The Office

Well, hello there 2011!!! Gawd, can you believe it? The holidays flew right by just like usual and here it is a whole new year. I have been horrible with finding time to blog and hope to be able to get around to it more often this year, but between drastic home renovations, homeschooling, work and the everyday it might be a bit difficult!

Anyways, I promised I would update the blog with photos of the house once we weren't in such shambles around here. Shambles is just about the right word for what we were living in too. I am so happy with how everything has turned out so far, but let me just offer some advice to anyone who might ever think it's a good idea to take on a big home improvement project during the holidays: don't do it. Just. Don't. You know that Kevin and I both love DIY. Even though he tries to deny it, he loves a good project just as much as I do. But being tore up for the holidays was just way too much stress for everyone. Now that the messy parts are over and there's a nice big light at the end of the tunnel, we both feel a lot better about everything!

Now for the photos!! Here are a few "before shots" just so you can get an idea of what was done over the past couple of months....

School Room Before any construction took place:









Bye bye, dark red paint and oak furniture! We loved our school room, don't get me wrong. But we weren't really using it as much as we could have been - we usually do read alouds on the sofa and the kids were doing their workbooks and reading in the quiet privacy of their own rooms. Kevin really needed a place of his own to work from on occasion, so we thought moving the computer into this ex-formal dining room/school room was the best option. We did all of the work ourselves (with the help of a neighbor and my brother) and got all of the furniture at our local Ikea. Geez, I love that place. The wall color I ended up with was a pretty apple green. Big shock that I picked green right?? It's my favorite! It's a Benjamin Moore color called 'Sweet Daphne' we had mixed up in Valpar Paint & Primer In One. I'm not sure this paint lived up to all it promised since I did have to do more than one coat, but it did cover very nicely and I'm happy with the way it looks. And here's the end result!


We closed in the entire room by adding on to the hallway wall that was already there. I still have to put one more coat of paint on these doors and add the oil rubbed bronze handles to them. You can see a little preview of the stair railings here too - I stil have to paint all the spindles white and plan on using some black porch and floor paint on the treads to match the railings. All in good time!


Our new Expedit bookshelf conveniently stores all of our homeschooling books, workbooks and the kids' art supplies as well. I will probably put decor of some sort on the top of the bookshelf and move some books around to incorporate decorative vases and such. I'm thinking I'll replace the white boxes on the bottom with seagrass baskets at some point. And I'm still on the hunt for the perfect area rug as the floor gets so cold in here. The ceiling light was a fantastic find for under $60 at Overstock!!


I love this desk! It's so nice to have a place for both computers. I still need to figure out how to use the space on the big wall shelf a little bit better, but this is ok for now. The wall calendars are all from Target - saved me some serious cash as opposed to buying them from "that other store." ;)


The parsons chairs were a last minute decision that I'm super happy with. Kevin wanted something more comfortable than a wooden chair and I didn't want a regular office chair. So these were a good compromise!! I still need to figure out the unsightly electrical cord situation as well.


I still need to find some art for the frame in between the windows and a cute throw pillow for the plain white chair. I might even put a small table next to it, but who knows. A trip to Homegoods will probably help. Oh and I need to shorten that curtains a little bit too.


It's so nice being able to close the doors! I was worried about making the house feel too closed in, but with the french doors I think it still keeps that open feeling.

It feels so nice to be able to post an update on our progress! We still have a ways to go with choosing rugs and wall art, but that's not something I want to rush anyways. It's fun to shop around!! Thanks for looking and I promise there are more updates to come and we get a few more things finished here and there. Stay tuned!!!