Officially a Mess

My little 10 x 10 office has changed a lot in the 9 years we've had our house. Like all our other rooms, it's improved as we've had the time, skills, and money to put into it.

The first incarnation was a truly regrettable combination of purple walls, plastic fiber optic flowers, and enough clutter to make even a hardened hoarder beg for mercy:

Look, kitties!
Please, pay no attention to everything else.

Fortunately, this is the only photographic evidence that exists of my deep, personal design shame. The fact that I am now sharing it with all of you is evidence of my deep, personal sadomasochistic streak.

The next incarnation was inspired by Animator's Palette, my favorite themed restaurant on board the Disney cruise ships:

Photo from wdwinfo.com

source

So basically black and white all over, with tons of art and brightly colored doo-dads strewn about. (All of the art in Animator's Palette turns to color during dessert.)

This was the largest, most time-consuming renovation we'd done in our house up 'til that point, as we tried several different configurations - and even ceilings! - only to rip them out and start over again. That might have had something to do with the fact that I can't decide if I like something until I see it. And the fact that John is incredibly patient. Maybe.

Anyway, after far too many months, we finally had this:

Custom ceiling, cabinetry which uses picture frames for doors, bench seating, disguised closets and bookshelves, and, oh yes, a wrap-around desk that occupied a quarter of the room, all made by John - with a teensy bit of help from me.

Here's a better shot of the ceiling:

I have to rave about these ceiling tiles for a second: they're made of lightweight foam, and simply glue over existing popcorn ceilings! Fo' realz. Easy, oh-so-gorgeous, and there were actually several great patterns to choose from. (I have a girlier pattern with vines in my closet.)

[Note: It's been years since I ordered these, but I'm pretty sure Ceiling Tiles By Us is the site I used.]

With a 10 x 10 room, you have to get creative with storage. John made me this pull-out cabinet/drawer/thingy for all my ribbon:

To make one yourself, hang a piece of wood off a drawer's slider track inside an existing cabinet. Then attach wire shelves & paper towel holders to either side, and use a short piece of PVC pipe (or an old paper towel roll) to hang your spools of ribbon.

Next to the ribbon cabinet is this little gem:

It's a tiny hidden closet, which takes advantage of the dead space in the corner. The door slides inward to open, and inside I store wrapping paper, shoes, and dresses.

Here it is later, covered with art:

The frames on the door are attached with Velcro, so I can remove them and change out the art - which I do pretty often. The frames on the cubbies are on hinges, and open to the left.

That green cushion was soon replaced by a custom black-and-white checkered one, but I can't find a good photo of it. Here's the seat, though:

So, why I am showing you all this? Other than to embarrass myself? (I have better taste now, I swear! Remember my dining room!) Well, it's because my office is currently undergoing Renovation #3.

Yep, after five or so years the clutter and color chaos has gotten a little overwhelming - plus the floor was shot - so I decided to keep all the bones of the room but redo and streamline everything else. We've been at it about a week. And by "we," I mean John. John's been at it about a week. I've just been camping out in my new dining room workspace and assuring everyone who sees our front room that no, we are NOT having a yard sale tomorrow.

Ok, so it's a little messy around here.

Ok, a lot.

***
Hey, wanna see some progress shots?

Oooof course you do.


I feel this may need some explanation.

Ok, see, what's happening here is John's putting down wood flooring, which has to be glued, and he's using blue painter's tape to keep the boards together while the glue dries. The flooring guys told us we could install it right over the stick-down linoleum, so...uh...we are.

Finished!

The wood is the darkest we could find: almost black. The walls are actually just primed right now, but we tinted the primer the color I'm thinking of using just to try it out: a kind of teal-ish robin's egg blue. What do you guys think? I'm hoping it will go with most of the art I want to display, and also lighten up the room.

Here's something John added back during the dining room remodel:

When John made the cabinet of wonders in the dining room, he actually freed up about 16 inches of space in the wall to inset THIS cabinet in. If you look closely at my first pic of this room, you can see there was a cabinet here before, but it stuck out about 4 inches. This one is flush with the wall, AND [drumroll, please] it has all this, too:

Woot woot!

Each door now holds my Star Trek book collection, leaving the rest of the cabinet free for other books and fabrics and junk n' stuff. It still needs handles (I bought antique door knobs for those) and *hopefully* will also have the doorknockers from Labyrinth on the fronts. I still need the knocker guy with the ring through his ears, though - anyone have one they want to sell me? [Bambi eyes] Puh-leeease? I've been searching Ebay for months and months, but haven't had any luck. :(

One other major structural change:

John demo'd the bench seat (we didn't use it much) and we plan to replace it with another work space. Trouble is, I can't figure out what to use for the desktop! Wood, probably, but then what color should we stain or paint it? I don't want more black, white scuffs too easily, and it'd be silly to make it the same color as the walls. Sooo...thoughts? Suggestions?

Well, I have to end now, because John is installing trim and the resulting gun-shot-like bangs from the nail gun are wreaking havoc on my nerves. [twitch] I'm fine. [twitch] Really.

Now, where are those earplugs?