My New Office

When one hasn’t been sick in at least two decades, it is hard to understand what is going on with your body when you do get sick. Last week, I was struck with the Flu (I am calling it that; no official diagnosis since I didn’t go in for a test), and remember wondering if getting run over by a high speed train would be less painful. Being sick to me felt as alien as having three legs, or two heads, or gills instead of a nose. It was not good, in short.

When I finally started feeling better, the only way to get over how unproductive I had been, was to take on some drastically productive tasks. And if you haven’t guessed it already, super-productivity around here usually means one thing – rearranging of furniture. ; )

Here is a look back at how things keep changing:

There are many things in our wonderful home that drive me nuts – lack of a mudroom, the weirdly jutting kitchen counter, and lack of an office space for me, are perhaps the top 3. And while I can’t move walls just yet, I decided that I would spend all my new found energy in solving problem # 3 – An inspiring and beautiful work space for moi !

THE BEFORE

Here is a brush-up on what life was like before. My desktop sat on the back kitchen counter, while I used the kitchen-cabinets below it to store all of the overflowing paperwork, right along with the Tupperware, and pots and pans. It’s presence always pissed people off (including me) because it took up valuable appliance and cabinet space, and it didn’t stop the kids from touching all my stuff. Here is the only picture I found to show you the disaster in the background …

For a new office, I walked around the house and considered all of my options. The top contender was our finished third floor. It is expansive; houses the printer and a 70-inch TV; has a bed; lots of good light; and best of all, the kids don’t go up there. But it seemed so far removed and cold. It was too big to make cozy in short, and had all this other storage stuff that I don’t really want in my magical space!

So, I went to that one room in the house that has seen the most changes – the room-to-the-right we shall call it – which is officially a formal living room, but has been a dining room, a partial office, a playroom, a storage room, etc. Here is a picture of what it looked like before I took it over yet again. A space that wasn’t being used by the adults or the kids in any meaningful way.

THE AFTER

The first thing I did was remove the kid’s junk from that beautiful cabinet and put my computer in it. It is at a height where I can stand and type (I like that). With much needed room for all my paperwork in the rest of the shelves and drawers. Best of all, it has a door that closes so that no one runs away with my keyboard or mouse or paintbrushes or my sanity.

Next, I wanted a big table were I could do all my art projects. Long time ago, I rescued this wooden dining table that my sister no longer needed. It was being used as a side table in one of the bedrooms. Devang helped me bring it down, and I expanded both leafs to give me valuable work space.

I also wanted a space to cozy up and read my books (or sleep when I am sick again … ha!). I repurposed our old “Christmas” couch by covering it in a linen sofa cover (an old purchase). Then I pushed it against the wall and added mini risers to give it some height. Now, if I have friends over, I can actually use this space for tea too. I kept the rug.

Next, I cleared one corner and moved our highly ugly, but absolutely essential metal filing cabinet, from the living room to the new office. yay!!

And that’s about it my friends! I am so happy with how things turned out in this space. This was a ZERO DOLLAR make-over proving that sometimes you just need a little bit of imagination to make a space work!

To celebrate, I forced Devang to take some pictures of me, enjoying my new work space. Let’s just say that he could have done better in showing just how much fun I was having.

Thank you for following along this very long post! It felt good to type up something that you’d enjoy reading in my new work space! = ) Time to go be productive!