Home Office Makeover...Almost Done...

This post is written in collaboration with CozyWallArt.com. Opinions expressed are 100% my own.

 

Hey guys!

 

I apologize for my absence over the past week. We've been a bit sick around here, plus I picked up
Gone With the Wind on a whim last week and couldn't blog because that book is a saddening 1,000+ pages. Priorities, people.

 

Anyway. You perhaps read about my excruciatingly un-inspiring home office and how I was determined to do something about it.
(Who are we kidding. You've lost sleep over it, I know you have.)
(You haven't? In fact, you've never even heard of me and this is your first time to this little part of cyberspace and so far you think I'm odd and too tangential? Huh. Welp, I'll say this for you: You're insightful. And welcome.)

So, between my wanting to throw my book across the room in frustration over Scarlett O'Hara and my rocking and holding and rocking some more my very sweet-clingy-sick toddler, I actually got started on the home office makeover. 

 

Here's the super awesome and accurate mockup of my vision:

 

 

Annnnd, here's a sneak peek of the real thing:

 

 

My first order of business was to delineate just, exactly, where the home office was going to be in the corner of my family room. I did this by painting a 9' section of the corner wall white.

 

 

I then got these jacks decals from CozyWallArt in black. (You guys might remember this other recent project I did with awesome decals from CozyWallArt.)

 

 

I used the 6" ones and spaced them one-per-square-foot. Originally, I had planned on using 10" jacks and spacing them one-per-14-inches. But the awesome designers at CozyWallArt, who knew the size of my wall, thought that the end result might not end up how I was envisioning. They sent me some .pdf files depicting a few different layout options - and they were absolutely right. I changed my order right away. You guys, this company is the real-deal for quality and for wanting what's best for the customer.

 

 

I used a measuring level and dotted out a grid on my wall - 12" between dots, and each dot would touch the same spot on the individual jacks. I also used a level on each jack before firmly placing it on the wall.

 

 

Oh yeah. Every once in awhile, I'd stand back and check out the growing geometry of the wall. Love the retro, almost sputnik vibe of these jacks and how, overall, they look like super retro-modern geometric wallpaper.

 

 

I had to choose between making part of the top jacks go onto the ceiling or part of the middle jacks go onto the chair rail. I chose the former, and I'm happy I did.

 

 

I like how the chair rail kind of disappears with the graphic wall. And I looove the graphic wall. It was surprisingly quick to put up, too - maybe took 3-4 hours, including measuring and leveling and all. Maybe less.

 

 

 I moved office stuff around to make it work better for my home office space. There are now two chairs, and two workspaces, instead of one. The desk itself is cleared off, which makes it much easier for using it as an actual work station.

 

 

I got the green chair for a few bucks at a thrift store - it was previously an ugly not-cream-not-brown color (you know the color I'm talking about), so I spray painted it this happy kelly green. Also, you can't really see it in this photo, but the lamp is a sweet vintage desk lamp that was also an unfortunate shade of brown but was brought into this millennium with some black spray paint.

 

 

I'm awaiting the arrival of a rug (should come in a couple of days). And I'm on the hunt for the perfect simple-retro wall clock. But, that being said, I genuinely couldn't be happier about the change to this little corner of our family room.

 

Don't forget to check out CozyWallArt.com for yourselves. In my opinion, their decals on the wall are the best part of this very basic home office upgrade. In fact, my husband was working down here yesterday and said he liked being able to look at the geometric wall as he worked. I think it's mentally stimulating without being distracting, you know? 

 

Do you have a "home office" space? What do you guys think is the best or worst or most important component of a successful home office?

(shared: Mums Make Lists)

Pin It Now!

A Geometric Wall & A New Home Office

Somebody around here has mad graphic design skillz. I'm not necessarily saying it's me, but...

 

 

Behold, the very professional and highly detailed mockup of the basement home office transformation. You probably don't need an actual photo after this little number, do you. Heh.

 

Okay, fine.

 

Let's start at the beginning. My computer is housed in a (previously) dark, messy, and uninspiring little corner of our family room. To make a very long story very short, I got tired of the dust bunnies and constant clutter and yuckiness of the space.

 

Immediately after spying this graphic Cozy Wall Art decal, the wheels in my head started spinning toward something like these, only office-style:

 

source

 

source

source

 

Come back tomorrow to see some progress toward this kind of awesome wall graphicality.

 

Pin It Now!

Corner Home Office & some rug options

Happy Halloween, everyone!

 

I should preface this post by saying: I'm not trying to make you guys jealous of me. But when I came down to my "home office" this morning and was greeted by this sight...

 

 

...I knew that today was the day to get things in gear. Stat.

 

You're not jealous, are you? Okay. Phew. Because that is some sweet junk I've got going on right here.

 

Read more after the break.

Pin It Now!

World Map Wallpaper

It's beautiful outside, my kids are out of school, and summertime is beckoning, so my computer time these days is rare...and brief.

But I can't help but share this photo with you guys. You all know how I love maps, but the understated color coordination here, the wood, the touch of ikat, the everything -- I love it. It's welcoming, casual, and awesome.

source

And who wouldn't be comfortable with a bearded sailor bust staring out over your shoulder, being all, "I got'cher back, matey." I mean, honestly. Color me comforted.

Pin It Now!

Campaign-style Filing Cabinet

So, due to a major de-cluttering and reorganization of this closet, our old metal hidden-away-because-it's-a-hideous-beast of a filing cabinet had to be relocated out into the computer corner of our family room. Our "office space," as it were, was about to be invaded.

Which means...super ugly. In our family room. Hauntingly, nightmarishly present. Nope, can't do it. Something had to change.

And that something involves an old government-issued metal filing cabinet, some frog tape, and some paint to turn the ugly thing into a pretty great campaign-style piece of furniture. 

 

Sure, it's not going to knock the purist-style antique-collecting neighbor's vintage knitted socks off (what, you don't have one of those? strange), but it was a free project and easy to do. And it ended up looking like this:

  

 

 Which may not be that impressive until you take a gander at what she started out as. Here's her original look (back side):

 

 

A lovely puce hue, wouldn't you say? (Bleck.) The drawers:

 

 

And some textured nastiness in the top corner:

 

 

There was tape all over the cabinet, but it was taking way too long to try to peel off, so I busted out my trusty adhesive remover from this wooden trunk makeover project: 

 

 

First things first: take that high quality government-issued sign off (good to know our trusty government keeps track of classified info via scotch-taped signs. phew. makes me feel safe), because we now actually do have suuuuper secretive information to file away in here.

 

Like blackmail-fodder photos from our awkward years. (Coincidentally, mine spanned ages 5-21...)

 

 

Ahh, much better. That goop (and some original paint) swiped right off the corner here:

 

 

Take all fixtures off the fronts of the drawers. Paint fixtures gold. (Optional: Use a glitter-coated drop cloth. Fancy, no?) 

 

 

Here's where the photo montage takes a turn for the worse...I have literally no photos of the rest of the painting part. Ooops. But I can 'splain it in about three steps. Ready?

 

1. Paint the piece whatever color you want. (I had loads of paint + primer left over from another project, so I rolled that on everywhere.) Let it dry.

 

2. Reattach freshly painted (but dry) drawer fixtures, and put drawers back into the filing cabinet.

 

3a. With drawers intact and pushed in all the way into the cabinet, tape off the campaign-style edges however you want (mine: corners are 3" tall and 3" in, sides are 3" tall and about 1.5" in) then paint them gold (or whatever color you used for your fixtures).

 

3b. Remove tape. Let dry. Commence filing of classified 8th grade photos.

 

My apologies, the color balance is suuuuper funky in these photos. The cabinet is a lovely bluey-grey in real life, but it doesn't read as that under the fluorescents in my basement corner.

 

Done and done. A much better addition to our office space now than the goopy-corner-ness that it was previously, don't you think?

 

 

(Quick back-story: Once upon a time a couple days ago, I wanted to paint a modern perky chevron pattern onto this filing cabinet and even started taping it off and then got lamed out because it would have taken FOR.EV.ER. and so I ripped off the three pieces of tape and instead went with Plan B: Campaign-Style Filing Cabinet, which I ended up liking way more anyway because it's less visually "busy" and thus better for my office space. The end.)

 

{shared Boogieboard Cottage, Craft-O-Maniac, Creating my Way to Success, GingerSnap Crafts, I Gotta Try That, I Should be Mopping the Floor, If it's not Baroque, Keeping it Simple, Ladybug Blessings, Making the World Cuter, Not just a Housewife, Pinkapotamus, Sew Can Do, The Girl Creative}

Pin It Now!