Office/Craft Room Reveal

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We've had an office/craft room in every house we've lived in. Our first house was only 12' x 11' feet with a closet, so when we moved into our last (big) house, it was so wonderful to be have such a big space. I think it was 19' x 20' plus a large side alcove and door to a walk in attic. The office/craft room at our current home is much smaller than the one at our previous house, and even though I know we purged a lot of stuff when we moved, I'm pretty sure I've acquired more since then. This room is only 16 ft by 14 ft, less than half the size of our last space, where we spent many evenings together as a family, the girls doing homework, Tim doing office work and I was always working on some creative project. Link to the office/craft room at our last house is at the end of the post. 

 Mr. DIY built a worktable for me, probably 19 or 20 years ago, with a  72" x 50" laminated top and cabinets underneath for craft storage. At our last house, we had room for a separate desk for Mr. DIY, in this office but we use  opposite sides of the table for our workspace. Our dining room is just outside the door and whenever I need a large space to cut out fabric or to make a large craft, the dining room table is the perfect spot. Combine the two spaces and I have more room to create than ever before. 

Of course I started out with a plan, and as you can see, we settled on the 4th option. 

One of the long walls, we used a combination of Ikea Nordli modular drawers to set the TV on with Ikea Hemnes bookcases on either side.

We found a new ceiling fan on Amazon and Mr. DIY installed it a few weeks ago. The link to the ceiling fan is a few pics down.

I found the rugs a month ago on Overstock.

We sold the mission style ceiling fan the previous owners chose on Craigslist.

The room might only be 14 ft x 16 ft, but the vaulted ceiling and the windows make it seem so much larger.  

Maybe someday we'll redo the Formica and paint the wood cabinets a lighter color. I'll add it to the ever growing project list. 

I keep the artwork our girls made while they were in school on one of the upper shelves. I brought the painted bird square in the back on the left up to our mountain cottage. 

If you've followed me when we lived at our last house, these armoires were in our family room on either side of the fireplace. You can see how they looked in our previous house HERE .They didn't work in our new living room but they were perfect for storage in the office/craft room because there it doesn't have a built in closet. 
Each armoire holds so much. They're perfect for storing our printer, printer paper, craft supplies, fabric, and sewing supplies. The lower 2 doors and drawer in the left armoire hold rolls of wrapping paper,  gift boxes, and other gift wrapping essentials. We used to keep those items in the attic just off our bonus room office.

The big grey baskets are great for holding large spools of ribbon (as if I didn't have enough), extra books, wreaths and miscellaneous items. I found them on Amazon, which I linked above. 

Thanks for taking a tour of our office/craft room. If you'd like to see the office/craft room at our previous house, you can see it HERE.

Pam

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Fall on the Front Porch

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Yesterday I dressed up my porch for Fall and I felt a little silly.

My neighbors must have thought I had gone crazy too.

You see,  Nate (the hurricane) pushed up some very humid air up from the Gulf and interrupted our warm, wonderful weather with cool nights that we had been enjoying for several weeks.
I mean, who in their right mind would put a throw blanket with a bunch of pillows in the middle of 80 degree weather with 80-90% humidity?
Seriously.
I was sweating as I set out everything out.

Ah, but I persisted.
And even though I felt silly fluffy pillows and setting the throw just so,  I continued to taking photos as cars drove past my house.
I didn't even turn around and wave as many in our neighborhood do... I just pretended I didn't hear or see them.

Oh, don't tell me you don't do the same thing when you're outside or at the grocery store when you didn't put your make up on. I can't be the only one.

Anyway, it's going to get cool here sooner or later and my porch will be ready for the cool evenings of Fall.

Replacing the Basic Builder Lights In The Office

The basic builder lights in our office didn't give out much light at all, so Mr. DIY replaced them. 
We had two these lovely "boob" lights with a ceiling fan in the middle. The ceiling fan does not have a light on it. 

My Haul From Ikea

Last Tuesday my daughter and I, her boyfriend and his mom, went to Ikea to get a few things. We spent much of the day browsing and shopping. This was our guests first visit to Ikea. 

All of you who've been there know exactly how they felt seeing all the choices Ikea has to offer. They were able to find a couple of bookcases, a desk and a whole bunch of other little items. My haul looked like this:

Ikea has so many inexpensive gadgets. I picked up a couple of these laptop supports for $3.99 each. Mr. Fanatic's laptop gets really hot on his lap and this solves the problem.

 

I picked up a couple of white bath sheets. Don't know about you, but when I get out of the shower, I definitely don't want a little towel, especially in the winter. Ikea towels have this ingenious loop on one side just for hanging them up on a hook. No more finding towels on the floor because they slipped off the hook.

Went to Ikea about a month ago and picked up some other white curtains for my Master Bedroom, but they were too sheer. Found these tab topped Lenda curtains instead and love them a whole lot more. This photo was taken a few days ago before Mr. Fanatic raised up the curtain rod closer to the ceiling.

Here's a before shot of our Master....

Now, while I can't show you the whole room, I can show you how the 20" Fjadrar inner pillows look with some pillow covers I purchased awhile back. Ikea has the most unpronounceable names for their products. I bet the Swedes don't think so! 

The inner pillows are down filled and were only $6.99 each. I  also bought a 24" square down filled pillow for my daughter.

I purchased a few more items and will show you where I put them another time. Will also have to take some photos of the whole Master Bedroom, as well.

If you've been to Ikea, what was your favorite find and what department do you like best?

Pam

p.s. I have not been compensated in any way by Ikea.

Decorating A Studio Apartment

Decorating an apartment from scratch on a very limited budget  in less than a weeks time is very difficult, to say the least. We didn't get much accomplished in the way of making it look pretty, but it was a good start.

My daughter's possessions consisted of a dresser, a frying pan, a hand blender, a lamp and her clothing when she moved a few weeks ago. She had a total of about 15 boxes, most of which were clothing, shoes and accessories.

She and I had the daunting task of making decisions from everything from big things such as a bed and furniture, and little things such as sponges and cleaning products. Here's the direction of where her apartment will end up. Most of the large items have been purchased

A bouquet of flowers from her dad brightened the place up when stuff was everywhere in the apartment.

Baskets from Target will keep this cabinet in her Dining Room organized. The baskets hold office supplies, envelopes and hardware.

Third times a charm was true for the placement of the bed. It was originally on the opposite wall and the tv(should she ever get one), was going to be placed in the niche. My daughter chose a $4.99 tulle curtain panel from Ikea to create a little drama. She plans to install some Christmas lights at the top of the inside of the niche and possibly paint the back wall gray. I was thinking today that a shimmery silver/gray curtain would look good on the wall behind the bed, as well. The small pillows still need covers and they will be a brighter turquoise. I'm so glad we were able to make this part of her apartment pretty.

The bedcover and the down pillows and white covers were found at Ikea for a really great price.

Since she hadn't  purchased a  table for the Dining Room, we ate sitting on the bucket at this little table. The Noresund table from Ikea was only $19.99. My daughter picked out a $2.00 place mat from Target for a little pop of color on top. Two slipcovered Tullsta chairs from Ikea will eventually flank the table on the other side of the room and I will make a cushioned slip cover for the bucket for extra seating and storage.

The kitchen is fairly large for a studio apartment. My daughter has plans to make a skirt to cover what's under the sink. She also has a space like that under the vanity in the hallway.

Now for the part we didn't get to.... I hate that we didn't get past this and am hoping my daughter continues to make her apartment pretty. The little piece of furniture was left behind from the last tenant and I'm thinking it could be primed, then painted a bright turquoise. White curtains hung high above the window will brighten and soften up the room. She definitely needs a storage bench at the end of her bed to give more seating and a place to store the items in the boxes in the Dining Room.  It's hard to believe we made a lot of progress, but when I got there, you could barely walk through the apartment because the floor was covered with boxes.  All the boxes and pieces of wood in the doorway is the table set she purchased about an hour before my rental car had to be turned in. That was soooooo much fun bringing up to the apartment!

Most of her clothes fit in the main closet. It's a good thing she has a huge dresser, as well.

The entry closet(a few steps away from the main closet), still had a few feet of hanging space left, but had to hold the vacuum cleaner and a folding cart. We added a 12" deep melamine shelf along the back to give her more storage space. Wish I could have organized this closet before I left.

I can't tell you how many trips we made up the stairs to the apartment with bags and boxes of stuff. Here is the list of trips we made to stores:
Ikea: 3 

Walmart: 2 (2 different ones)

Target: 3 (3 different Targets)

Home Depot: 2

HomeGoods: 1

Doesn't sound very difficult when put so simply on a list, but imagine each trip with LA traffic and each trip represents a trunk/car full of stuff and numerous trips up and down a flight of stairs. 

After bringing up each trunk full of stuff to the apartment, all of the things had to be put away and set up. What a job! It took working from early morning until late at night setting things up.

Had we more time and if my daughter had internet access, I would have loved to utilize Craigslist to find some vintage pieces...would have loved to have had time to go to a few thrift stores, as well.

I developed a stiff neck on about the third day there from lugging all the stuff around, but I couldn't let that stop me. By the time I got home, my neck was so bad a visit to the chiropractor for some relief was in order.  

One good thing that came from all the hard work was that, despite eating FOUR "Double Double" burgers from In & Out and eating some desserts and sweet tea at Starbucks, I lost 4 more pounds! Gotta love that!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Pam

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