I love my design wall and it takes up no space at all.
I went to Joanns and bought flannel backed tablecloth fabric. Went to the hardware store and bought firring strips (long strip of wood 2 inches wide which I painted with some spray faux stone paint i had leftover. DH screwd the wood into the wall, the tablecloth fuzzy side out was behind the wood strip. Into the strip he then nailed some long nails that sticck out. This is where I keep my rulers and scissors, rotary cutters, patterns, hoops etc. So it works as a pegboard kind of too.