Hello!  Today I thought I’d share some changes I made to my office earlier this month.  I wanted to add some dark navy to the office and some raspberry pink too (I love that combo) so here’s a peek at some new window panels and a new rug I added.   The rug and panels that I bought and made last summer got moved to other spaces.  I replaced the rug with a navy and white trellis rug that I scored for 75% off on a Cyber Monday sale in December.

The X-leg desk I bought marked down to $175 last year from a local furniture shop, but I found out you can also buy it here.   The desk chair is from Staples, and the white color is only for sale in stores but I saw it there last week so I know it’s still available.  The new window panels are one of my patterns I designed, it’s an edgy grid geometric print in navy and raspberry pink – it will be available in a few colorways soon. 

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the comments I received last week was to write about ideas for small space living, so today let’s talk about work spaces and home offices. So much of what we do now is online compared to 20 or even 10 years ago, it seems having a little place to set your laptop or store your desktop is an absolute must in any home.

Absent the luxury of an actual room to turn into a home office, there are many other ways you can pull up a little horizontal space to catch up on your email, do your online banking, or better yet, blog!  So where do you squeeze in a space for a home office where there is none?  Here are ten ideas.

1.  Contained Office.   A tall computer hutch is a great way to use vertical space to pack all things office into one piece of furniture.  Consider customizing one you already have with bulletin boards and a pull out desk (that’s what we plan to do with our family room’s armoire – build a family computer station where kids can be supervised and do homework too.)

via Wisteria

PB Hutch via Freshome

Stylish secretary cabinets are also useful for a quick pull down desktop.

Elle Decor

source unknown

The best part about these furniture solutions is the benefit of closing it up out of sight when you’re done working, for when guests come over, or to simply to hide it away at day’s end.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lately I’ve been inspired to bring more color into my life, especially my work space.  I like to be surrounded by girly glamorous sophisticated things in my home office, and the color pairing I’m fixated on lately is raspberry and teal, can’t you tell by the header?  (Designed by Fabulous K Creative, I love it!)

Here’s a peek at a few changes made to my home office in the last few weeks.  The sofa was replaced with a refinished credenza and a few deep pink and plum accessories also made their way into this space.  The lamp was a thrift store find, spray painted last week with Valspar’s ‘Eggplant’ ~ I found it on clearance at Michaels for $0.49 a can!

Above the credenza sits a giant inspiration board and soon it will be covered with more reminders and mementoes.  I’m the type of person if I don’t write something down, or have it staring me in the face, I’ll completely forget about it, so this memo board will be another tool to keeping me sane organized.  Next week, I’ll show you how I made it!

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never had a problem with brown.  I love brown, especially chocolate brown.  I think it looks amazing when paired with crisp white or warm cream and a really hot color.  But I was totally over brown in my home office.  Everything in there was brown, the walls, the furniture, the curtains.  Blah blah blah brown. 

The home office is the first door just off the entry way, and was always closed whenever visitors came over.  Quite frankly it was more of a storage space and less of an office for many years.  The first thing I ever did when I heard the doorbell was close the office door.  

When I spied some bookcases on clearance for $20 dollars each at a local outlet that was closing its doors, something clicked in my brain.  “I spy with my little eye a home office remodel.” 

It took me five months to finally get around to completing the entire space since I’ve been busy with other things (ahem, life) but it got a complete overhaul from floor to ceiling and now I can say it is finally finished.   

Here the After:

Here’s the Before – these are the ‘uncluttered’ pics:

Here’s the story. 

Read the rest of this entry »