Friday Room Reveal: Office

Alright, alright. So, I have had (what turns out to be) an overly hopeful plan to give you a whole home tour in a single post. Alas, it turns out, I just don't have the time (or energy?) to make this wondrous post come into existence. The thought of it is too stressful and as a result I have gotten nowhere with the plan.  But the good news is, I have come up with an alternative plan I think we can all be happy with. Single room tours! As as they come into existence I will update the House Tour page of the blog. (Also coming soon!)

Before we begin, I feel the need to say that there is not one room in our house I would consider "finished" or for that matter "mostly finished." All things are a work in progress. This is not to say, things haven't come a long way. But still...you get what I am saying? Okay. With that off my chest. Let us begin, with the office. I choose the office as a starting point because on my very very first post on LH I gave you a sneak peak photo of the office. And it seems fitting to start a series of room tours just as we started the blog together. Remember this photo??

Well, we aren't starting there. (Got'cha!) We are starting a little further back. Originally, this room was a "second guest room/dumping station" -- official title folks! The room came to us with a soft purple color and while it's not my favorite color, it goes with the feel of the upstairs and it's not a bad color. So it stays. But it did require extensive touching up, as the paint job was certifiably sloppy. I also repainted the trim while I was cleaning the edges. I have no photographic examples to share, but it made a huge difference. Never underestimate the paint job!

So walking into the room as it was....

The corner where stuff went to get lost.

Ugh. I promise, we do generally make our beds.

Yeah, it wasn't much. And I confess, I made at least one friend sleep in this sad little room. (Sorry friend, you know who you are!) As it turns out, two guest bedrooms wasn't all the necessary for us. And what we really needed was somewhere to get stuff done. Like work on a computer or sew up a long over due yoga bag for a friends birthday.

Here is how the transformation went.
Step one: Create a pinterest board for inspiration. I was feeling pretty drawn to the wall long desk set up.
Step two: Remove unwanted furniture.
Step three: Clean up the paint job.
Step four: buy and assemble two desks from ikea.

I happened to get a free filing cabinet from work and with that sitting between the two desks we officially had a work space that ran the length of the room. Which brings us to here:

Step Five: Add what you have to walls. The first items to go up on the wall were three old frames I had laying around that I painted white with the same paint I used for the trim. Then because I am location love crazy I traced outlines of the three states This Earth and I have lived in together on some green paper and framed them. Total cost: $0. That is my kinda of art.

Step 6: Organize your space to suite your needs. Since we had two desks I decided one would be my sewing station, and the other for everything else. I think we are ready for the reveal? Yeah?

Please, come in.
The desk you can see from the door way is the everything else desk. 

The far desk is my sewing station. You can see my thread hanging on the wall which is uber convenient to have so close at hand when I am working. Also in this corner I hung up a few items I am particularly fond of.   A painted portrait of my husband that a friend gave to me in college -- long before husband was in my vocabulary. A bird print gifted to me by another dear friend as we left Montana. And the poster for one of the best bands ever!  What I really love about this arrangement is that these items are all creations of friends, it feels inspiring to me to be surrounded by the work of people I love as I endeavor to create something of my own.

Here I offer you a long view of the desk from inside the closet. This is the side of the room that feels in realm of getting close to finished.

The other side of the room serves some practical needs but isn't as "pretty".  

And all the way around the room we have gone...

Behind the door, I have some tools for cutting fabric hanging up on the wall. It's nice to have them in a place that is close at hand but also out of the way.

This other bookshelf was made for me by one of my fathers when I was in the 5th grade. Now it stores project stuff. It is a sentimental piece of furniture. I have lots of those. Not the least of which is the mirror in the room, which was made for me by my Papaw.

So, there you have it. The first of many Luminous Home room reveals. I hope you have enjoyed the tour. Next time you are in this room I am going to put you to work.