Transforming My Small Bedroom to Fit a Desk, Guest Bed & Storage (Yes, Really!)

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm Alexandra. And today we are heading over to my house to make over the second bedroom flex space. Are you guys ready? Let's get started. Okay. So this is the second bedroom in my home. It is a true flex space. It is sometimes an office. It is where I work out. It's where we have guests stay. It's where we hang our laundry. It's where we store everything. And these beautiful packs wardrobes, it does a lot for us in a very, very condensed amount of space. And it's just not functioning to its full potential. If you guys have been here for a while, you will know that I have made over this room a few times. And that's truly, I think the nature of just living in a space for a while. For me and Noah, it's going to be almost five years since we moved into this home and our needs have just changed and evolved. So it's time for a makeover. It's time for a refresh to start. Noah and I are going to have a chat about what's working for both of us. What's not working for both of us and kind of like our hopes for this space. Hi guys. We are here at our home and we're going to show you guys the second bedroom and how we're using it now. It's kind of embarrassing. Yeah, but there's so much stuff in here. Actually, let's like roll the tape of the iterations. This room has gone through. At one point we didn't have storage. We just had a bookshelf. And then Graham and I built these PAX wardrobes, which are incredible and we use them all the time. And we have so much storage. But we still need more. We still somehow need more storage. I think it's like the extra stuff room. And then I'm working less from home. We also have a lot of people stay over. Usually just like one person, not really two people. And it's a whole rigmarole. We have to move furniture out of this room, particularly the chest. We have to take all our laundry out of here. Like there's just a lot of stuff and the furniture is just too big. So when we blow up the mattress, it takes up the entire room. So we've just talked about creating a more comfortable spot that can be multifunctional. For you, what do you need in this room? Tell the viewers. Definitely still need some kind of desk, but okay with like a smaller desk surface. Ideally, it's something that sits stand just for comfort and for moving during the day and then a bit more storage, I think. Yeah, I think you need like a dresser because you have the closet space, but like you need a spot to fold more clothes, just tuck things away, like clothes storage. And I think it would also be nice for guests to have like a surface to put things, but also it be your storage. Yeah, functionally, I think that's all I need. And then aesthetically, just I like the green closets as it is. Yeah, whatever it is, like I think should look good with that. And then otherwise it's it's up to you to work your magic. OK, so we've talked a lot about this. We've gone back and forth. Here's what we're thinking for this room. First off, we want to paint the room kind of like color drench it in this beautiful, just like fun and happy yellow. Fun fact, my childhood bedroom was green on one wall, on an accent wall and yellow for the rest. Yeah. Wait, so this is going to be your childhood bedroom? We love that fun fact. Yeah. Wow. I love that tidbit. OK, to add some more whimsy and just like fun pattern in here. I want a wallpaper, just the ceiling and this kind of like dusty brown beige wallpaper. OK, and I found the coolest Murphy desk. This actually is going to hold Noah's existing monitor, but then folds up into like a cabinet on the wall. It is also sit stand so he can have that sit stand desk that is just way less square footage. I did not know this was a thing, but you guys, there are chairs that actually turn into like twin size guest beds, which is so cool. We are usually only hosting one person for a sleepover here at a time. So this chair actually folds out into a single bed and we can use this to lounge, to read in here when we don't have guests. It's also going to clear all this space. I do at home workouts, so I need space to do that. And our laundry also dries in here and we need space for that, too. And then finally, I want to bring in a dresser. This has nine drawers, so it gives us storage for things that we have in here. We have a bit of stationary, but then also give Noah loads more clothing storage. I'm excited about the reading deck. That's going to be a nice bonus for when maybe I want to read and you've gone to sleep a bit earlier or something like that. Yeah, I'm excited for the reading too. I know that there are so many couples who struggle to decorate and merge styles. It's definitely been a process. But I think for us, the kind of happy middle ground is like function is so important to you, which I really understand. And you give such great insight into like different functional things we could add into a space. And I really enjoy like bringing that to life and bringing a space to life. And we've just kind of had to meet in the middle. And also, I think you like help like explain things to me because I struggle to visualize it. I'm good at visualizing like one item, but not all of them together. So yeah, it's helped too. We could do like a whole video on this. Let us know in the comments if that's something you want to see. OK, so Noah is actually headed to Japan on his dream ski trip. I'm so excited for you. We're all going to miss you. Miss you too. We as in me, the cats. Maybe Amanda. Maybe Amanda. She's nodding. You already know what the space looks like. You've seen the mood board, so it's not going to be like a total surprise, but I'll send you pics and I'm going to get to work on the makeover. Great. Everyone say bye, Noah. Have fun in Japan. Bye, Noah. OK, it is paint day and I called up my friends at J. Davis Painting. You guys might know we work with them a lot, and that is because they are a five star company in a two star industry. They really take their time to do the job right. They will come scout your space, tell you what paint finish they recommend. They'll tell you how much paint to order. And then they come with all of the painting gear. Of course, they take the time to really prep the space. So that means sanding and patching and just making sure that once the paint is on the walls, it looks the best that it can look. Maria from the team is so lovely. She is so incredibly skilled and she is painting out this room in the color string by Farrow and Ball. You might notice that there's a lot of paint swatches on the wall. I went through a ton of different samples and I shared them with you on Instagram. If you guys don't already follow me on Instagram, you should, because I ask you a lot of the time for your help when I'm sourcing paint colors. And for this room, I showed you the wallpaper and a lot of people were DMing me, messaging me saying you should pull out like one of the yellow shades or the beige shade from the wallpaper and put that on the walls. I love that idea so much. And it's going to complement the wallpaper so nicely. Maria did such a great job. The paint looks amazing. I love how warm this color is. It's already making this room feel so cozy. If you guys are located in Toronto and have been thinking, you know, my house could use a refresh of paint. Consider reaching out to J. Davis Painting and be sure to tell them I sent you. So many of you have reached out to me with your own struggles of anxiety, and I cannot thank you enough for doing so. Talking about my anxiety on the Internet has been such a game changer for me because I really do feel less alone. I feel like we're a little community and I'm not the only one that feels these really heightened emotions sometimes. I actually recently graduated from my CBT course, which is really exciting. And I'm currently in what they call relapse prevention, which is basically like using the tools and skills that I've learned in CBT therapy to manage my triggers. And the goal is for me to cope long term with my anxiety using these skills and these tools because I have health anxiety. My treatment often looks like journaling thought records, especially when I'm heading into a triggering situation. A really good example of this is recently Noah booked tickets to a comedy show and the tickets he booked were directly in the middle of a row with no easy exit. So for someone with health anxiety, not being able to access a bathroom easily or like go into the outside and be surrounded by a theater full of people in the past, this would have been my nightmare situation. I probably would have bailed on this event in the past, but leading up to the event, I actually did a thought record. So I wrote down all of my automatic thoughts like I'm going to be sick. I'm not going to be able to exit the row on time. I'm going to throw up in front of everyone. And then I wrote down the facts that supported these thoughts and the facts that didn't support these thoughts. Then after I'd written all of these down, I wrote a more balanced perspective and seeing my thoughts on paper. I don't know. There's something about it that just makes them seem less scary and I can actually like think through them logically. So for me, that more balanced perspective looked like, OK, I know my body and I know it's going to give me some kind of warning if I have to leave in the middle of the comedy show. I also knew that I could just quickly stand up, quickly exit the row and do what I needed to do. And then I had this image of if I did throw up in public in front of all these people, what amazing live material for the comedian. Would it be embarrassing? A hundred percent. But I would get over it. I would go to work. I would laugh about it with my colleagues and everything would be OK. So guess what? I went to the comedy show and I actually had a really, really, really great time. I did feel a wave of anxiety in the middle of the show, but I was able to stick it out, trust my body and just know that it was going to be OK. Doing these thought exercises has truly given me my life back and made it possible for me to get back to doing the things that I love and enjoy. That is why I'm so happy that BetterHelp is the paid partner of today's video. They make starting therapy that much easier. All you have to do is fill out a quick, thoughtful questionnaire. You share your goals, your preferences and what you're looking for. And you can have sessions by video, phone or live chat. Whatever is easiest for you and your schedule. BetterHelp includes a built in journaling feature right in the app, making it easy to reflect and stay connected to your mental health in between sessions. Click the link in my description box or head to BetterHelp.com slash Gator for 10% off your first month of therapy and let BetterHelp support you in feeling lighter in 2026. Good morning, everyone. I am chuckling to myself because yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day. Today, it's hailing, snowing, ice, snow, ice, snow. I don't know. It's doing something out there. I feel like a couple makeovers ago I had updated you about the weather that it was negative 20 or negative 25. And there was a snowstorm. Today we're dealing with this. And it always makes me laugh because we just keep trucking along. Like we keep producing these makeovers. We keep running our errands. We keep bringing in the tools from outside. You know, it's just we keep going. It is making me feel very excited to get this room done, though, because this paint color is so warm and cozy. It's kind of a different paint color pick for me. But I'm really, really enjoying it. Farrow and Ball colors, they look so different depending on if it's sunny out, if it's gloomy. But the consistency of this color is that it's just so cozy and warm, which is the goal for this space. You might notice a dresser. We're starting with this piece in here because it's an article dresser. It's beautiful. They delivered it on the weekend. It's 300 pounds and it will never leave this room. OK, so we're just going to start it. And I'm going to show you where I'm going to place it. So let's do it. It's heavy, heavy. Originally, I actually had planned to put it on this wall, but this makes so much more sense. It just opens the room a lot. And a dresser is such a great piece of. She likes it, too. I know it's a boo. It's so nice to be shooting with you. A dresser like this is such a great piece for a flex room like this. I will show you. I've already started organizing, putting like files and stationary and paper away. And then also some of Noah's clothes as well. So he has a hat drawer. We love all of these drawers are his. But then over here, I have paper for the printer. No paper books. Oh, my God. I have no idea this stuff. No. Whoops. No bugs. And then I'm actually going to put the printer underneath the dresser at a later point. You're probably thinking, what are these poles like? What? The knobs are just backwards so they don't get ruined in transit. Gorgeous. OK, what we're doing next is so, so exciting. Graham and I are going to wallpaper the ceiling. Alana found this beautiful pattern from Rocky Mountain decals, and I love it so, so, so much. It's peel and stick. And I think it's just going to bring even more warmth and pattern into the space. OK, Graham got a new camera toy thing. Thing you should know about Graham is if he gets anything like electronic or like like a remote controlled car or like anything that just is you need to like set up. He cannot think about anything else. This is not sponsored, by the way. No, we'd love for it to be sponsored. Like it has a flip screen on the back of the case, which is also its charging case, and you pop it off, you stick it. And look, it's still shooting. That's really cool. Yeah, you guys should subscribe to Graham's channel because he's just upped his camera game for the channel. You're going to shoot your like DIYs with it. Yeah, that's a POV sidewalk find. Cool. You can see the magic happen. So 360 camera footage coming to a channel near you. That is so cool. We are starting, as always, with our laser level to get that first panel nice and straight on the ceiling. There's, you know, the train guy who like watches the trains and he has one of these. Yes, that's what you remind me of right now. But he has it facing you. Can you do that? Can you have it facing you for a sec? Oh, OK. Yeah. But it needs to be wider, right? Can I see? Can I see on the thing? Oh, I'm obsessed. Oh, Amanda, can you please throw me a yellow? Yeah. That'll be a good shot. Hanging wallpaper on the ceiling is really not any different than our process for hanging wallpaper on the wall. We're just kind of doing it like like upside down. Graham is going in and trimming all of the excess wallpaper using a utility knife and a straight edge, almost like a ruler. This looks really, really good. It makes the room feel very cozy, which I love. That's that's the goal for this space is for it to just be cozy and homey. It looks really, really, really good. OK, so as you guys know, the desk we had in here before was just way too big for the space. It was a sit stand desk and Noah just never worked in here. But we both wanted the option to have some sort of desk in here where we can maybe take meetings or do a little bit of work. But this is not like an office per se. So I was scrolling online one night and found this product that's going to blow your mind. And it's perfect for a space like this where it needs to do many different things. I'm going to tell you more about it once it's on the wall. Graham put the bracket in studs, so it's going to be nice and secure. There. Yeah, there. So at first you're like, oh, cute, it's a Murphy desk, which it is not only is it a Murphy desk. It has a mount for a monitor. Noah really likes to work with a monitor. And once we plug it in, it's a sit stand desk, sit stand Murphy desk where you have the option for a monitor. So, so cool. I'm going to link this product down below. This desk is the Murph by Walrise. Products like this are just so genius and so great for a small space. So the finish that this comes with is like this raw wood. But I actually had Graham paint it the same color as the wall. So it looks more like seamless and built in. We're going to hook it all up. We're going to plug it in so we can show you how it moves up and down. So cool. Yeah. OK, so you pop it open. And let's say I want to stand at the desk. I have my monitor. I can pull my monitor forward down to the side. I can put it back up here if I want. There is a plug for your laptop charging ports for your phone. This cable for the monitor to plug into your laptop is like super neat and accessible. OK, so I can plug the monitor in like this. I can have my laptop here. And then when I'm done for the day, I can just put my laptop in here. OK, and if I want to use it as a sit desk, it comes with this little like mouse and you just press and press it. I'm going to put it up for the night and then when Noah's done for the day, he can just close everything away. I don't think I've ever found a product like this that checks all the boxes for us. So amazing. And we have all of this space to work with. I'm just going to unplug it. It's really easy to plug back in. So for the time being, I'm just going to store it in there. OK, that was a very successful day. I'm feeling so great about the wallpaper and the desk. And yeah, it looks so good. See you guys tomorrow. We're going to pull the space together. Can't wait. OK, I'm not going to lie. Making over my own space is so overwhelming. There's something about being really close to it that just I don't know. There's like so many choices. I hear this so much from my virtual makeover clients. So know that you're not alone. But that is why I created the virtual makeover consultation service. In the first place, I recently worked with Josh to make over his kitchen. The rest of his space was so styled, but he was like, I cannot figure out what to do with my kitchen. Don't know what color to paint it. Don't know if I should add wallpaper. Don't know what the backsplash should be like. So we created this beautiful mood board for him. He took that mood board, executed the plan. You guys, this is what his kitchen looks like now. If you are overwhelmed with making over your space, we are here to help head to Alexandra Gator dot com. Limited spots are available and they fill up every single month. Hi, you guys. I woke up so, so excited for today. Whenever we do a makeover in my home, it's just like the best when we're wrapping it all up because I get to see it all come together. We're going to start with a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful rug handmade in Morocco, and it's going to bring out the purple tones on the ceiling. So let's do it. Oh, one thing I one thing I do want to say. No, I'll just say let's do it. Let's do it. Can I actually I do want to say something. One thing that I got really, really, really wrong in this room was the rug size. I actually want to like flip back to the befores. The rug was making it feel so claustrophobic. So we're finally fixing that today with a custom sized rug. Let's go. Let's do it. OK, so if you're looking for a custom rug, I often find some amazing shops on Etsy. This rug is from the Berber wool rug, and most of the time rugs in Morocco are handmade so they can make them to be any size you need. I'm so excited to open this up. I feel like he might have sent us two rugs or maybe it's a pouf. I think it's a pouf. Wow. It's a beautiful pouf. Oh, my gosh. That's stunning. Thank you. I know that's so nice. OK, moment of truth. Wow. That color. So beautiful. Oh, my God. OK, so I am hanging this beautiful light. Now, a couple tips for you. I needed a smaller light in here because I use this space to work out. So does Noah. He stretches in here. And so, yeah, I couldn't have like a big statement light. I found this on Amazon. It was like $30. And I got this beautiful cord. It's wrapped in linen from ColorCord. So just a really great way to like build a light to your preference. I have like so many different color cords. They have different colored hardware. And then my third ingredient for a really great light combo is a smart light bulb. I've talked so much about this, but I connect it to my Google Home and I can just say, hey, good night or good morning. And my lights turn on and off. It's very handy. You can also set like the temperature. So I make the lights in certain rooms really warm. You know, it's a little things in life. So, yeah, I am hanging this a little higher than I normally would probably. But it's because we need room for activities, you know? Yay. OK, so I'll go into my app and I can change like the kind of I can change the brightness. Yes. But then Noah also has the app. So when he's working in here, he can make it brighter. Or when he's working in here. Yes, I like that. So we've solved the desk for Noah. We've solved more storage for Noah and and me, us combined. So now it's time to solve the guest bed dilemma that we were having. You guys, we used to blow up a queen size air mattress and somehow fit it in here. And people have to like dive into the mattress from the door. So we're going to solve that today. I'm so excited because I have I have a little fun tip for you when it comes to guest beds. So I was looking high and low for like a day bed or a small guest bed that we could put in here to accommodate the amount of space we're working with. And I discovered that you could actually get sleeper chairs. So chairs that turn into guest beds, which is so cool. I'm going to show you how this works in a second. But I have another trick up my sleeve. I'm going to customize this IKEA piece. I got this without a cover and instead I got a custom cover from BEMS. So let's put that on first and then we'll open the whole thing. So this company makes hundreds of different covers for IKEA furniture. And I just fell in love with this pattern. It brings out the purple in the wallpaper and the rug and the reds. It looks so good. So one's got to slip in. Ah, the first one. And then you open it up like a book. Like a mattress. OK, so then you fold it and then you zip them together. So this goes like this. OK, you guys, this looks, oh, this is comfy. It's like such a nice reading chair. So this is going to be our little reading spot. I'm going to have books up here, a light back there. But let's say we have a guest coming over. Pull this out, pull this out. OK, get in there. This is pretty sweet. Is it comfy? It is, actually. I also looked at the reviews and there was a lot of great reviews. Obviously, we would give our guests a pillow and a cozy duvet. This is awesome. Sorry, I'm like so happy. I'm like so, I'm like beaming. For a small space like this, this is perfect. I love finding solutions that just like work. So can I sleep over? Can you and Amanda sleep over? You can go head to toe. So Noah has a guitar and he's always told me when it's in the case, he like kind of forgets about it. So I said, let's take it out of the case and mount it on the wall. It's just going to be so much nicer for him to just like take it off the wall when he wants. But it's also going to look great, too. I found this very inexpensive, but really nice guitar mount on Amazon. I've linked it down below. So I'm going to install it. We're going to solo. Can you wait? Never in my life in this fashion. You mean, is this is really? I can play a couple of chords. Do it. Let's switch. Play Stairway to Heaven. Wonderwall. We all know Wonderwall. I don't know how to play it, though. We're going. This this doesn't sound right. Something's not right. That's not an eight. All right. I think we're getting up. Before, we just avoided this room and now people are like gathering on the floor. It's so nice. I can't wait till Noah sees it. I think he's going to be strumming his guitar on the chair. Gorgeous. He can still open the closet and have lots of room. Let's move on to this wall. I'm going to add a little sconce. This is from Frost Lights on Etsy. I saw it listed and I was like, well, I need that. And I'm putting it here with a battery powered light bulb. These things are so, so cool. This one's actually quite bright as well. And it just attaches with a magnet. So I'm going to put this here. They do sell these sconces with plugs or hard wiring. I've just chosen to do a battery powered light bulb because I don't want any cords underneath the sconce. I'm just hanging this picture of Boo. We took this like maybe a few days after we got her. Look. OK, let's turn the little spotlight on her. It's just so cute. OK, I am replacing these generic shades with something a bit more stylish, so I'm just going to take them down. They're from House of Shudders. Why does that sound like a horror movie? No, these, these old ones. This is from Biko Estonia on Etsy. She makes the most beautiful shades. And I'm just using a tension rod, so I don't need to install anything. And then these cute little bows clip on like this. So cute. Oh, my gosh. I love. OK, so we use this printer actually quite often. Well, I do for work. We never use the scan function of it. And it's wireless, so we don't have to plug it in when we're printing. I'm thinking if I just. Oh, nice fit. Put it here. I'm thinking this will work because it can just print from underneath here. But then if we need to pull it out, it's easy to do so. I just think it's better than being like out in the open, you know? OK, now it is time for the finishing touches. I am starting by styling the top of the dresser. I'm placing this beautiful bookend. I'm adding in some of our books. These are books that we want to read. And I'm finishing with a matching bookend on the other side. I'm adding a stack of magazines, a plant and this photo that I really love of Noah and I. I'm placing my film camera here. I always want it out, so it's at the ready. And finally, lighting a candle. I'm adding a floor light in this corner. Again, bringing in all those cozy vibes. I'm placing a basket in this corner that holds all of my workout equipment. I'm styling the top of Noah's desk with some photos and his knickknacks. And finally, I'm adding a throw cushion to the chair. So I think at the beginning of this makeover, Noah was in Japan skiing. He is now in Thailand at a four day wedding. So we are going to try and get a hold of him. I want to reveal the space. Noah, do you remember what the office looks like before? Big desk in front of the window overflowing with clothes and bookshelf. Yeah, we just needed a space that was going to do more for us and just like not be so cramped. Are you ready? On the count of three. One, two, three. Sick. That's amazing. That's so good. That chair is very cool. This folds out to a bed. Crazy. Also, this chair is like extremely comfy, like really, really comfy. And then this dresser, you have a hat drawer. So good. If you can believe it, that's your desk. Oh, my tchotchkes up top, my guitar there. Nice. I'm going to show you how the desk works. Sick. And then when you're done for the day, you just like fold it up. So much better. I'm excited to work in there for the day and then fold up the desk and, you know, have a read on that comfy chair, that cozy corner with that cozy light. Can't wait till we see it in person. We can hang out in here. So excited. Do you think this is going to function for us better? Yeah, for sure. Next up on AGTV, we're heading back to Alana's I made over her apartment many years ago, back before I really had a team. And we are giving her the dreamiest, coziest apartment you could ever wish for. And I'm so excited for you guys to see it. You're not yet subscribed. Hit that subscribe button so you get notified when we upload. And as always, I'll see you next time. Bye. So, yeah, sorry, I'm like so excited. Sorry.