Hey, look! I am actually following up on an after post on one of our home projects! As I shared in my 12 in 12 post and in my "before" post we have a room right off our entry way that was made for a home office. It has two closets, which make for perfect storage for all sorts of stuff, vaulted ceilings and a big window. We needed the space to function in 4 different ways:
1) As a home office for T's day job. You know we need some space for filing, tech gear, etc. and it also needed to be a space that was acceptable to be seen in the back ground of skype meetings.
2) As a quiet space away from sleeping babes to play music and hang out. Since T is a musician he needs space where he can write and play anytime without waking the little bear, especially since most of our free time is after she goes to bed.
3) As a reading nook and library. We both own waaaay too many books and love to read. Having a place to store our books and to curl up with one is a must in our house.
4) Last but not least I needed a space to be able to sew, blog, scrapbook and edit pictures.
In addition to these four functions, it also needed to be baby safe for days when either of us needed to wrap up a project while the little miss played.
I think we were able to make it all happen, so without further ado here's our Creative Room:
We started with taking everything out of the room as I shared in my before post, so we could paint. We chose Benjamin Moore's Divine White color matched to Behr Premium paint and primer in one. I chose Divine White for a couple of reasons, first, the furniture is dark and the red accents bright so I wanted to go lighter and brighter. Divine White is also what we painted the entry way so visually it would make that space seem continual and draw the eye in and make the art wall the focal point. Plus, I had a gallon left over from the entry way project, so bonus! It took three coats to cover that yellow up. Each time we tackle a project to cover the yellow I always under-estimate how dark it the yellow really is--ugh!
Once we finished painting we brought the furniture back in. And weeded through some of our books. Some went to half price, some went to the attic and some went to other areas around the house. But we slimmed it down so we could add some knick knacks and whatnot.
This little snail vase is one of my favorite little details. I found him at a florist around the corner from our house in Indy. I am hoping in the spring when the selection is healthier at the local green house to pick up a little succulent to plant in there.
I am too much of a nerd to not organize my shelves according to genre even though all the home decor sources say to organize according to color, but I did try a little color clustering on my shelves with in genre and only did it with colors that would compliment the other colors in the room like the red and cream. My thought was the colors that didn't fit could blend into one another by not being placed by one another and the colors that did go together could pop.
The wall the bookcases sit on is the tallest, largest expanse of space in the room with no doors or windows along it, so I had an art wall in mind that could capture some of our loves--music, memories, babies, letterpress art work.
In the corner across from the chair on the other side of the big window I created a little nook for me to blog, craft and do my thing. I saw the NORBERG desk at Ikea a few months back and thought it might do the trick and be a space saver. Really there is plenty of room for another full sized desk, but I thought a desk that could fold down would be good at motivating me to tidy up my mess at the end of the day...so far...so good. Also, I wanted whatever desk we chose for this corner to be able to be used else where in the house because I have a little more in store for this room when we can afford certain pieces of furniture.
The chair was free. It was left behind at one of T's gigs a few years back and so we drug it home and it sat. And sat. It was originally a dusty, pinky, orange and covered in dirt from outdoor and music festival gigs. I cleaned it off, sanded off the nasty old paint, primed and painted it with a white semi gloss. The basket is to keep track of current projects and they stay on the chair (away from little hands) when I am not working on them.
I organized some of my other items in mason jars on the desk. Thread and ribbon and whatnot. I wanted to hang three of the FORHOJA cubbies above my little area for more storage, but alas Ikea is sold out. Which is probably good because it will force me to find something more creative or unique off Craig's list.
I am pretty happy over all. The room is cleaned up, organized and meets all our needs. It also is light and airy and feels more like "us" than the dark yellow. I am hoping to tweak it here and there, add a few more prints to the art wall, and of course the cubbies about the sewing desk. And the mister digs it and I know the little miss likes it now because she can actually hang out and play.
So there it is! Our little project.
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