I'm excited to share with you our latest home makeover. Even though we've been in our house for three years now, crazy work schedules, kids' activities, homeschool, and daily living take up a lot of our time. Our office was one of those spaces in our home that was sadly pushed to the back corner for a long time.
However, now that our office space is officially 'finished,' I simply cannot believe we waited so long. What a joy now to check our email in the morning in a pretty space! What a delight to address notecards and reach for envelopes just behind my chair instead of running around the desk to another cabinet! How convenient to reach for printer refill-paper stored directly beside the printer instead of (you guessed it), running around the desk to another cabinet! And to have a pen/pencil scissor holder that actually holds enough pens & pencils? Divine.
Isn't it crazy how long we can live our lives in an unorganized manner, just making do and telling ourselves some day it will get better? Lately my prayer has been: Lord, may I live to serve you with excellence in every area of my life, understanding when my private life is in order, my public life can more fully glorify You.
Our completed office, praise His name, is another small step in that direction.
Don't you just love those adorable seagrass stools? I was fortunate enough to find these little gems at our local Fred Meyer, and although I originally purchased them to fit under my green console in the hall, they simply stuck out too far. I held onto them, though, and so far the office has been the perfect place for them. Several little bodies often crowd in here, faces glued around the computer screen to look at pictures, view a YouTube video, or play multiplayer Minecraft. Extra seating is never a bad idea; and even better, the lids come off for storage. Today we have Legos in the left and camera equipment in the right :)
Yes, I had a moment of creative extravagance and made myself an inspiration board like I always see in magazines. Silly me, I've always wanted one of these! I made this burlap bulletin board after seeing one in Ballard Designs I loved. Then I just added a bit of this and that from my inspiration files. It makes me happy.
The built-in shelving and cabinetry are such a blessing for storage. Now I finally utilized the space to its best advantage by storing stamps, address stickers and envelopes in one basket, my pretty notecards and paper products in another, and my Bible study notecards in a third. The stack of little boxes hold business cards, extra staples, rubber bands, etc. Notice my stash of House Beautiful magazines on the bottom shelf?
By far one of the most special parts of this room (did some of you notice in the photos above?) is the opportunity I had to stencil the back wall.
I've wanted to stencil my own wall forever, but with heavy texture on most of the walls in our home it seemed much too tedious to attempt. When we opted to prime and paint over the paneling on the wall in this room, the opportunity presented itself with bells on, so I jumped on the chance.
I found it challenging to get a pretty shot of the stenciling due to wires and outlets, but here are a few shots, the bottom one being an "in-process" shot. I'll post a how-to later this week so you can see how I actually did the whole thing.
Here are the Before shots when things were still a bit in shambles (notice the disarray on the bookshelves?)...
....and now a much healthier reflection of peace, order and beauty.
Praying blessings over your private world today,
JaimeeLabels: Office, Organization, Stencil
