{Upstairs} Office Update

This afternoon Lily went down for a HUGE nap! It's my gift after we got up at 7 (not complain'!) and were at the mall before 10. We shopped for over 4 hours, played, walked around, and had a lot of fun with just the two of us. She slept for maybe 2 1/2 hours and I got bored playing around online (for once). So I finally got the energy up to tackle some of the upstairs projects that keep getting pushed back.

My office... or whatever you want to a call a collect all room with the desire to be an office... is pretty much a storage place for a lot of things. It's still a work in progress and will be for awhile. There was once a built in closet where we will build built-ins in the future. We ripped out the closet during the gigantic upstairs remodel a couple years ago.

Thanks to my parents I have a desk. It's a beast of one and my mom bought all new hardware for it while she attempted to use it (she didn't care for it and I think it was too big for her in her space). I'll admit the color isn't the highest on my list but you know what, it's staying. It was free, in great shape, and let's admit, I'm not a huge painter of furniture. I also have a to do list that's a mile long! So for now I'm going to focus on the rest of the room and the future purchases to help tie the room into a real, functional office that's CUTE!

The desk... oh so much work is needed! Things definitely need to find homes!

So, I have the desk. I also have an armoire that was also my parents. You may notice a theme for that one! The problem with the armoire is that it's super old and has been with my parents forever. During the moves over the years, it's lost one of the doors. But that's ok, I have plans some day. I haven't put the big door on because I'm using it to hold stuff and the door wouldn't close with what's inside it. However, I do have plans for that side of it too... including another built in shelf! It's a good thing I know someone who'll help me (my dad!).

Craft "closet" aka the armoire. It's a work in progress!

We kept the original built in desk and shelves when we remodeled. My dad took part of it home to help sand and varnish it and I think (hope!) that the hinge is at his shop. I have the rest of the parts to put it all back together but I need the hinge. It's a super long piano hinge for the whole length of the desk.

Yes, I'm fully aware that I have four frames that need photos. I've had that blue long one for probably 10 years (or more!) and it's been moved from home to home with nothing ever being done. It matches another frame that has a picture of me and my cousins on one side. I've since moved the books around. The back color of the built-in is the same as the wall color, I kept the shelves varnished, and the trim white to match the floor trim. I may paint the back a fun bright color or do a pattern. Not sure though. It'll probably be one of the last things I do to the room though.

Original built-ins that need some sprucing up (not to mention the drop down desk portion to be put back in place!

Floor, pre mopping for the second and third time!

The future built-in area. Notice the change of floor color and even the direction of the wood? That change was where the closet used to be. I didn't want a closet anymore and we wanted built-ins. We're going to go all the way from wall to wall and take up the whole short wall you see here. It'll be where we store our school books, boxes to store items (I'm thinking a trip to IKEA will be in the future) and the home to our future printer and anything else that doesn't need to sit on my desk. I do have a filing cabinet so I don't have store that type of stuff. We keep the filing cabinet in one of the crawl space closets so it's not taking up useable floor space. The two posters here and the black CD cabinet were my brother's and the painting is one of many I did in college (the assignment was a self portrait with hand - which I hate - and I added my dog at the time, Rugby). 

Future built in shelf area!

So there is the current state of the office. Here's a little before photos:

And I'm wondering why I can't get some things up by mopping three times?!?!? I don't know why we didn't protect the floors... live and learn!

Insulated, drywall, mud, new electrical, and new windows... Ready for paint!

Working on paint, haven't added trim yet...

The Office To Do List... (as of now)
Continue mopping floors, scraping may be necessary
Burn/shred personal items that I don't need anymore
Organize paper work
Build built-in shelves
Buy organizational items... boxes for CDs (music and storage), magazine storage, school papers, etc.
Paint back of original built-in
Buy curtain hardware and curtains
Buy office chair (so my dining room chair can go back to where it belongs!)
Put zebra rug in place (you can see it one of the above photos)
Buy accent chair... maybe a DIY if the right chair comes along
Decorate - hang posters, frame photos, etc.
Get computer - this summer! Waiting on the Mac to release the version of the iMac desktop

I do know what color combos I'm going with... teal/blue-ish color, green (like lamp on desk), and zebra print, plus the colors already going on - wood floors, tan walls, white trim.