Office Plans + Inspiration

Oh my goodness, I hope the weather where you are is as beautiful as it is here in NC! I even broke out my flip flops today! Yay!

A few weeks ago, I shared the current state of our office. It's a bit of a mess, isn't it?! I'm back today to share all of our plans and inspiration to whip this space into shape. My brain is waaaaay ahead of my wallet right now, though. Haha! As much as I'd love to wave a magic wand and do everything now, this room will have to evolve over time as the budget allows. #reallifebudget  But, I'll be sure to share our progress as we go! 

Here's what I'm planning... 

I'd love to add a couple ledge shelves like we did for our living room to the wall above the piano. It has an eyesore of a thermostat on it, so it'd be nice to be able to disguise that a bit. Plus, it would be a great spot to display our degrees. I'm thinking of decorating it with a black/white theme in a simplistic style like Katie from Bower Power did in her guest room. Me want simplistic style?! Shocker, I know. ;) #sarcasm

via Bower Power

I scored these curtains at Target this week for 50% off! I had to go to four different Targets to find a second panel on clearance, but I found one! They are still full price online. :( They look great in the office and add some much needed interest, plus they match the futon perfectly! 

via Target

I'd love to make some faux roman shades for above the kitchen windows. I love these from Pottery Barn! I want to make an extra for my front door, too! 

via Pottery Barn

This next one is the last on the priority list, but I think it would be so beautiful! Since we no longer rent out the office, we don't use or have a need for the washer/dryer. We'd love to sell the washer/dryer and add some bright white built in bookshelves to the laundry nook. It would be so cozy! I love how these go floor to ceiling and wrap around the window! 

via Apartment Therapy

I'd love to find some inexpensive pillows for the futon. Right now, Jeremy's using the pillows that came with our sectional and they are way too big for the futon. I'm loving these gray and white options!

via Etsy

via Etsy

via Target

The biggest project we need to complete is building Jeremy a desk. I love the style and aesthetic of this desk! Jeremy likes it, too, but wants to replace the legs with bookshelves to house the printer and his binders. We've both scoured the Internet looking for something similar to what we have in mind, but have come up empty, so you'll have to wait and see it when we finish! ;)

via Etsy

I'd love to make a mini mudroom at the top of the stairs going into the office. The office is above our detached garage, so he needs a place to store his jacket and shoes when he comes over. I was going to do a basic coat hoot, but Jeremy requested it have a shelf for him to empty his hands while he is hanging up his coat. I love this style!

via Shanty 2 Chic

Of course, I saw this picture and thought that the little bench area was awesome and would be so practical, too! It's more involved of a build, though, so we'll see...

source unknown

Finally, I'd love to build a cute boot tray like this one for him to place his shoes on. I was going to do it during my no-spend January, but didn't get a chance to yet. Hopefully, soon! 

via Magnolia Market

Here's the to-do list: 

-Sell bed

-Get rid of large bookshelves

-Get rid of old end table

-Move cube bookshelf to closet

-Purchase futon

-Purchase rug

-Sell washer/dryer

-Purchase chair pad

-Purchase curtains

-Make faux roman shades

-Replace vinyl roller shades with blinds

-Repaint walls 

-Build ledge shelves

-Build desk

-Take down two upper cabinets

-Purchase desk lamp

-Built coat hook shelf

-Built boot tray

-Modify futon legs

-Purchase/make throw pillows

-Hang artwork

-Build built-in

-Purchase new office chair

-Paint stairwell (see how I painted the one inside the house here)

Yikes, it's a hefty list! But, I think it'll look so nice and be so much more functional when we're finished!

What are you guys working on these days? Any local friends need a washer/dryer? ;)

Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, and many other awesome blogs!

Office: Before & Progress

It's finally time to show you our office! I've never shown it before on the blog because it is a hot mess! But, it's the room we've been working on lately, so I'm giving you a glimpse inside.

The office is actually a mother-in-law suite over our detached garage. It was mainly a catch all room until right before Little Girlie was born. As we were preparing for Little Girlie, we moved our guest bed out of our third bedroom to convert the bedroom into a nursery. We then fixed up the office to rent out to a friend for a few months (Miss you, Nicole!!).

I say "fixed up" in the loosest way possible. We gave it a fresh coat of paint, replaced the warped and ripped vinyl roller shades with blinds, and purchased a washer, dryer, and mini fridge to make the apartment fully functional. It was still completely undecorated and a catch all for furniture we didn't need or have room for in the house anymore.

Ready to see? Oh goodness, after my organizational flops post, I can't believe I'm about to post these pictures on the Internet! Excuse the quality of these first pictures. They were phone pictures I snapped to send to Nicole when she was searching for an apartment.

When you first open the door, you see the kitchen area. For a one room in-law suite, it does have a pretty good kitchen. I love all the windows!

If you turn to the left, you see this little nook that we pushed our spare bed into. You can see that it's a hodge podge of furniture we've collected over the years. The school chair has been in my family for 50+ years and my Grandma painted it for me when I was a teenager. The chest was made for my Grandma when she was a baby and she and I painted it together 15+ years ago. Sweet memories! The black bookshelf stored Little Man's toys in his play area at our old house and the big bookshelf was Jeremy's growing up. The lamp was another hand painted item my Grandma made and the beach painting was my first painting I did without Grandma's help. Lots of memories, but also a crazy mix of stuff, right?!

Here's the view from the kitchen looking back toward the door. The rug totally didn't fit. It was another thing from our old house that we held onto over here for a while. We bought the desk the second year we were married when we lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment and I used to sit at it Skyping my mom who lived in another country at the time! 

Here's the view from near the bed. You can see the laundry nook which now has a washer and dryer and the door to the bathroom. The piano belonged to my grandparents and they gave it to me when I moved away. My Grandma taught me piano basics on this piano. She and Grandpa could both play beautifully! 

So, are you scared off yet?! Do you see why the office has been our recent project?! 

Jeremy has been working from home for a year now and has been living with the crazy. But, it is high time to spruce it up in here and inject some life to this poor space! Our plan for this room is to make it more cohesive, warm it up with some decor, and make it a more organized and functional office. Here's where we are at now!

About six months into working from home, Jeremy couldn't stand being pushed against the wall anymore, so moved his desk near the window. That left the bed in a super weird spot right behind the door, so we got rid of the bed. Getting rid of the bed already makes the room look so.much.better! We also got rid of the rug and stored the school chair and chest for now. I'm thinking of using those pieces in Little Girlie's room when we convert it to a big girl room. We still needed the big bookshelf, but we moved it into the closet to get it out of the way. 

We purchased a futon to give Jeremy some comfy seating as well as serve as a guest bed if needed. It's more modern then we normally go with, but it was the nicest of the dirt cheap futons. :) We hate the legs, so I'm cooking up a plan to make some new futon legs. The pillows are placeholders for now. They came with our couch and are way too big, but they've come in handy while we save for pillows. 

The office seems to have no insulation at all because it is freezing over here in the winter and hot in the summer. We purchased a big shag rug to help the temperature out over here and so far it has worked surprisingly well! It's such a comfy rug! The end table is on it's way to the thrift store. It used to live in our living room. I thought about giving it a makeover for the office, but the shape and style just doesn't jive with the futon at all, so out it goes!

The Panthers collage was my gift to Jeremy last Christmas. He's been a huge Panthers fan since before we even moved to NC (hoping they win the Superbowl on Sunday for him!), so I pulled together some cool and meaningful photos and made a custom photo mat for them. It's a big picture, but it seems a little lost on the wall right now. After we finish everything else, I may add some other artwork around it if it needs it. We'll see... 

The last big thing we need to do before we can get to the fun decor stuff is build a desk. Jeremy wants an L-shaped desk with built in storage for the printer and some books. He slid our existing desk and little bookshelf together to create a makeshift L-shaped desk for now. Yes, Jeremy is crazy. This is what I'm working with, people! Haha! And, yes, his chair is on cardboard. The chair was marking up the floor, so Jeremy threw down some cardboard to protect the floor until we could get a chair pad. A year later...he's still on that blasted cardboard. Ahhhhh!

I have lots of decor ideas swirling around my brain! I've been letting Jeremy call the decor shots over here since it is his office, after all. ;) I'll be back next week to show you some of my decor ideas!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!


Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, and many other awesome blogs!