The New Office

The office is finally done. I had a good time redecorating and tossing all kinds of things. It has made for easier grading not having bunches of stuff towering over me. I took pictures at night and in the daytime, so the color is slightly different. Here's a tour:

The wall behind the desk is lime green


Also behind the desk is a small station for M. to paint
The bookcase has been sorted so that I don't have a wall of books. There are open shelves where I put my stuff so that it's not strewn about like before. Don't worry about the books, they are all going to my office at work.



I made the curtains myself. They are lined and rest just over the windowsill so that when we have sleepover guests they aren't treated to blaring sunlight in the morning.


I totally stole this idea from Brande, who stole it from a magazine. All my pencils, pens, markers, etc. are sorted by color in clear containers (cheap tumblers from Ikea). I put them on a lazy susan so that I could just take the whole mess to the desk when I wanted and they would be easy to access.


My desk is now floating in the middle of the room, which makes it much easier to work on big projects and sewing projects. If you notice on the bookshelf there is a shelf that is covered by the same material as the curtains. I covered a couple of shelves by making a tiny curtain and putting them on small tension rods. That way I can store my art supplies (paints, glues, etc.) but not see them all the time. Also I found a lime green desk chair for cheap at Target. The after Christmas sales have treated me very well.



Across from the desk are my bookcases all lined up, kind of like built ins, but there was this opening between two large ones. I didn't know what to do with it, so I painted a blue square and got a few block canvases. I painted over them twice and finally made a set that I liked. The bike on the left is pretty easy to figure out.


Here are close ups of the li'l ones.

I liked the little girl so much I made it into my banner.

So....now that that is done, I have actually enjoyed hanging out in there! I take my coffee in there in the mornings and just enjoy it, which is all I could ask for, really. What do you think?

The "Everything Else" Room

I decided to change the banner, since I get tired of things easily. I'm gonna try this pink scheme for a minute. Don't worry if you aren't digging it, it will probably be replaced in a few months! The li'l cartoon is supposed to be me, but you'll understand that there is only so much realism an amateur artist can master in Photoshop. I think I erred on the side of "cute."

My mother-in-law was so impressed by my lox and bagels experiment that she declared me an honorary Jew. She said it was practically like my bat mitzvah. Awesome! I've already tackled challah and brisket, so I think it was a long time coming. I decided not to bring up the lovely loin of pork I made for dinner that same night. No need to ruin a good thing, right?

Ahem, back to the topic at hand:

The "Everything Else" Room

I spent today rearranging our office so that we can both be on our laptops in here. It's fine to lounge around with a laptop on the couch in the evening when you are watching TV, but if you are paying bills, writing, or whatever, you really need a desk and all that jazz. M. seemed to be using the desk more now that he's home, so I turned it on its side and now we can work facing each other. We'll see how well that goes. There's plenty of room, since our "desk" is really our old dining room table, but I never really thought about my writing ritual and what might cramp my style. I usually get up, feed the dog, get my coffee ready and head to the desk to start writing, taking care of emails, and prepping for classes. I don't think it should really change things if he's on the other side of the desk. Distractions in the form of a playful dog and snuggly cat haven't deterred me so far. We'll have to see how this goes.

I know a few couples who have two bedroom apartments, houses, or condos. Most of the time, the other room is called "the office" or "the studio" but it really is the "everything else room." I don't know how it turns into that, but that's just how it goes.

Fantasy apartment office:

Desk, bookcases, file cabinets, computer and peripherals.

Reality apartment office:

Desk, bookcases, file cabinets, computer and peripherals, magazine stacks, bicycle, vacuum cleaner, art stuff, sewing machine, sewing stuff, bass guitar, our combined CD collection, cabinet full of DVDs, videos, and videogames, monster fan for when it gets unbearable in here, photography stuff...are you getting the idea?

I have purged this room so many times. I've gone through all of my old college papers and articles and tossed a bunch of stuff. I have moved stuff down to the garage. Somehow, my office closet always gets full and I find myself feeling surrounded by it all. Not so conducive to working, but once I put my head down, all I see is the open Word document.

I am considering glass doors for our 3 big Ikea Billy cabinets full of books. Maybe it would be less imposing if there were something covering up all those books?

Anyone else have this problem? What have you done to get your "everything else" room under control?