoe hangers in the empty space between the desk and the wall. I sorted my different supplies in pencil cases to place inside the compartments and can store my fabric in here too. If I need more space on the desktop, my sewing machine can be placed underneath the hanging storage. I purchased a holder for my hobby-related books and placed that on the shelving above my desk.

I wanted a chair that was sturdy but comfortable with no arms so I could slide it right under my desk. I found this one on Varage Sale and decided to take it although the chocolate brown color didn’t really go with the rest of the space. I thought it had good lines and I could spruce it up somehow. I sanded the vinyl to distress it, and then painted it white, rubbing the wet paint with a damp cloth to make it to look weathered. Then I applied two coats of Modge Podge over top to set it. I think it fits the space much better now!

  

This clip lamp works great for focusing light exactly where I need it. This will be helpful for food photography also.

I really wanted to hang an inspiration board in here. I found these small cork boards at Dollarama, painted them white and sanded the edges lightly. I like that the white brightens up the space and is a blank canvas to pin whatever I want on them. Those colorful push pins make me happy.

I threw on a vintage table cloth I already had and added a small wastebasket underneath the desk and my space was ready to go! Here’s my after shot:

I’m super excited to put this space to use! Knowing that I can sit down here and get to work whenever inspiration strikes is a really good feeling.