Life as a freelance writer is great until you realize that buying a $3.50 latte every day to use some coffee shop’s Wi-Fi is a little excessive.
And though the Wi-Fi is paid for and coffee is plentiful—working from home is distracting. There’s always laundry to fold, dishes to wash, and a dog that incessantly sticks his head on your lap and says “Mom, since you’re home and all, shouldn’t we go outside and play?” or something to that effect.
Plus, Patrick also works from home about half the time, working from the kitchen table (That new shiny black one!). Don’t get me wrong, I love getting to have coffee in the morning, and enjoy breakfast together… but when ten o’clock rolls around, I need to be able to shut out all the distractions and get to work.
So it became pretty clear we needed to make a home office. Out of this:
Notice the crap. notice the beautiful chandelier. Notice the dingy sky-blue walls, dotted with holes. Awesome.
Making it happen would be no small feat. Our house is only 1100 sq. feet on a good day, and we only have two bedrooms: the “master,” and the one where we put all our junk, then clean up if guests come to town. You get my drift.
The room is only 10×12 (I think), and a foot of that small space was occupied by a huge make-shift built in bookshelf, which really was just a bunch of wood nailed to the wall. We decided (with the help of our carpenter friend, Ben Williams) to chuck it.
Before:
After:
Look at all that extra floor space!
Next, we had to choose a paint color, and I’d been jonesing a lot lately for navy blue. After an unsuccessful attempt to get Bar No.308 to share their paint colors with us, we went with “Naval” by Sherwin Williams.
Before:
Too dark, too light? Navy is just right.
After:
And finally, the home office part. I needed a desk and a place to put my computer, but it couldn’t take up too much space. Enter Ikea. I made a special trip to Atlanta, and found this great 16″white desk that was on display as a vanity or dressing table. The sleek lines and compact size made it perfect for the space!
So, what do you think? Do you have a home office? How/where do you do your best work?
Growing Up Gibson 
seriously. HGTV missed their chance on us 🙂 Glad you like it mama.
Ha, yes! Hard to have a bed in here… we're thinking about getting a daybed sometime soon, which will be more like a couch, but still will accommodate guests. I think that might be even better!
HGTV…where ARE you? This room looks awesome…missing one thing–a blankey for Coopie. I LOVE your taste/touch. It's perfect.
It all looks great Claire. I do have a home office, complete with a small sofa, a couple lamps, and my mounted deer head. I find myself retreating to this tv-less space often when I'm home to write and escape distraction. I hope you find your space just as useful! I will caution against having a bed in there… to tempting for me!