A Starting Point for the Second Nursery

This morning, after breakfast, I told Greta she was going to help me do one of her favorite things--clean up!  We went upstairs and opened the door to that third upstairs bedroom that we haven't touched or used (other than to store our stuff) since we moved in over a year ago.  It was quite a mess:

You can tell from Greta's face how excited she was to be in this room.  It has a baby lock on the door so I am not even sure she knew this room existed (did you?).  Since we aren't certain when we will be blessed with another baby (more on that here), we have decided to turn this room into something we can use right now. Our first thought was a playroom, but to be honest--every room is a playroom for Greta.  Also, she doesn't have that many actual toys.  Her idea of fun is trying Chris's shoes, "washing" the dishes, drawing or even moving objects from room to room.  In almost every living space, we have a few things for her, like blocks or books, but we keep every area Greta-friendly and she seems happy with the arrangement.  All that to say, this room isn't going to be a playroom, but *drumroll* my studio (!!)--for now, anyway.

This morning, the room was filled with outgrown clothes, boxes, mattresses and decor items that we aren't using right now.  After a few hours, we had it all organized and cleaned out:

What a sight, eh? I figured this was the best time to snap some official "before" photos of the space since this is as cleaned out as it has ever been.  Plus, we wouldn't want to forget all the stenciling and pink that will be covered up soon.

The room is almost identical to Greta's room before we renovated it.  The corner shelves, the stenciled border, the light fixture and curtain...thing.  Unfortunately, these walls are in worse shape.  In some places it almost looks like they were shot with a BB gun or something.  Nothing a little spackle and paint won't fix. 

Speaking of paint, I am excited to decide on a color.  I want to keep it light, because I'll be doing a lot of photographing in this room, but also something that is inspiring since this will be my creative center of sorts--and I am forcing myself to step away from gray--at least on the walls. 

It's hard to believe this room is in our house, right?  It's also hard to think all of the rooms in our home used to look like this.  We are excited to bring this one up to par and finally make it a beautiful, usable space.  Who's with me!?  

Anyone else have a space that is just for them?  I have promised not to hog this room entirely (we have plans to add a little something for Greta, too) and I also promise not to call it a "mom-cave."  Ugh.