My new favorite room

Let me start off this post by saying that I don't believe that I have any decorating style at all.  I pretty much just pick a color scheme for a room and try to make things match.  I remember the first time my parents visited our tiny little duplex in OK.  My Dad was sitting in the living room and he looked around and simply said, "It's comfortable."  I don't think I ever told him that this was one of the greatest compliments I have ever received.  Those words have stuck with me and have become my decorating goal.  I want our home to be comfortable- for us and our guests. 
Along those same lines, I have tried to keep our house pretty gender neutral.  It's not a bachelor pad or a frilly, girly house either.  I always feel bad for those husbands who live in homes that are so fancy and flowery that you would never even know a man lived there.  So even though Josh is a botanist, I try to keep flower fabrics to a minimum and make sure I run most decorating ideas past him first to make sure he's comfortable. 
Now, on to the reason for this post.  When Josh and I bought our 4-bedroom home we decided to designate the rooms as master bedroom, guest bedroom, office, and workout room.  Shortly after moving to TX we decided the workout room just wasn't practical for many reasons: laziness, lack of time, lack of equipment, and the fact that we have 10+ glorious acres to run around on if we so please.  So the question arose, "What do we do with room #4?"  We tossed around several ideas and finally settled on this:  the office could be Josh's man room and room #4 could be my craft room!  Oh how wonderful!  Josh now has his manly leather office chair, his gun cabinet and fishing poles in his map/globe decorated office.  It's not completely done yet, but we're getting there.
On to the craft room...  I had a whole room to decorate any way I pleased!  I could be as girly and flowery as I wanted!  I wanted something fun that would inspire me to be creative.  I decided to start by finding a great tablecloth for my 6ft table, and then I could accessorize to match the tablecloth.  After months of searching for the perfect- read: affordable- tablecloth, I decided to just find fabric I liked and make my own.  I've had my eye on a certain fabric at Hobby Lobby for other projects, and decided I loved it so much that it should be the theme for my room.  After all, it was on sale!  I bought the fabric a little over a week ago and I finished the transformation this last weekend.  I LOVE my new room!  Now remember, I am no decorator here, and I'm sure that I'm way more excited than anyone else will ever be, but bear with me and allow me to give you a little tour of my new creative space. 

View from the hall

Notice: pegboards are not just for the garage!  They are great for organizing craft supplies!  Also notice girly tablecloth and coordinating curtains.  The ribbon around the pegboard also matches- oh, it's so exciting!  My table is perfect for laying out patterns, cutting fabric and wrapping gifts.

Sewing area:  matching sewing machine cover and matching pin cushion on my spool rack.  The matching ribbon is also around the edge of the spool rack, you just can't see it from this angle.  Coincidence:  the plant even matches because it has pink edges along each leaf and we've had it for a couple months!  Too perfect!  The sewing table (and machine inside) belonged to my grandma (Mom's mom) and the sewing machine on top was Josh's grandma's (his Mom's mom).  I like having a piece of both of these women in my room.

My keyboard also lives here.  Some of you don't know that I took 9 years of piano lessons growing up.  Also notice the lion scratch-art on the wall.  My brother made this in high school.  I've always loved it but had nowhere to hang it until now.  The black and white don't exactly match the room, but they match the keyboard.  For those of you who have seen the room before, notice the football light switch is gone!  The little ivory box to the right of the lion is part of the intercom system that came with the house.  Every room has a little speaker and the main switchboard is in the kitchen- sometimes it even works!

Wall #4- ironing center.  I didn't have any other place in the house for the ironing board, so it lives here.  It's actually very convenient to have nearby the sewing machine.  I do way more ironing for crafts than I do for clothes anyway.  Also notice the rag quilt on the wall.  Our church in WA made this for us when we moved away.  Each family personalized a square.  This has been hanging on the wall for months now too, but wouldn't you know, the 2 shades of green actually match the fabric I chose!  Seriously, does it get any better?!?  I also have my stereo and small bookcase here.  Note, there is a closet to the right of this picture that is full of all kinds of fabric, wrapping paper, and other crafty things.  Love it!

Of course you wanted to see a close-up of the fabric, right?  So girly!

So that's my new craft room.  I love that this room reminds me of so many loved ones, and I look forward to spending time among their things as I create new things for other loved ones. 

Side note- our living room has been finished for about 6 weeks now, I have just neglected to post updated pics.  So here it is complete with curtains, pictures, plants, and tables.  Again, ignore the blue carpet.  Thanks for hanging with me for this long post!