Finding inspiration for my home office...
When I updated my Bogey House Tour page I realized I have done nothing in the office. It is truly a very bland and boring room….
We painted the walls and added the hardwood before we moved in and we have changed out the paddle fan and added curtains but other than that…nothing.
Not a HUGE problem since I only do book work once a month and the only soul who uses this room on a regular basis is Cleo…this is her lookout!
But it really is an issue for a room that is right off the entry and can be seen from the main living room….
This room has ZERO design appeal or character.
So I have decided that this room will be my next big project.
The only question is WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO!
So I do what I always do when it is time to plan a makeover. Find my inspiration, make a plan and execute the plan.
First, Pinterest. I know I want some kind of accent wall so I searched “accent wall” and “office wall.”
I found a few things I liked so I dropped them in my “office makeover file.”
I debated whether to do just board and batten or an “accent wall” on the main focal wall…behind the desk.
Hum…I have board and batten in the entry…I like it but not sure if I would like it in this space.
Keep in mind, the one AWESOME thing about this room…the 10’ ceilings…make picking a wall accent very challenging in my opinion. Certain wall treatments just don’t look good in a large room with high ceilings.
My DIL sent me a few that were interesting….this is one….
I love the wood accent as opposed to the all-one-color-treatments like I did in my entry and guest bath….
Now this brings me to the color choice I KNOW I want…I think. I want pink. Not pepto-bismol pink but kind of a pale/blush/coral/whitish color.
Kind of this colorish….
(I can’t for the life of me find the link to this picture…my sincerest apologies!!!!)
One of my blog-friends, Cristina at Remodelando la Casa used it in a bedroom makeover…”Parisian Pink”….I have loved the thought of using pink in a room since.
Somewhere in the room. Maybe paint the board and batten/accent wall white and paint the walls the “pink” color or visa versa. Not sure yet because it will really depend on the wall treatment I choose.
Another choice….
I would paint the entire accent wall the “pinkish” color I choose and then paint the other walls white…just plain ole’ white.
But to date this is my favorite look….
Now, stick with “my vision” here. This is actually a three-dimensional wallpaper. My plan…paint the wall the “pinkish” color then make the vertical stripes out of strips of walnut.
OR paint the wall a darker charcoal greyish color and make the stripes pine with the whitish stain I used on my dining room bench.
If I do decide on this treatment, I know I want a “high contrast”….either light walls and darker stripes or dark walls with lighter stripes. And I really think I would want the stripes to be in wood.
Hum…what to do, what to do.
I am still looking for my inspiration…something that makes me say “YES, THAT’S IT”…not sure when the light bulb will go off but I have learned to live with changes in my mind for a time before I jump head long into a project.
Until that happens the desk, shelving and closet all need to be decluttered, purged and reorganized.
I still like this shelving and it serves a purpose…printer on top, paper and cartridges in the cabinet. But it seriously needs to be decluttered and the pictures on the wall need to be “rethunked.” The long vertical one is of our ski trip 20 years ago…the one with tulips is something that has been hanging around for 20 years…the cute little guy is Brian (that one will go somewhere…just too cute!)
The desk…
The desk will be on the “focal wall” so it needs to be completely clutter free. I thought it would be pretty to put a glass desk in front of the window and move the “reading chair” to this wall…but Cleo likes to lay in the chair and look out the window. Sometime our design decisions have to revolve around kids and pets.
The mirror propped against the wall?
I think I have kicked it around for a good 8-10 years and have never hung it on a wall. I love it but have never found the right place for it. It will be the first thing loaded in the car for donation!
This whatever it is…
The credenza is from our living room in the Lankford House. Between Brian and me, we have 4 computers and a slew of charging cords. The lamp was a Christmas gift from my dad to my mom THEIR FIRST CHRISTMAS…it is literally older than me. The Sonos speaker was in the living room and was moved in here before Christmas. The old mail holder. The wall decor….it’s all just a mess and needs some serious attention!
I have every computer I have owned for the last 20 years and for some stupid reason I think I need to keep the hard drive…you know, just in case I need to find an email I wrote 15 years ago. So I need to dismantle all the computers and pull the hard drives. I also have all the paper work for every car I have owned in the last 20+ years. Why? I don’t know…and I don’t know why I think I need to keep it, but I do. I just need to find a way to organize it all so that it isn’t taking up as much real estate as it is at this moment.
All that is stored in the large closet along with my business supplies, coats and some seasonal decor.
I swear…I am not a hoarder. Ask anyone in my family…they all swear I throw IMPORTANT stuff away all the time. Maybe so, but there have been many times in my life when having documentation for something I bought, or a contact I made, or insurance claim I filed, or bills that I paid, YEARS later, was important.
As a small business owner I also have to keep records for years….especially tax records. Fortunately we have tons of storage space upstairs and I am good about organizing and labeling boxes.
As long as I have the room to keep records on the car I bought in 1999 or the hard drive from the computer I used in 2006, I will keep them. But maybe they can be stored in a box upstairs and not taking up valuable space in a closet downstairs….hum…maybe.
The entire room needs to be purged and reorganized. Since we just moved into this house a little over a year ago, it really isn’t THAT bad.
I always purge and “organize” before I go out and buy storage boxes or organizing systems. And truthfully, I want to get rid of stuff so I am really not interested in adding more stuff…my goal is to try to use what we have!
So my goal this week is to get rid of and reorganize stuff and keep looking for inspiration. Once the clutter is gone and I know exactly what I want, I can make a plan.
Until next week…
