ORC Tenth Anniversary Fall Edition Week Two

The Analysis of the Before and the Plan for the After

Every good after, needs a relevant “before”. I gave her a little cleaning before taking her picture. Other than the cluttered shelves (no judgement, ok?????) it’s not really too bad. But if you read last week’s article (here) you know it was all about the wallpaper :). Here’s what we look like today:

The Practical Problems

• Tame the paper tiger
• Reorganize the bookshelves so everything has it’s place
• New window treatments that function better given the desk placement
• Accommodate my sewing table logically – easy to hide, easy to use.
• The Closet Doors

Last week was really about laying about the big picture, the concepts and pulling together the elements going into this project. This week, I’m going to back up a little bit and share my personal challenges and fine tune the process.

The truth is I USE my home office. Like daily. To be clear, I have a studio where I pull together client projects, give presentations, hold staff meetings and work almost daily. But my home office has a view out the window I really enjoy, my cat sleeps on the desk, my dog under the desk and I start and end my work day here. I check emails in the morning and plan my day here. I finish my work day here as well and attend any personal business. The home office is ALSO right off the entry of our house, so it’s in constant view.

Paper Problems

All that said? It also ends up, like many home offices, is the catch all room. It gathers paperwork, books, Amazon deliveries (and returns!). The boys in my house use it very little as they view it as my domain, lol!

Right now, it’s sporting a set of wall mounted message boards. In prepping for this, I looked at the dates on some of the notes up here. Complete waste of wall space! The message board is where good ideas go to die :(. There are piles of papers – all important as I ditched my post-it note habit years ago, but not well organized.

The Bookshelves

My desk has a variety of books: some I’ve started and some just well intentioned purchases. There’s also an abundance of books on the shelves but they’ve also become a catch all. So while I want the shelves pretty (duh!) I also want them organized.

Window Coverings

I love me a pretty window treatment. But they also need to be functional. My home office faces the east and gets a lot of direct morning sun. Our whole home has shutters but when I opted to capitalize on the tremendous view out the window by putting a desk into the corner, I had to ditch the shutters. I currently have metal mini blinds and store bought curtain panels. (gasp!). I mainly put them up with the intention of customizing them but just never got around to it.

The new look? I have woven wood blinds that have no strings and an easy lift system that will fit right inside the frame of the window. Then I’ll take it one step further by adding a decorative roman shade in a gorgeous linen and velvet fabric made by my go-to workroom.

The Sewing Table

My desk is just a little too long to accommodate the sewing table off the end of it. I figured if I raised the desk about an inch, the sewing table will fit UNDER it. Not super pretty but serviceable when working on a project. The rest of the time, because it folds? I can simply store it under the desk, out of the way but accessible.

Closet door makeover?

I don’t love the closet doors. For the longest time, I had none. When we had the new floors put in, the old mirrored doors didn’t fit so I simply got rid of them, lived with the closet exposed. This spaces is MAXED out and houses all the wifi stuff for the house, plus all paperwork, the printer and all the uglies no one wants to see. Doors were important and I needed custom ones. They’re now in but I don’t love them. Too white, too tall.

Solution? I’m going to paint them black (the background color of the wallpaper) and add a gold accent to give them a slightly asian feel. Wish me luck, lol!

To-Do List

Truthfully, the WORK of this project is not going to take 8 weeks. And since I use the space, I really cannot have it out of commission for that long anyway! We also have a trip right in middle of it. So organizing the execution is important.

Checklist is the best way to not miss stuff. Figured I’d share and cross off as complete!

• Find new art. Needs to not compete with wallpaper. Something with a lot of white space
• New organizational plan / brush up on my “Home Edit” reading 😉
• Longing for new desk lamps – shop!
• Order fabric for the window covers
• Order fabric for the desk chair
• Order new woven privacy blind without Cat-tempting cords
• Order accent pillow and shop for some fresh accents
• Drop off my previously made-over and very comfy desk chair.
• Remove and elevate the existing desk AND repaint it. (Color TBD – MORE one that next week)
• Paint the walls – wall color is close but needs a refresh
• Hang the wallpaper
• Paint the closet doors
• MAYBE? paint the shelves??? (can we chat??? this as a trickle down effect!!) Nixed this. Thinking I’ll just paint the BACK of the shelves black. Or maybe wallpaper?
• Hang the new chandelier
• Steal the hubs guest chair ‘case while I don’t love IKEA ALL the time, I DO love, love, love this chair
• Install new custom decorative valance
• Style the bookshelves

xoxo,