We recently moved our bedroom upstairs into a room that already functioned as
an office 
and music room 
. A dramatic reworking of the space was necessary
to accommodate these triple utilities while maintaining a calm, sleep-inducing retreat 
.
Jump ahead to see
(1) the transition from guest to master bedroom 
,
(2) office organization 
, and
(3) music organization 
.
Room 1: The Master Bedroom
We originally had this side of the room set up as a guest bedroom with a pullout sleeper sofa.
To transition this space into a master bedroom, we moved our actual bed upstairs
and the sleeper sofa downstairs into the living room.
Nightstands. I sold the old sofa side tables and
wall sconces 
(lol, yeah right)
and replaced them with a side cabinet and
nightstand with more practical storage
and swivel-arm wall sconces that we already owned. 
Aesthetic Accessories. My jewelry and scarves
didn’t fit in our custom wardrobe 
, so I
hung them out here for easy access. Bonus benefit! 
They look nice displayed like this!
And check out the view from bed. 
Not bad for functionally hiding office clutter to actually fall asleep at night! 
Room 2: The Office
Standing Desk
The standing desk had to go on the only wall without a sloping ceiling.
I reduced
stressful tech clutter
by installing monitor posts and
drilling grommet holes for wires.
Printers
How sneaky is this!? I hid the 3D printer inside
the office credenza
on a slide-out printer tray blocked with café curtains. 
The printer works perfectly while tucked away,
and the curtain blocks drafts, too!
Our regular laserjet printer is also hidden in the middle section of
the office credenza,
and I arranged my paper types for easier DIY labeling.
File Storage
Guess who’s no longer pointlessly holding onto 12-year-old rental leases?!
Me!! 
…As of two weeks ago. 
I whittled down an enormous 2-drawer file cabinet of junk into this
single crate. 
Office Supplies
Our other office supplies are organized and
labeled in the top drawer of the office credenza
(using these fantastic interlocking drawer organizers)… 
…and in the
bedside cabinet
(using these clear bins, which I also use
for kids’ art supplies and toy organization). 
A note about borrowed board games (see above ). I like to keep borrowed items within sight (but out of the
way), so that I don’t forget to return things when I’m finished! Turns out loaning out and getting back borrowed items
is a constant AITAH Reddit-thread topic… 
Room 3: The Music Room
You probably saw the banjo and digital piano already.
I found a stand for our digital piano on Etsy (not that I recommend it) and a piano bench
to store music.
Organizing printed sheet music in these sheet music organizers has been a game changer.
Banjo accoutrements are also now tucked away (hidden, accessible, dust-free) in
a pretty jewelry box that I was no longer using (because of my
gorgeous jewelry drawer).
You probably didn’t see the accordion and digital piano travel case that fit under the
bed out of sight (but within reach).
Our recording equipment 
and amplifier 
are now stored in the bedside tables, also accessible and out of sight. We did it!
Cost
After I moved my workspace out to the loft in 2023, I felt bad for my husband’s (relatively super ugly) office space, and so I prettied-up the room for the first time then.
Here are prices for the new design for our master bedroom, but I include costs from that former redesign separately below.
| Materials (2025) | Cost (+ tax/shipping) |
|---|---|
| Etsy digital piano stand | $551.81 |
| Quince Indigo Blue quilt set and Terracota blanket | $297.28 |
| Withania 2-Door nightstand | $178.50 |
| Safavieh Shyann Single-Door carved nightstand | $130.50 |
| monitor arms and grommet covers for desk | $113.66 |
| stackable letter trays | $32.93 |
| 2-pack Queen size pillows | $28.68 |
| tissue box cover | $15.93 |
| gold wall sconces (SOLD) | +$50 |
| sofa end tables (SOLD) | +$70 |
| full size violin (SOLD) | +$150 |
| TOTAL | $1079.29 |
Here are the costs from the previous office space renovation in 2023, where I crossed out items that
I’ve since sold or given away:
| Materials (2023) | Cost (+ tax/shipping) |
|---|---|
| Wayfair office side table | $372.93 |
| 6’x9’ Loloi II “Clara” Pebble/Fiesta rug | $308.00 |
| birch tree wallpaper | $182.71 |
| cozy office chair (HomeSense) | $156.16 |
| $151.48 | |
| $116.88 | |
| $115.81 | |
| piano seat with storage | $95.61 |
| gold floor lamp | $70.65 |
| 4 sheet music folders | $59.29 |
| pink seashell table lamp | $48.98 |
| Macrame extra-long plant hanger | $39.67 |
| self-watering pot for hanging fern | $31.54 |
| 6-quart clear bins | $30.80 |
| 360° rotating flat plug extension cord | $28.68 |
| interlocking drawer organizers | $27.61 |
| café curtain rod and café curtains | $20.85 |
| ceiling hook anchors | $9.55 |
| flat cord extender | $6.36 |
| TOTAL | $1873.56 |
Moving our master bedroom required building a custom wardrobe 
,
redesigning our living room to accommodate the
relocated sleeper sofa , and
allowed us to redesign our son’s new bedroom 
as well.
The many steps of the Big Move of 2025!
Shilpa Kobren is the Associate Director of Rare Disease Analysis at Harvard Medical School where she focuses on analyzing genomic sequencing data with patient clinical information to derive insights into human diseases. Shilpa lives in an 1890s urban apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two energetic toddlers. She retains her sense of peace amid the chaos by creating and iteratively improving systems that optimize daily efficiency in her family's constrained living space.