Before Trent was
born we decided to give my office a complete makeover. I work from home and
knew that once a baby was added into the mix I was going to have to be SUPER
organized if I was even going to have a shot at making it. I took the
opportunity of cleaning out/reorganizing to give the office a total overhaul
and finally have my dream craft room/office. I’m sure Matt was happy that all
my crap would finally be contained in ONE room. I still tend to take over the
entire house when working on a bigger project, but for the most part I can now
reign it in thanks to my new room.
Of course like a
complete dipshit I forgot to take before pictures AGAIN. Someone remind me next
time I start out on something to take pictures before and during, PLEASE! I
looked through the 67435 pictures on my phone and found a few limited shots of
the office before.
The first step was
taking measurements of the room and drawing out a rough picture. I thought
about using the existing desk, but it just was not working. This was really a
case where I needed to get furniture to fit the room, and not try to make the
room fit the furniture. I wanted to maximize the workspace as well as the open
space for a future pack-n-play, bouncer, jumper, etc. So we had our ‘blueprint’
of the room with all of the measurements of the walls, door placement and
window placement and headed to IKEA to try and keep it on a budget.
I already had it in
my head that turquoise and white would be my color scheme, and we came across
this fab line that incorporated white and a natural wood color which went well
with the paint I picked out. Besides the dirt cheap price, these pieces were
perfect because there was a huge variety of matching items that can be arranged
together in pretty much infinite combinations. They are all the same height, so
putting things end-to-end gives you a nice even work space on top that you can
move around if needed…you are not tied down to one 8 foot long piece of
furniture. We spent like seriously two hours in the store sketching out
the pieces on top of our blueprint. I may or may not have eaten three cinnamon
rolls in the process. While sitting in the desk display. But really…in the IKEA
crowd I doubt I was out of place at all.
Anyway here are the
major pieces we came home with:
You know what was
next. Cardboard and stryofoam flying, husband up all night, a case of beer…the
works. Thankfully I had the pregnant excuse and was not allowed to do anything
other than sit and eat (I highly recommend starting any kind of home project
while 8 months pregnant, btw). Once the furniture was assembled and arranged, I
went to town accessorizing and organizing. I moved the gift wrapping supplies
out of our “gift wrap room” (aka the guest room) and organized it in the closet
with these IKEA shopping bag holders and rods/hooks. I used
an existing set of cheap plastic drawers to store the tissue paper, ribbon and
bows.
All of my small
office supplies went into this section of the office using these rods, hanging buckets,
magnetic strips
and spice jars
also from IKEA. I had initially thought it would just look cool, but it is
surprising how much I have actually used them and how easy it is to keep things
neat and tidy this way, even when it is out in the open. I covered an existing
cork board with fabric to give a pop of my favorite color. This table is where
I do most of my craft projects, and I can easily pull the sewing machine out of
the closet and set up shop here for that as well with the neighboring table
working perfectly as a companion cutting table.
The table below serves
as hubby’s desk since he does not have an office in the house. He stores his
laptop in the drawer and just gets it out and moves the chair over whenever he
needs to work on something. It is great for him to have his own area to spread
out..plus we can be in the same room together while working. And his stuff stows
away nice and easily when he is finished so I don’t lose any of my table/work
space to a permanent setup of his stuff. He uses the purple bins in the shelf
above for paperwork storage as well as the door compartment in the bookshelf
for anything else of his. It was difficult to give that up, but I guess you
have to choose your battles.
This is also where
I set up my Cricut (stored in closet) when I need to. Again the neighboring
table is great to spread everything out on. I store all of my paper and other
Cricut/craft supplies in the amazing bins
we found out Costco last year. They are not on the website currently, but we
just saw them in the store again recently. But they sell out SO quickly. We
drove 30 minutes out of the way last year to get an extra set, and it was the
very last one that store had in stock as well. There are a ton of similar
products out there, but these are much more durable and MUCH cheaper than the
alternatives at Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. The link here shows only one, but at
Costco you get a set of six for about $12. A STEAL!
The computer desk
is where I spend most of my time, and it has been even more functional than I
had imagined. It is made up of the corner workstation, two short tables and a
rolling file cabinet. This set of drawers which we already had slid perfectly under one of the tables and
serves great as storage for paper for the printer above, mailing supplies and
other things that I use on a daily basis. And as I said before, the fact that
each piece is the same height gives one continuous workspace without having to
lock yourself in to one bulky piece or one layout.
There are still a
few touches I need to work on including curtains and some other finishings. We
used the existing
rug (from Lowe’s of all places). I was initially skeptical about whether it
would match, but it actually looks great in the room. I also need to rig up a
better “holding area” for the garlands I am currently working on. I keep them
in order of current orders and newest designs and rotate them out as I ship
them, but I would love to get another curtain rod or towel bar from IKEA with a
ton of hooks to be able to hang, slide, move them more easily. Maybe this
weekend? Now that I can eat hot dogs again I am ALL about going to IKEA…even on
a Saturday. Speaking of garlands, visit our Etsy shop to find some awesome garlands, gifts, wine bags and other products!
It is still a work
in progress, but it has been amazingly functional so far. Our next “makeover”
project is the backyard and patio..stay tuned! And don't forget to view the giveaway post, follow and comment to register for our first giveaway!
1 Comment »
Amazing! Great job :))) I'm a IKEA addict as well! I'm redoing my sons room for Christmas / Birthday gift. One question for you. The set of drawers that you already had, the one you slid under one of the small Micke desk - are they also from IKEA? Perhaps from the ALEX collect at IKEA? The link in your post just took me to an error page so I couldn't tell. But I would love to know, if you have a mintue to respond.
ReplyDelete