The Office

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

There's only one thing this face can mean...

It's done! We FINALLY finished the office! When I think back to when this whole process started, I realize that my poor husband has been in a make-shift office space since October! Poor guy! He says it was worth the wait because he loves it! At first glance, I think the office feels very beachy and light (which made me worry that it might trend more feminine- yikes!), but it has SO many pieces of "Ivan" in it that he thinks it's perfect. (Or maybe he's just super excited to have a desk that doesn't shake- the world will never know!) 

We started by determining what the room needed. For Ivan, he needed hidden storage, a sturdy desk, a rolling chair, and a filing cabinet. I needed a wide open space with a clean backdrop and the ability to switch my backdrops. We decided that lining the back wall with built-ins would work for Ivan's storage and the shelving could double as something to hold backdrop reels for me. We also wanted to keep the furniture to a minimum and make everything rollable so I could easily move it out for photo shoots. (FYI, just the office portion is done... we're still working on the in-home studio add-ons.) After that, we thought about the kind of budget that would work for us. Our goal was $2,500... which meant real built-ins were out. We're lucky to have an IKEA right here in Charlotte, so we started there. We found bookcases we loved, but continued looking around to make sure we couldn't find something better. We couldn't, so our first decision for the office/ studio was to purchase 3 Liatorp bookcases from IKEA. You can find the link here. We also bought the Liatorp desk and Ivan attached wheels to the bottom of it. The final "needed" item for Ivan was a rolling chair. I wanted something leather, affordable, and not cheap-looking or black. I found exactly what I wanted at Overstock.com. All of those items together pretty much ate our budget. After purchasing the furniture, there was $800 left. 

Since the room is going to function as a studio, I needed to keep with light, neutral walls- so we went with a skin-toned beige for paint. I also wanted the wall that's visible from the front door of our home to be some sort of awesome accent wall, but simple enough to be an unchangeable backdrop for photos. We went with a white-washed wood wall. (Say that sentence 3 times really fast!) It might be my favorite thing about the office. Ivan bought sheets of plywood from Lowes, had them ripped into boards, divided the boards into 2 to 3 sections per row on the wall, and nail-gunned them in. The thing that took us so long on the office was the actual white-washing. We were SO nervous we would mess up the wall! (Okay... Ivan was nervous. He wasn't about to let me touch his masterpiece! I'm definitely the "getter done" type- but that means no measuring, no taking-your-time to ensure perfection... Ivan is the opposite and wanted to make sure I didn't screw up his hard work.) When he finally built up the courage to wash the walls, it only took him about 3 hours total and 2 coats of wash. They were stunning! 

As soon as Ivan finished the walls, I left for HomeGoods! I threw out navy as an accent color idea to Ivan and he liked it, so "navy" was my inspiration as I shopped. My first stop was the rugs. When selecting decor, I always like to start with rugs. I found a couple that I really liked! (I'll stop here to note that if I hadn't found a rug, I probably would have stopped shopping right then and there- I knew I wanted a rug for the room and wouldn't have selected anything without knowing what the biggest visual piece was going to look like.) I took pictures of the rugs I liked and sent them to Ivan for him to pick his favorite. He picked my favorite (without knowing it was my favorite) . I've taught him well. 

I adore how vibrant the rug is!

Here's the terrible iPhone picture I sent Ivan when shopping...  the rug is 8x10, which at first was a slight concern since the room is only 10x10, but the rug looks perfect! And if it hadn't, HomeGood's has an excellent return policy.

Ellington is a big fan of the rug too...

...as is Kuma

After determining the rug, I went to look for a few items to hang on the wood wall. I wanted a small gallery section of interesting pieces. The first thing I found was a collection of knots matted on a navy background. Score! Ivan is obsessed with things like knots (he grew up going to sailing camp. awwww!) and it fit with my "navy" color scheme. There was also a turquoise "M" that looks great as a "W" (which was more for me than Ivan, but he thought it was cool even though he wasn't thrilled with the color. Everything can't be navy. Take what you can get, dude!) I found a nice fabric canvas wrap that worked with the color scheme and complimented the other items, as well as a silver clock hanging from a rope. I loved that the clock had a rope to "tie" together (see what I did there? hehe) the rustic with the refined and semi match the navy knot picture. 

 

Once I was done selecting the items for the small gallery wall, I went to find knickknacks for the faux built-ins. This is the main reason I'm SO anti real built-ins. To decorate them correctly, it costs a TON! You have to have larger items because small things get cluttered and look rinky-dinky. But they can't all be large. The items you pick need to work together, yet contrast well too. (Meaning, you need to mix soft with hard, masculine with feminine, light and dark... you get the picture.) I'm also anti built-ins because all of these decorative things need to be dusted and we've already discussed the fact that I don't clean. (My way around that in this room was getting bookcases with glass doors. I'll let you know how that works out.) Finally, I hate built-ins because once you have them, you're stuck with them. I like to re-decorate periodically and moving built-ins just can't happen... well... unless you use bookcases from IKEA that slightly resemble built-ins! Ha!

One of my thoughts to help save $$$ on the built-in decor was to use lots of baskets where I would store my photography items (blankets, newborn hats and head wraps, etc). I picked out baskets first. Next I found some random things that worked color-wise that I knew Ivan would like. I found some deer antlers, driftwood, and a crocodile skull (It's made of plaster, but my boys- especially Ridge- love it!) for my masculine/ hard/ nature items. My feminine items were a vase, picture frames, a glass candle jar, and a piece of coral. I chose a fan to give an industrial feel and a visual pop. I also used some things we already had- an award Ivan won from his company, a bull figurine my (bull-headed) husband had from high school, a sailboat from the original office... you get the picture. Along with things I bought to "look pretty," I threw in some items of sentiment. And if I must say so, the bookcases/ faux built-ins look fantastic! 

Getting the angles of everything in bookcases is difficult as well. To me, things look better when you have multiple items facing the same angles. Balancing color and textures is important too... all things that make decorating built-ins a challenge.

The baskets all follow the soft/ hard, masculine/ feminine compliments as well. And check out that crocodile skull! Isn't it cool?! Something I'm currently struggling with is what to do inside of the picture frames. I have so many beautiful pictures that would look great in them, but I feel that images would clutter the design. I might just leave the paper in the frames and write inspirational quotes on them. If I do decide to insert pictures, they will all be black and white. 

And there you have it, folks! The office portion of our renovation is complete! The final budget tally was just over $2,700 with the rug and decor... so I only went over about $200. That $200 was how much the white washed wooden wall cost and we didn't initially have that in our plans, so had we not done it, we would have actually been right on target! The room would have also been way boring, so I think the slight overage was completely worth it. Thank you for following this journey and to all the people who have been asking me if I've finished the office yet... here you go! 

Another plus about this rug... it'll hide all of the hair that this sweet girl leaves scattered about our house! Side note- Helga has already given this room a good cleaning, amazing robot that she is! If you aren't sure who I'm talking about, check out  this blog post to learn more!

And of course I'll use any excuse to take more pictures of my precious baby!

She's letting us know she approves of the office redo. It's wild to think she was barely 3 months old when we started this process! 

For all of you clothes obsessed mommies... this is a 2T Shrimp and Grits flutter top that looks amazing on Ell as a dress! And if we don't wind up saving it (because let's be real, it's white and she's a baby), it doesn't really matter because I found it at a consignment store for $9! Whoo hoo! I actually prefer how this flutter style looks on her compared to other brands. It's not as overwhelming on her tiny shoulders.

Bless it! 

Blogging away. Until next time...