Spring Office Organization

I don't share too much of my office, partly because I'm not up there a lot. There's not really any air or heat upstairs, and with my laptop down here, it's not as necessary to work on my desktop computer anymore. I do go up there every so often though, and lately it was getting a tad chaotic. I hadn't cleaned or organized up there in a while. Today was a chilly, rainy day, and Trent worked an 11 hour shift (and is still working now), so I decided to get to cleaning up my office space and getting it all pretty again!

Earlier this week, I looked online for a storage unit for all of my stacked containers of craft and art supplies. They were piling up, so I needed something simple that would fit in the corner by my desk. I landed upon this storage unit at Target:

It was super simple and cheap. And it came in this box, unassembled. 

Luckily, though, it was super easy to put together! No screwdrivers needed, thank GOD! I hate dragging out tools, especially without Trent here..and trying to find the right screwdriver is not fun! I have never seen a shelf so easy to put together before.

Once it was assembled, I brought it upstairs, and got to work in my office. Just as I was hoping, it fit perfectly in the corner between my desk and my bookshelves. Space is LIMITED up here, let me tell ya! This room is super small, so I'm trying to utilize all the space and storage I can get. And I do have a lotta stuff!

So on these shelves I put all of my small storage containers, each labeled - paint supplies, craft supplies, crayons (yes, I have a whole tub of crayons), markers, sewing supplies, printer supplies, etc.

Even though I organized and cleaned, my office is still pretty full! And it's still unfinished. A couple of years ago we started painting and putting up trim, but we never got finished. So there's still some work to do up here - hence that corner "nook" above the stairs that's still sponge-painted brown! It currently holds an old little tv, and all of the unhung picture frames with no place to live.

But, it will have to do for now! At least it feels a lot cleaner up here - lots of papers were starting to pile up, and wedding things were scattered around - vases, invitations, etc. I moved all of the wedding stuff into the other upstairs room - Trent's old bedroom next door. That room is completely being used for storage at the moment!

I added that mirror, and rearranged my artwork. It feels a little bit more "me", and a little bit more "homey." And best of all, uncluttered!

Unfortunately, it's not just small, but it's also dark in here - especially on rainy days like this one.

I still have my wallflowers up on this wall...Trent took his plaques for Employee of the month to work with him, so I hung up my Emily Rickard painting on this wall, too. :)

I like the mirror in here because it kinda makes the space feel a little more elegant, and maybe even a little bigger. I'm not sure if on top of my printer is the best place, but hey, it works! I found this mirror at a yard sale - I think it was $4 or $5.

And I put a couple of my favorite paintings that I've done, along with calendar art by Katie Daisy, on my memo board.

All in all, not a huge change, but a nice little project that made me feel productive today! Always good to clean and organize!

Think Happy Thoughts

My office just became a happier place. I found this awesome print on Pinterest:

I love it. It's by Stephanie Ryan - Here's her website. She has lots of colorful, happy floral prints! So last night, I picked up a white $5 frame at Marshall's, then printed the art off on my printer today in a 5X7 size...

Then just cut it out and stuck it in the frame!

And now it's sitting happily on my bookshelf.

Isn't it pretty?

Oh, but I have more to show you....

 I also got this guy last night at Marshall's.

I LOVE him. He's a pig with wings. A glossy white pig. Another animal to add to my collection :)

And the basket in the background I also picked up at Marshall's - 10 bucks! I had to get it since I've been obsessed with dipped baskets for the past couple of months or so. No big deal.

I think it's going to live in my office or the guest bedroom if we ever get it done. I figure I can always store things in here. Whether it's extra notebooks, canvases, whatever...or all the extra blankets we have in the spare bedroom.

But anyway, I love the new accessories I picked up for my office. And the happy art to go with them!

Office Progress

I was moving files to my external hard drive the other day, when I found this photo:

  

This was what the upstairs office space looked like before I moved in. Sorry Trent, but....it was a little BLAH!

Today, it looks like this:

Yep, me and my colorful self moved in!! I guess you could call it progress, but it still needs a lot of work. I showed you my office before, but now you can see that I'm running out of storage space. And I need to hang my artwork. We did paint about 3/4 of the walls in this room and hung beadboard, but the trim around the ceiling still needs to be done, as evident by the huge gap between the wall paneling and the ceiling.

It would also be extremely nice to have a cabinet for storing all of my art supplies. Instead of a bunch of storage boxes stacked on top of each other.

Last week we cleaned out the nook in the corner above the stairs where Trent's old stuff was sitting. It still needs painted. See the ugly brown sponge paint that this entire room used to be filled with?

That yellow cord hanging down is our power supply for this room. There are no wall outlets upstairs. Another joy of living in a hundred-year-old house. Extension cords are your friends.

My new WHITE bookcases are still sitting pretty after my little makeover. (See Part 1 and Part 2 of my bookcase remodeling project for more info). Someday we want to gut the whole upstairs, and redo the flooring. In the mean time I'll be happy with finishing the painting and trim, and putting down a rug!

That's all for today..Just thought I'd share some updated photos of my office and what still needs to be done. Paint, trim, a rug and some storage solutions are definitely on my to-do list this summer.

(See more posts about my office here)

Bookcase Makeover Part 2: They're DONE!

MY BOOKSHELVES ARE DONE! YAY!! (See Part 1 of my Bookcase makeover here)

It's time to share how my mini office bookcases went from boring and black to white and bright! Here's a Before and After for ya!

I lovee it!! My office still needs a lot of work (Don't mind the half-finished paint on the walls in these pictures...or Trent's old stuff that is still back in that "nook" behind the bookcases!), but this is one thing checked off my office To-do list.

In my Part 1 post that's linked above, I shared how I covered the backs of the bookcases with wrapping paper I got for $2.99 at HomeGoods. To do the next step (paint them white) we had to take off the backs of the bookcases which were made out of a flimsy cardboard material. That left a lot of imperfections in my pretty chevron-covered backs due to ripping out the nails. So I ended up covering them all over again. Should have just waited in the first place. Oh well, you live, you learn.

So here's where I started out after I cleared off all of the things off my shelves again!

We were lucky to have super nice weather over the weekend, so we could spray paint the shelves! Or...Trent could spray paint them while I supervised.

We ended up using 1 can of primer and about 5 cans of white gloss paint/primer. Trent was definitely having fun. Or maybe not....

It's ok though, I think he secretly loves the projects I decide to take on. Or at least I like to think so.

Saleen helped too....ok, I lied...she just barked at whatever was in her sight (squirrel, bird, pedestrian, etc.).

After the painting was finally finished, we let the book cases dry for a couple of days then reassembled them. And I was left with these magnificent white and patterned bookcases!! I LOVE them, especially the glossy finish!

Once I moved everything in, they were just about perfect!

I arranged everything almost the way I did in my Part 1 post. And I just used whatever items I had lying around to decorate them.

I even found this little peony / vase at Target to dress it up a little bit.

 Lots of work to do still in my office as you can probably tell...but one step closer!

The finishing touch was a basket (about $20 at Target) to hold misc. books like old notebooks, yearbooks, and a few others I didn't really want to add to my shelves.

In summary: I love my bookcases! And can't wait to start on finishing the rest of my office. Have a good weekend everyone!

P.S.: I'm linked up at: Thrifty Decor Chick, House of Hepworths, Tatertots & Jello, Liz Marie, and Suburbs Mama!