Farmhouse renovations: Multi-purpose room

Our multi-purpose room (formerly called the library until our neighbors made fun of us) is in the center of our house. This house was a small, ranch, farm house with a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms for most of its life. Later, two big rooms were added to the back, this one and our master bedroom.

The space in this room is required to serve many functions: farm office, laundry room, and school room. I WISH I had "Before" pictures. Imagine this: brown wood paneling, brown mantel, brown beams, dirty red brick fireplace, nasty carpet, sliding glass door, and windows with wasp nests ON THE INSIDE. It was REALLY bad. (No one had lived in this farmhouse for years when we bought the farm!)

We had the walls painted a light shade of gray. All the woodwork, including the beams and mantel, is now white. And we painted the bricks on the fireplace a shade of gray that is one shade lighter than the walls. Whether you like painted wood, wood paneling, or brick, I can almost assure you that you would consider this lighter room a better version than what it was before! I chose accent colors of blue and yellow after falling in love with this fabric. I use it for laundry room curtains, but really it's just two tablecloths from Target!Here is the view of the room as you enter from the kitchen. The back of the room is wall to wall brick. We hired a carpenter to install the bookshelves on the ends of the hearth for storage. There is almost no wall space due to doorways or windows in this entire room, so we had to find a creative solution. I just put the books on the shelves yesterday and I am LOVING this space so much! We use the frames above the mantel to display their colorful artwork. Won't it be fun to have a fire in here during the winter?Here's the always cluttered, always messy farm office. And my solution to not having space for my own desk: share with the boys. They will do school here: And on the other side of the table is my desk:

I re purposed our old dining room chairs (we don't have a dining room any more) into fun chairs for the school table. I was itching to use this brown and cream chevron fabric. It is a fun accent. Hoping to add wheels/casters to the bottom of the chairs at some point!
Before

After:

My daughter's art table is facing a window and just beside our table. (She needs a table a little lower to the ground.) It is an old, preschool Sunday school table and we paired it with bright chairs from IKEA. She spends at least a couple of hours here a day. There is always dried paint, glitter, and marker scribbles everywhere. I LOVE it!
Next to the art table are two stacked IKEA shelves (my best friend handed them down to me last year, along with Lydie's art table). The left side stores my sewing stuff. And the right side has the boys' work boxes. We are trying our own version of the work box system this school year. On top of the shelves are little pieces of inspiration. My favorite quote framed:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --Mark Twain
A fun poster from etsy, along with a bird lamp and cow oil painting. Also, I have a bulletin board on the wall with schedules, quotes, nature study post cards, Psalm 145, I Corinthians 13, and this beautiful manifesto.

My laundry room is behind the drapes (tablecloths), next to a storage closet for my scrapbook stuff, cleaning supplies, gift wrapping supplies, and other stuff. (View from the rocking chair)

And that's our multi-purpose room! I am linking this room to the Not-Back-T0-School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. Hope everyone is ready for the school year! We're, no that's wrong, I'M excited! (The kids would prefer to live in an endless season of summer break!)

Other farmhouse renovations:

Bathroom

Kitchen

Living room

Lydie's room

Jack's room

Josh's room