home office face-lift
If you ask my husband - he'll tell you that our house is perfect, not a thing could possibly be done to make it any better. And for the most part he'd be right. But ask me - a type A perfectionist/over achiever - there is ALWAYS something else that can be done in this place! Case in point - our home office. I absolutely loved what I did with it when we first moved in (did I mention I didn't sleep for about the first year we lived here b/c I was up all night painting, decorating and putting things in their place?). But I always felt like the office wasn't "finished." I thought that one day I would add one more color to the black, white and red motif. I'd add curtains, art on the wall, etc. Then about two weeks ago I woke up with that fire under my A$%. It was time. It's been 3 years, I spend a good majority of my time in that office now that I work from home. I was off - woman on a mission coming through!!!
BEFORE:
Because I was unable to convince my husband that this facelift was necessary I had next to no budget to work with so there were only a couple of tweaks I could do to it. The last color I decided to bring in was teal (if you've seen the rest of my house you'd know that I'm a little obsessed with blues - mostly teals). The first place to bring it in was CURTAINS. I love curtains. And lighting fixtures. Ohhhh lighting fixtures..... Anyway - curtains. After a couple of hours of looking online I went to an old stand-by: Z-gallerie. And there they were - in all their tealicious glory. My. Curtains.
Next came the book case - it never quite fit the office. It was a piece that came from college and was ready for a new home (it's for sale if you want it). I had a vision of a perfectly antiqued white unit with teal undertones. It couldn't look too vintage because then it would stick out like a sore thumb against the simple lines of the Pottery Barn desks. After looking through some consignment/vintage shops I decided I wouldn't find what I wanted for as cheap as I needed it to be. So I went to my haven - target - bought a $30 unit and decided to make it what I needed. Before I put it together I painted the back panels a gorgeous aquamarine color to match the new curtains (Martha Stewart Paint collection for Home Depot).
I loved the matching his/hers diplomas of ours - and I'm still not sure how to get them back on display.... but that's neither here nor there. The room was so tiny it needed opened up - case in point - a mirror!
I'm OBSESSED with writing. Writing devices, writing utensils, paper, pens, pencils, you name it. Which is odd because according to Nick my handwriting is illegible. I've always wanted a full wall sized dry erase board - but Nick wouldn't like that and it wouldn't look as pretty - so I scoured google then Etsy to find me a beautifully vintage inspired one. And of course - I FOUND ONE! Isn't this thing a piece of beauty? The Artist is "Revived Vintage" - Amy from Huntington, West Virgina. She was SUPER sweet - totally accessible, had a quick turn around time and I was very pleased with my purchase. She even went to Home Depot and bought the same paint I used to paint the inside of the book case so they would match perfectly :)
Last was the art on the wall - I seriously went back and forth on this. Should I get family portraits canvased? Should I do text/script? I found an awesome Etsy artist that custom makes script words. If you are on pinterest they you've seen his "shut the front door" piece. I was two seconds away from either doing "holla" quite largely or asking him to do "you got this." But then I decided it'd be way cooler to just put up a scenic image from my artistic collection. I took this picture pre-caden. Nick and I went for a walk for no reason back on the Campeon Trails. I loved that it was a late November day and it was warm enough to walk in shorts, a tee and feel a warm breeze. Looking at this picture just reminds me of where Nick and I have been and where we are going.
Okay - enough talking - here are the rest of the pictures. Just bought a couple of little teal accent pieces for the desk :)
