From the Home Office

It wasn’t until I seriously became interested in starting my own business endeavors that I even desired a home office. I had a laptop and could work or indulge myself into any of my interests from anywhere. So what did I need a home office for? My office was my home! It was the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season of 2015, when I opened up the file that was last saved on my computer back in 2008 called “The C Word,” and started to tackle possibly continuing my writing and finishing the book, that I pondered the thought: “Hmmm, what if I had a nice office space to sit and write?” I began to imagine what my office would look like and of course I consulted Pinterest, where there were so many beautiful home office pictures. I’m telling you, Pinterest can get you into a lot of trouble. I’m just sayin’! I began to really contemplate changing my 2nd guest bedroom into an office. I never really had that many overnight guests. In fact, I never had to use that 2nd guest bedroom. So that settled it. I was going to switch it to a beautiful home office. But what to do with all my bedroom-y things? Well, my mom was staying with me at the time and she loved the decor of that room and asked that I duplicate it in her new home. Just like that, problem solved. So now the fun part… design and decor. I knew it was going to be some sort of pink; a light pink, not a Pepto Bismal pink. And from there I was off. I found deals on a few major items, like my desk, purchased from World Market, and my chair (you can’t really see it in the picture) purchased from The Dump. Everything else I used was re-purposed from other areas of my home. (I love when that happens!) This is what ended up being my favorite room in the entire house…

I loved working in this office and really hated to leave it in the Fall of 2016. It gave me just the motivation and inspiration I needed to complete my book and to start brainstorming other potential business opportunities. I could sit there for hours working or reading or getting sucked into more Pinterest posts. (Deep sigh) Well onto the new home… there was no question that one of the two extra bedrooms would become my home office. As I’ve stated in previous posts, this house was considerably smaller than my last, and therefore the guest rooms were as well. The smallest of the two was selected. It was the last room in the house I decorated so for almost six months after I moved in it looked like this…

It was the catch-all room for everything… paint supplies, tools, extra decor items I hadn’t really decided if I was keeping, all my camera and lighting equipment, and of course the items that would eventually be used in the room. It was the last room I painted over the puky looking, builder grade, swiss chocolate white in pure white. You can read here where I talk about my paintscapades (my word). I’d had the chandeliers hung throughout the house and decided it was time to get started on this room before it got too junky. I started by with cleaning everything out, painting the two bookcases, and then organizing all of the “office stored” items in the closet. The painting took a day, and the organizing took a day. I put off actually getting started on the painting for a few weeks after that, knowing how all-consuming I get when I’m in decorator mode. But one Saturday I woke up and decided that was the day to jump start it. By 10am I’d finished the trim. When I’m focused, I’m driven!

And by 5pm, I’d finished painting the whole room. I seriously considered having another pink office, but I wanted my home to be all white with splashes of color. I tried the pink, even the same pink I had before, but it didn’t feel right. This was a tough one because as long as I can remember I’ve had some sort of pink decor in my house, yet I’d gotten to the very last room in my new home and… no pink. My relationship with the color has changed and I feel like I’ve abandoned my beloved pink. Sadly, there are only remnants of it in a dish towel here or there, or an occasional hand towel in the half bath downstairs. I wanted an accent color in the office, a calming color that wouldn’t close the room in. I chose Silver Lake. It’s a Benjamin Moore color but I took the sample card to Home Depot and they were able to match it perfectly in my beloved Behr Marqee.

And yes the horizontal stripe is only on one wall. I had a vision for the room and it didn’t include two stripes. I felt like the one stripe would be consistent with keeping the appearance of a larger room. I wanted my new home office to be a bit more elegant and sophisticated. Here is how it turned out…

The desk in my last home office has since been painted white and is downstairs at the foot of the stairs, haha! That post will be coming in a few weeks. It wound up being much too long for the space. So I found this one on Amazon for $159.00. I wanted a glass desk because I needed something that would, again, help make the room appear larger. The chairs are from Ikea, the Henriksdal slip cover chairs for (at the time) $89.00 and $29.00. The area rug was $59.00 from Home Goods. The two mirrors flanking the window were mis-priced at Ross at $79.00 so I didn’t hesitate to scoop those up. The two crystal lamps were more money than I usually spend for lamps at $49.00 a piece, also from Home Goods, but I’d bought them just days after moving into my house because they were just so cute, and I was sure they’d fit somewhere nicely. The picture frames were from Walmart at $9.99 a piece. The two pedastals under the mirrors are actually pieces I bought 18 years ago from Burlington when I first moved to Phoenix. I just spray painted them white. You know me and a can of spray paint! All the other pieces were re-purposed items I already had, and the chandelier of course was the same one from my last home office.

I’ve talked about window treatments in previous posts. I’ve always done them myself. I tried once to buy “real” drapes, and I wound up adding fabric and trim to the bottom and basically re-making them to fit what I saw in my head. The window treatments here were no different. This is actually a very light gauzy type fabric that I’ve used at most of the windows in my home that’s $2.99 a yard at my favorite discount fabric store here called SAS Fabrics. There’s some chiffon used there as well that was a whopping $1.99 a yard. I love that I can gaze at a window and creatively come up with something that will not only work, but will give me the glamorous feel that I tend to gravitate to. I wanted a little drama at the window, thus the ceiling-to-floor-puddle on each side. And with the houses in my neighborhood being so close, I wanted to be able to let the sun in, still have my mountain view but also maintain privacy, so I decided to try the chiffon fabric on tension rods, which worked perfectly. I was really pleased with how this turned out.

On the other side of the room is a closet. Because it is after all a bedroom. But I didn’t want to sit at the desk gazing at those white, builder grade doors whenever I worked in there. AND, I knew I’d be filming there from time to time and didn’t want those doors as a backdrop either. So… I hung more fabric! And just like with the spray paint, you all know I love decorating wall spaces as well as windows with fabric. This will have to do until I switch out the white closet doors for mirror doors. If you haven’t already guessed, I also love decorating with mirrors. I’ll address that in a later post!

So where is all the office stuff? Pens, paper, paper clips, cords, printer, files, etc.? Well I’m glad you asked. I don’t like to actually “see” that stuff, so I decided to organize and set it all up in the closet. (Sorry these aren’t really great pictures.)

Those are the two previously brown bookcases that were sitting in the space for six months. They fit perfectly in the closet and houses everything I use from ribbon to camera equipment to post-it notes, printer, paper, my filing system and even every single Veranda magazine I’ve received since the inception of my subscription in 2006. I tried to part with them when I was purging before the move but couldn’t. I know, it’s a sickness. But I still refer to them often for inspiration. Moving on to that wall with the stripe… Everything that I am and wish to convey to the world is steeped in love, grace, class and style; living glamorously inside and out. You can read here where I explain what it all means. It’s my brand, and I wanted to see it on the walls of my home office as inspiration and motivation to keep moving towards all I desire to do. I’m thankful to have been blessed with great penmanship, so that’s simply my handwriting, using a gold sharpie, on nice paper, matted and framed.

I am over the moon with how this room has turned out. And just like with my last house, this room is my favorite in the house. I love the way it looks in the daylight and how moody it looks in the evening. I can turn on my Chris Botti or Dianne Reeves and just sit and work or sit and chill. I am so grateful, every, single time I walk in that room and it reminds me despite my complaining, how incredibly blessed I am. I don’t take any of my gifts or talents for granted. I hope you’ve enjoyed my little home office tour, and that it’s inspired you to make the most of your personal space with what you have available to you right now. In the words of Tererai Trent, (Oprah Winfrey’s favorite guest of all time)… “It is achievable!”

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