Home Office & Guest Room: In Progress

Once I finished the dining room chairs, I was ready to turn my loving attention to the guest room/office. I have changed and rearranged this room at least 4 times since we moved-in a year and a half ago, but I was never quite happy with it. When a tiny room has to do double duty as a functional guest room and a full time home office, it can get a bit cramped.

This was already the third revision of the space. The room started with only one desk (the wooden writing desk you see in the right back corner) but I was in desperate need for more work space. When my dad told me his school was giving away extra donated office furniture, including filing cabinets and desks, I had him grab me both. 

 

While it was practical and worked for a bit, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic with all the large furniture, so it was time for yet another change.

We grabbed this corner desk from Ikea for under $70, moved both the other desks into the basement (the metal office desk is now a work table in the garage) and did a little switch-a-roo with the remaining items to create the newest set-up.

 

I centered the bed under the window (Can I tell you how much I HATE when windows are not centered or balanced in a room? Arg!) to create a day bed feel and framed the windows with some salvaged shutters. I’m still undecided about whether or not to re-paint the shutters or leave the weathered, distressed look. Thoughts? 

The chair in the corner is the perfect spot for guests to charge their phones, place a glass of water, etc. and it doesn’t take up much space.

The corner desk allows me to have more of a nook set-up and provides ample space for the desktop and writing space, without taking up a large chunk of the room. I have plans to upgrade all the white organization boxes (can you spot a sample?) and even to paint the metal filing cabinet, currently hidden under a small table cloth.

How sweet are the babies? O-M-G

Other plans for the room include hanging artwork, creating more tissue paper pom poms for over the bed, and painting the tall dresser (that I have had since I was a baby) which adds great storage for guests. As you can see from the to-do list, this room is far from finished but I am more than happy with the progress.

Anyone have any big plans for the weekend? I will be tackling projects around the house and trying to squeeze in some quality time with the hubs and puppykids because we all know how quickly Monday morning rolls around.

Literary Lamp

 One of my “labor days” project this past weekend involved updating a 3 dollar brass lamp I picked up from Goodwill last week.

$3 Goodwill brass lamp and nasty (with a capital N) shade

The lamp had a great shape and height, was heavy, and most importantly still worked! It was destined for some glossy white spray paint and a unique lampshade. First stop was the make shift garage paint booth since it decided to rain most of the weekend. (The can of white spray paint was shown a lot of love, let me tell you.)

Disclaimer: cans of spray paint were harmed in the making...sorry mother earth!

Once the base went from dirty brass to shiny white, my attention went to the shade. I ripped off the existing the material from the shade base and then looked at it for two days. I’ve been looking for a shade with a great shape to try and recreate this…

Hemp wrapped lamp shade with scalloped edges

…but haven’t had much luck, and since this shade came with the  lamp I was determined to find something great to do with it. Anyone who knows me understands my love for old books and literary classics and when I came across a paperback version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” for a few bucks at the thrift store, my brain gears started a-workin’.

I took a circle hole punch to the pages, grabbed my trusty glue gun and here’s what I came up with:

I’m not going to even try and pretend I don’t love this, the hubs even said that this was his favorite thing I’ve done lately (I nabbed a winner, huh?) To think this was only project of many has me boasting a proud design mama sticker and I can’t wait to keep sharing the goods with you.