Office: Complete
Posted: November 21, 2010 Filed under: decorating, office 7 Comments »I’m going to go ahead and call this one.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane with some before pictures:
And without further ado, here is the new and improved version:
A little better, eh? I still would like to do a few more things in here, but I’m going to stop. If I don’t stop now, I’ll waste money on unnecessary shit, and it’ll end up cluttered and stupid. So let’s stop while we’re ahead, right?
Work first began back in July when my parents came to town with paint brushes in hand. My dad knocked out the walls, baseboards, windows and doors in one weekend. (He also pressure washed the deck… he’s unstoppable.) But with that, the offensive turquoise blue paint was gone. In a classic backward move, I painted the ceiling and crown moulding later.
Aside from the cheapie desk and two small bookcases, all of the furniture in here is new. Before moving to Knoxville we just didn’t have that much stuff. We lived in a tiny, shitty one bedroom apartment. Our “office” was a laptop on the coffee table. It never even entered the realm of possibility to have an entire extra room for office-y things and sitting quietly. Although one exception is the chair, which I had reupholstered. That hand-me-down chair has been with me since 2005, and it’s never looked better than it does here right now.
My favorite part of this room is most definitely the rug (Alvine Ruta from IKEA). I really love these flat weave rugs because they’re casual and durable, usually colorful, and the cat claws don’t do any damage. I did have to spring for a rug pad though, it was slipping around all over the place.
Mostly I just love that this is now an inhabitable room in our house, rather than a cold, under-the-sea blue cave of unpacked boxes. And since it’s a comfortable place you’d actually want to spend time in, it just makes the whole house feel bigger. The light grey on the walls makes the room feel big and bright, even at night.
This was also an exercise in organization. One of the goals was to have a neat place to store books and CDs, where they were still accessible and on display. Done. I’m also insanely happy that I finally organized all of my life’s paperwork into the filing cabinet. And storing the cable modem and wireless router in that box and out of sight insanely satisfying.
Throughout the room there are some other fun small things that I haven’t analyzed to death here already. The plant next to the desk is a Christmas cactus. Say a prayer for it, any houseplant in my charge is at constant risk of an untimely death.
The “small wonder” sign on the shelf is something I’ve had since college. I know it belonged to an old roommate, but I’m not sure if I ever had permission to take it with me when I moved out. There are also 3 blue Ball jars up on the long shelf. One was $1 at a yard sale down the street, and the other two were my grandmother’s.
You might also notice that George Nelson knockoff clock by the door. I don’t know what level of knockoff it really is; “George Nelson” is printed across the front, but it’s clearly a cheap piece of crap. There was a pile of them on clearance at Marshall’s for $14, so what the hell, I got one.
The collage stool was a gift from my crafty sister. And the city scene painting was done by my aunt many years ago. It used to hang at the bottom of the stairs at my grandparents house, and it was always one of my favorites. It reminds me of Dublin.
When all was said and done, I ended up spending more money in here than I had planned. But I’ve come to terms with it. It’s really not that much, I guess. I kept it under a grand. And I think most of the cash was spent on things that are versatile, that I’ll have for many years.
Here’s the breakdown and grand total:
- Chair reupholstery [Charlie Neal, Superior Upholstery]: $180
- Chair upholstery fabric [Hancock's of Paducah]: $92
- Side table [Pier 1 Imports]: $88
- CD shelving [2x IKEA Benno]: $80
- Paint & supplies [Martha Stewart and Behr from Home Depot]: $60
- Sheer curtain panels and new rods [Target]: $52
- File cabinet [Staples w/ new handles from Lowe's]: $51
- Desk chair [IKEA Solvar]: $50
- Long shelf supplies and paint [Home Depot]: $32
- Yellow vase and glass hurricane w/ candle [Hobby Lobby]: $30
- Faux leather ottoman [Hobby Hobby]: $30
- 2 poster frames [A.C. Moore]: $30
- Brooklyn print [Ork Posters]: $27
- World Cup radial bracket print [Hyperakt/Kickstarter]: $25
- Sheepskin [IKEA Rens]: $25
- Lamp [IKEA Alvine Parla shade, Hemma base]: $25
- Rug pad [Lowe's]: $20
- George Nelson clock [Marshall's]: $14
- File box & desk acessories [Target]: $11
- Christmas cactus [Lowe's]: $4
- Rug [IKEA Alvine Ruta]: $0 (gift from kind parents, list price $150)
- TOTAL: $926
Sticks
Posted: November 14, 2010 Filed under: decorating, fall, office 3 Comments »Long story short, I spray painted some sticks. I’m pretty pleased with myself. However, if you recognize how ridiculously mundane it is that I’m writing about it, you may want to click away now.
To fill up my new shelf, I wanted something that would bring the golden yellow color up from the rug. I love this color and wanted to see it elsewhere in the room. I also wanted something that would add a little height to the stuff up there. So I found this big yellow urn thing for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Have you ever been to this store? Everything seems to be 50% off all the time.
It still seemed a little empty, so I got to thinking about what I could put in it to add even more height. I can’t seem to keep plants alive, and I refuse to have fake flowers or greenery around here. I do like the idea of dried flowers, but they didn’t really feel appropriate in this big honkin’ urn.
Along with the piles and piles of leaves, we also have an abundance of loose sticks in our yard from all the trees. I gathered some up today and attempted to make it look less like a pile of kindling by spray painting them black. It’s a black satin finish just because I had a can hanging out in the basement. It would probably look even less like kindling if you did them up in some fancy color.
Oooooo. Ahhhhh. Painted sticks. Not terribly complex. Yet, it makes a nice little filler for my new yellow vase. And I like it. So there.
Long Shelf
Posted: November 7, 2010 Filed under: decorating, office, technology 5 Comments »Although the office has been coming along nicely, I’ve been struggling with this side of the room:
I decided a while back that some kind of file storage was a practical necessity, thus this new little filing cabinet. It took a bit of hunting, but I found one for under $50 new. The only drawback was that the handles were plastic and awful looking. So the ones you see here are actually from Lowe’s cabinet hardware department. It was a small personal goal of mine to transfer the paperwork of my life from a messy series of cardboard boxes into this very adult and orderly filing system.
With the practical storage aspect of this area out of the way, I was left with a really big, blank, grey wall. I don’t have any art that would have been remotely appropriate to fill this big, horizontal space. I thought about painting stripes or a pattern on this wall, but feared that it would still look kinda blank after all that trouble.
So I decided to repurpose an idea I used in the kitchen a few months ago: cheap shelf. Cheap shelf revolves around the concept that wood + brackets = shelf. And those two materials are very cheap. I also recently saw a cheap shelf in this post that looks amazing unpainted against a black wall.
So for the office situation, I felt that black would be most appropriate. So I got a 1″x8″ pre-primed plank, and had the Home Depot fella cut it to a 6′ length. Then I just brought it home and spray painted a few coats of glossy black. It took exactly one can of spray paint.
After it dried, we attached the brackets to the underside of the shelf. Well, actually it sat here in the middle of the floor for a week while we put off doing it. But when the motivation finally surfaced, it really took very little time to get it hung up on the wall. The laser level certainly helped.
I took a cue from the afore mentioned Door Sixteen post to paint the steel brackets with the wall color so they’re less obvious. It really made a huge difference in how finished it looks.
I’m very happy with what it’s done to this side of the room. It adds height to the computer area and makes the puny Walmart desk look more significant. The length of the shelf is roughly the same as the length of the file cabinet, desk and stool combined, so it looks neat and cohesive to me.
I have a few key items in mind that I’d like to get up and displayed on that shelf. I have to get some accessorizing on.
To save space on the small desktop, I also found a way to get the cable modem and wireless router out of the way. Over there on top of the filing cabinet, there’s a glorified cardboard box I got today from Target’s office supply section. I cut a hole in the back and ran the wires through. Out of sight, out of mind.
I’m getting very close to having the office all finished up. The to-do list is whittled down to just a side table for the chair area and some fun accessories to liven things up. The hardest part right now is to get those things taken care of before mentally moving on to the next room.
Collage Stool
Posted: October 10, 2010 Filed under: decorating, office, painting 4 Comments »
Here’s a fun new addition to our office-in-progress, courtesy of my lil’ sis, Jessie. This crafty gal has been working on a style of collage art that you can apply to just about anything. She’s been starting out on furniture odds and ends laying around the house, turning them into something much more special and cool.
So upon my recent visit to Murrlin (Maryland), I observed the process at length while watching hours and hours of Nip/Tuck on Netflix. (What a ‘effed up show, right?) She takes textures cut from magazine pages and puts them together on any flat surface using rubber cement. Then when the piece is complete, covers the whole thing with several layers of Mod Podge.
The first item I watched her finish was the top surface of this little TV tray table. Here’s a poorly lit iphone photo, which doesn’t do it much justice:
I like the depth you get from all the different layers in play. Plus most of the original images from magazines have a certain amount of perspective to them which can create some cool optical illusions if done creatively. I suppose it would be kind of hard to decide when to stop on designs like these. Since you can keep going and going, adding more layers, at some point you have to step back and call it done.
Next, she found this old bar stool out in the garage. It was previously painted with a little blue and white design from a furniture-painting phase back in high school. So she set to work on the seat of it, going with a lighter, cool color palette, which I liked a lot. It’s got a lot of whites, greens and light purple textures going on.
Graciously, she let me take it home with me. Even with the caveat that I was going to spray paint the legs white when I got home, which I did the very next day. I covered up her handywork with a plastic bag taped over the top like a shower cap.
The white legs really complement the colors in the collage. I’m happy with the result.
It’s currently chilling next to the desk. That position makes it good for discussions in our house that start with “come watch this video.” This corner of the office is still a big old question mark for me. The one thing I’m sure of is that I don’t want to buy a new desk. So to make the “desk area” take up more wall space, I’m trying to add stuff on either side that is a similar height. The stool is anchoring the right side, and I’ve got a little filing cabinet on the way to anchor the left.
We’ve got some cord-control issues going on in the desk-ular area. Super ugly. Got to work on that. Also have a lot of blank walls in this general vicinity. Got to work on that one too.
But let’s not fret over half-finished rooms…THANK YOU JESSIE for this awesome piece of functional art.
The Chair is Back
Posted: October 2, 2010 Filed under: decorating, office 6 Comments »
This old chair is new again. The upholstery guy just dropped off the finished product yesterday, and it turned out beautifully. And that sweet little IKEA sheepskin looks just awesome on there. I’m in love with it.
The chair was originally a hand-me-down, and it had seen better days. So in the spirit of recycling and saving money, re-upholstery was the way to go. Let’s get a little before and after action.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The guy I found to do the job let me select my own fabric, and I went with this one. I spent way too long agonizing over this decision, and by the time I settled on this one it was sold out at Fabric.com. I ended up spending $80 on the fabric from another site, which is more than I intended to spend. But with the total upholstery cost at $180, the grand total was still only $260 for essentially a brand new chair. I can live with that number.
I’m happy with my fabric selection, although it does sort of look like veins or capillaries which is kind of gross. But from a distance it’s almost like a solid color though. And the upholstery job was done impeccably. It’s really good work. The lining fabric and even the cover over the very bottom of the chair were replaced. And all of the piping and pleats look superb.
The cushion has a zipper in the back so the cover can be removed. And he sewed me some little arm-rest covers with the extra fabric. I think the arm covers are a little too granny’s-house, though. So they’ll probably stay off most of the time. Plus they cover up the nice pleating detail around the front of each arm rest.
I feel like this chair needs an ottoman real bad. Not a matchy-matchy ottoman, but something interesting, nice and sturdy so you can really kick your feet up. I keep blabbing about this knitted one, but in reality I don’t think it will be substantial or tall enough to actually put your feet up. I’m going to be on the lookout for something that might fit the bill and not break the bank.
