BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Creativity What would you do with a 12' x 6' small room?

As rooms go a 12' x 6' room is pretty small. Too small to be a bedroom. So what would you do with a room that has 2 windows and a door leading into from a hallway?

When we bought our old house this room was called a "sewing room." There are no hall closets so at one point we made it a large walk-in closet with a giant hanging rack. But I don't have a lot of clothes so it seemed like waisted space. Then at one point we actually squeezed a single twin-size bed in there, but there just wasn't enough room to move around so we moved the bed back out. It felt like if we had a guest over it would be like "go to the closet." Then we finally settled...we went to Lowes and bought two huge 6 foot tall plastic storage units that are 4 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. So now it's a storage room for extra linen, bedspreads, Christmas decorations, keepsake stuff, like old photos and my wedding dress, etc. Turned out good.

If you had small children it might have made a nice little toy room, but I know my grandchildren can reduce a space to rubble in minutes so that might not have been a good idea! If you love to read you could put an overstuffed chair and lamp and have a nice quiet place to read...or maybe a little office.

We turned our small room into an exercise room. It just barely holds a treadmill and a total gym. There is a TV up on the wall with a DVD player and a shelf with a boom box and a few DVD's as well.

Bookshelves all around with the exception of a desk or a computer hutch - voila - a library/writing room.

We've been planning on building me a "migraine room" whenever we get a new house. This would probably be about the right size. Although I really wouldn't want windows - I'd probably use blackout drapes or even paint them over to kill the light.

A small bed and table to hold a glass of water and my medicines.

I actually got this idea from a friend of mine who used an inner closet for her migraine room. No lights, noise, or kids.

My suggestion is to figure out what tasks/activities you would be comfortable doing in that room, then, go from there.

For me, I usually ask, "Where is this room relative to our common areas(den/kitchen/front door)?" I ask because I don't like to do projects in a room that doesn't have a view of our common areas. When I'm "purposing" a room, I like to ask myself whether I'll actually USE it for that purpose. If I feel cut-off from the rest of the house in a particular room, it's best use will probably be for sleeping or, maybe, reading or laundry! For example, I know I won't use certain rooms for bill paying regardless of how nice a set-up I give myself in those rooms.

Any of the ideas from other people (above) would be good--IF you can see yourself being comfy using your room one of those ways. The migraine room is particularly creative!! I used to suffer migraines until my doctor put me on a blood pressure medication, so, I can truly relate!

I would make it a computer room/writing room.

I like the computer room idea. Use a laptop and you save even more room. (small office)

I definitely like the library / writing room idea - somewhere quiet, cozy, where you can read and think!