Welcome to my new office!

Finally the day has come to reveal all the changes I've made to my office! Although I finished it several weeks ago, we've have had guests staying here until recently, so the reveal had to wait. I really do love my new office so much! I frequently find myself wandering in there just to look at it. It's pretty, but even better -- it's pretty AND functional. Let me show you around.

Office accessories

My old office was a complete bit of a bore. It was all about work, work, WORK and I never took the time to actually make it into a beautiful space. This time I wanted more glamour, less clutter. More style, less school. More inspiring, less snoring. Or maybe more snoring, technically, since I also wanted it to double-duty as a guest room.

You get the point. I wanted a lot more from my office.

Since I didn't take before pictures, I can't unfortunately show you what this space used to look like. Just know that it was ugly and really boring. Most of the space was dominated by two very large desks, which were really practical when studying. However, since I'm no longer in school, I didn't need that figuration anymore, so the first thing I did was tossing out those massive desks. I replaced them with a small Ikea desk.

The new desk & footstool.

I turned the new desk at an angle against the Ikea Expedit that I already owned, to create a smaller, more confined "office corner" in the room. My bamboo chair mat frames the space perfectly. This new, smaller desk space is perfect for writing, which is mainly what I do at my desktop nowadays, without eating up the entire space. The Expedit cubbies hold everything from my ever-growing collection of writing research books, to Baby Cat's electric cat bed.

The office corner

Behind my desk I wanted a gallery wall with a mix of pictures of family, friends, and pets, and I ended up adding a few mementos as well. I also removed the old, ugly, light-sucking curtains that previously dominated the small, off-center window on the one side of my desk. A large, flowering bush (with delicious smelling flowers) grows right outside my window, and together, the curtain and the bush made this room really dark. I replaced them with sheer white curtains, which made such an enormous difference! I also added blackout curtains, to accommodate overnight guests.

Gallery wall & double curtains 

(if you look closely, you can see that some of the frames are still waiting for their photo)

Since we rent, I couldn't paint the walls a nice, new color. I was kind of bummed about that, until I found these colorful vinyl dots from Blik. They are removable, easy to apply, cheap, and they bring such a great pop of color to my otherwise boring white walls.

Wall dots, from the door.

Against the wall opposing my desk, I have my brand new daybed, fitted with a 10-inch thick twin-size memory foam mattress. Underneath it is the trundle that I built, fitted with a 5 inch (originally a 6 inch, but I trimmed off 1 inch for clearance) memory foam mattress, to add one more twin guest bed to the room.

Other side of office, from window.

I originally added the daybed to my office to gain a part-time guest room, and I had not anticipated the amount of additional use I've gotten out of it since I got it.  I read on it, I nap on it, I turn my computer around & watch TV on it, I sleep on it when my husband's snoring makes the master bedroom unbearable (only once, as of yet, but give him some time). Hubby have napped on it during the day on occasion as well.

 Daybed & DIY trundle.

I wanted to pile the daybed high with awesome pillows, but I had no idea how hard it would be to find suitable pillows! After a lot of work, research, DIY-ing, and a few failed internet orders, I've finally arrived at an acceptable state of pillow bliss.

A mix of vintage, store purchased, homemade, and custom Etsy ordered pillows

As a coffee table, I use this little rolling glass side table from Ikea. When I don't need it, it conveniently tucks right in under the desk. This works out wonderfully, as I can easily clear this space when I need to use the trundle. I just roll the table in under my desk, right next to my foot stool, and the trundle pulls right out.

 

Side table rolled in under the desk

Both daybed & trundle made up for sleeping 2 people

(as it turns out, snapping pics in the middle of the night do not produce the best picture)

This also allows me to use this flexible space to craft in my office. Previously, I used a foldable craft table in another part of the house, but the light was really bad. Now, I can easily clear this space to fit my craft table, which allows for more light for me while I work, and less clutter in the rest of the house. Major win-win. Or, more like win-win-win. Win.

Foldable craft table & sewing setup - I can even turn my desktop around & watch TV while i work

On the small sliver of wall between my closets, I used to have a system of whiteboard calendars, where I kept my school schedule. Now I have this 6 drawer tall dresser from World Market, and I really love how much extra storage it has added.

New tall dresser

And that's the tour! (I'll be seriously impressed if you made it this far though this longwinded post.) All the big things, at least. I'll post a more detailed look at some of the smaller features another day.

Faux-taxidermy deer head

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with my new, multitasking space!  Most of all, I'm so happy I finally took the time to truly make it my own.