My Office is Done!

HI friends,
Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you've had a great week and have a chance to have some fun and relax this weekend. I am so excited today to share with you my home office that has one new edition to it and I think is done. Of course, it's taken me about two years (since we moved in our current house in North Carolina) to get it to this state. I needed inspiration, time for the projects, and money to carry out the projects (minimal $). Since I work at home when I'm in between my travelling work assignments as an educational consultant, I use my home office every day. Also, the kids do their homework and crafts in my home office so it needs to function for them as well. Since it's really supposed to be our dining room it's located on the main floor of our house and we see this room each and every day so it's important to me that this room is pretty and functional (as I can't close a door to it as there is no door!). It has received a lot of decorating attention over the last two years (versus some rooms like my husband's home office and our bonus room that haven't received much attention at all).
 
Here was my home office yesterday:
 

 

*You might remember the inexpensive white cotton Ikea rug in this room that I painted stripes on under my craft table last year. Well, this white rug was close to impossible to keep clean with our black lab dog hanging out in this room with her muddy paws and black fur. So, rug be gone!

 

This was my home office two years ago (notice the previous owners bronze chandelier and coffee paint color on walls and ceiling):

 

 

 

 

Home Office Now:

 



 

 



There were many, many expensive options for rugs that I loved but we're on a budget trying to save our pennies this summer for a family adventure we're taking next month so I was super pleased to find a cheap (less than $100) rug option at Target that I liked.

 

 

 

 

Here's a run down on some of the projects I did in this room over the last two years......

 

 

 

 

 
I really wanted wide blue striped curtains and I couldn't find any anywhere so I made my own by painting wide blue stripes on white curtains.
 

 
I need a lot of storage for my education consultant resource books:
 

 

This shelf piece of furniture was in my parent's basement in the 1970s. It was made of a fake wood veneer. I painted it white and gave it a new life.

 

 
I bought these two blue and green small lampshades on clearance at a Pottery Barn store years ago and had them waiting in the attic for the perfect home. I guess I designed the room around these shades if I really think about:
 

 
I made the two square marine life artwork pieces from paper, modge podge, and art canvases. I bought the furniture that the printer is on (and it's twin on the other side of the window) both for $16 at the local Goodwill and painted them aqua blue then added the two paisley baskets for storage from Lowes:
 

 

 The two blue seahorses on the wall were a birthday present purchased on etsy.
 

 
I covered the two bar stools with green and blue striped fabric that I already had:
 

 
I found this beach glass mirror in a home store near the beach in North Carolina:

 
I gotta give props and credit to my husband for changing the paint color on the walls and ceiling from a coffee brown to 'Beach house' blue (kinda appropriate, don't you think? not that we live at the beach but obviously, we love the beach).

 
I replaced the heavy bronze chandelier that was in this room when we bought the house with an Ikea basket light that I found in their clearance section:
 

 
The four square blue and green art pieces were purchased from Target years ago and used to be in our dining room of our old house in Virginia:
 

 
I covered an art canvas with three dish towels (yes! dish towels!) from the Monterey aquarium in California:
 

 

 





I guess I'm so proud of this room because it evolved over two years and was very inexpensive to decorate. It's really my space in our house though of course I share with my kids and husband but I had the license to do whatever I wanted in here. I'm happy camper when I go in here daily to work or hang out.
 

 

 
One last time....BEFORE:



AFTER:

Before:



After:

Thanks for joining me today friends. Stop back by soon and I'll share with you how I repurposed the white cotton Ikea rug that I had in my room- it found a new use and home somewhere else in our home!
 
Have a great weekend-
Megan