Office Update

A while back, writer Christine Cox was doing a story on home offices and through the power of Twitter, she found me. I just remembered I never shared the article with you; you can read it here (our story starts on page 36). Edited to add: the lovely office of fellow blogger Kate at Centsational Girl is also featured on page 30!

Here's some recent photos I took for the article. If you're wondering - no, the office never ever stays this clean!

(Note: The flip-style screensaver on my laptop can be downloaded here. Found via MakingItLovely)

Picture This

The last few fixes in the office space are taking forever to finish. We still have to paint out the rad but at least we put in the quarter round and hung up the picture wall. I'm loving the picture wall. It adds another layer of texture to the room. There is a lot going on in the room...but against the white wall, I don't think its too much. I have a few more prints waiting to be framed. It will be fun to see the wall evolve and change over time.

98% done :o)

One more post from me today. Must do it now before kitchen reno takes hold and I have no time (or energy) to sit in front of the computer.



A bit more snazzing up of the home office has happened. HandyMan has added a CD tower/base support to balance out the look of the room. As well, grommets have been added to create drop holes for all the unsightly cables. If you look close enough, you'll see the tangled mess of cables under the countertop...that's what you get when you have one socket in the room...opposite from where you need it! No matter, because with the kitchen right below and the kitchen ceiling being torn out, we'll have easy access to add in another socket when the electrician comes in. Yay.

Biggest change in the room are the fab Ikea curtains. The black and white pattern looks awesome against the green wall. We'll just have to get a just-as-fab fabric to reupholster the ugly but functional teal office chairs. Still left to do: fix the quarter-round, paint the rad, and add a filler panel for behind the file cabinets. Oh, and hang up my picture wall... though I'm thinking the kitchen will take precedence and we may not get to those last few things for a while. Ok, I'm tired. Just one last...

Before:


and After!

Office Progress

Who knew that installing two bookcases and two countertops would turn into a full day's work. It did... but our end product makes it all worth it. We finally have an office space for two. With digs this nice, maybe its time to start up a new home business!

We started the day with some of the 'behind the scenes' support done. HandyMan had run a support strip of MDF around the perimeter of the room upon which the countertop would sit. He also installed one on the wall for the horizontal bookcase. We painted it out to match the wall and eventually plan to hide it with cork board. The two file cabinets which support one end of the countertop had been built. We did switch out the castors for stainless steel feet 'coz we liked the look better.

Next step was to mount the bookcase. We don't think the bookcase was meant to be mounted on the wall... they didn't have any examples in the IKEA showroom and the salesguy wasn't too sure. But we figured with enough brackets and support the bookcase won't come crashing down on top of our heads. First, Handyman had to find the studs in the wall. Then we had to figure out where those studs fell on the bookcase and put brackets there. Here's a tip: HandyMan wanted to make sure he didn't drill too deep (IKEA products typically are only reinforced around the edges and are particleboard otherwise). So, he measured up the screw size and put a piece of masking tape around the drill bit. He'd stop drilling once the tape hit the top of the hole.




With the bookcase up (after a few missed studs, ahem), we moved on to attaching the countertops to the wall. The first went in easily, again with supporting brackets underneath. The second, which sits under a window, was a bit more difficult. We had to notch it out bit by bit (not easy when the thing weighs 100 pounds). We decided to use the $5 seam cover to hide the chipped end where the countertops meet.

All that was left then was a bit of dressing. We installed a curtain rod, and some of the pre-made drawers and doors that you can buy for the bookcase. All that's left is a bit of finishing touches- curtains, paint out the rad, install filler panel behind the file cabinets, prints on the wall, new lighting fixture. Oh, and a few grommet holes so we can rid of the mess of cords sitting on the countertop.




Shopping list for this room: 2x expedit bookcases, 2x Mikael file cabinets, 2 -4pk capita legs, 2 Numerar countertops (double sided, aluminum & white, 96"). All from Ikea.

Office update

Here's some pics of our progress on the office space...boy, has this taken longer than expected! HandyMan wanted a 'tower' effect with the bookcase and file cabinets and lucky for us, the dimensions just about lined up. Those IKEA folks think of everything ;) To the left of the bookcase you'll see the wood strip that HandyMan had to affix to the wall. This will support the bookcase we'll hang horizontally...all 75 pounds of it! (Note to self: do not put heavy, dusty Finance textbooks on the horizontal shelf). We'll put in a few wall brackets too just to be safe. The L-shaped countertops will both eventually have similar supporting wood strips underneath.

I had planned on backing the bookcase with a thin hardboard covered in wallpaper. But when I priced it out ($40 for wallpaper, $20 for hardboard), it didn't make sense. Instead, I'll make use of some foam core, cut to fit the bookcase cubby holes, and cover it with some funky giftwrap scraps I have from Paper Source. Voila, a $5 solution that will end up looking the same. Only a few more things to do -- secure countertops, build supporting gable, hide the cables, and install curtain rod. Thank goodness we've got a long weekend coming up.

Paint Me Pretty

What a doozy. It was non-stop snow Friday to Saturday night and when all was said and done, another 15cm of the white stuff had fallen. Judging by the snow in the backyard which sits almost level with the 42” fence, Mother Nature has been busy this winter. Seeing as we were housebound all Saturday, we decided to knock a few more projects off our list. Though we’ve made plans for the kitchen, the deck, and the guest bedroom, we decided to jump right in and tackle the home office instead. We hadn’t really planned out this space yet… all I knew was I wanted to paint. And paint now! A few months ago, we had stripped off the ugly wallpaper border. This left the room a boring baby blue with exposed pink patches where the border had been. Here’s a before just as we started moving the furniture out of the room.


And here’s the after. Two walls were painted Benjamin Moore’s Decorators White and the other two were painted Brookside Moss. You’ll see my cute bird print from munieca. The green in the first pic is probably truer to the colour of the paint.


We made a little shopping trip to Ikea and planned out the rest of the room. Basically, we’ll have an L-shaped countertop that runs underneath the window wall and down the right-side wall. Above the right-side wall, we’ll place two of these bookcases. One will run horizontally attached to the wall, and the other will run vertically and sit on the countertop. It was a cheap solution – the bookcases are only $99 each and you can buy small doors and drawers to fit in the cubby holes. The countertop itself will be supported by brackets/table legs and file cabinets at either end.

Now to take this home office from “functional” to “fantastic”, we’re going to do a few things:
- back the bookcases with wallpaper! Found a green and white modern damask from the Home Depot, similar to the one pictured below.
- On the long white wall, we’ll do a picture wall inspired by this photo below. All the frames will be black and white. It’ll be a great place to display some family and honeymoon photos.
- hang a curtain with a great print, like this black & white one, in front of the window.


There you have it. Another room almost done. I’ll post some after pics once the room is finished.

Workin' the Work space

With HandyMan off in British Columbia for work (and a little ski time at Whistler too), I played lonely housewife this weekend. This was the longest we've been apart since we've been married. Strange how big and empty the house feels when I'm all alone... and hearing all the bumps and creaks... and noticing all the creepy shadowy corners...why the heck did I decide to watch The Haunting of Sorority Row by myself???

At least the days were sunny and bright. Spring is just around the corner. I managed to get a few things accomplished sans mon mari, like filling all the holes in the office walls with putty. I figure I'll paint next weekend and finally be rid of the yawn-inducing washed-out baby blue that is on the walls. I can't wait to hang my etsy calendar, organize my file folders and fill the room with other pretty little things.





L to R: Egg and Paris filefolders Cavallini & Co.; letterpress calendar from etsy seller ilee; 5-year diary Rare Device; personalized paperweight iomoi; Kassett magazine file IKEA; Reed desk accessory Umbra; In the Aviary magnets from etsy seller Undies; Aeron chair DWR.