Kitchen Coat Area

11/03/2010

Since we lost the hall coat closet to my new home office, I decided to do a mini makeover of our angled kitchen wall. I once had big plans to turn this into a wall of pegboard on the bottom and cork tiles on the top. Apparently a lot of people liked that idea because it’s one of my most popular post. Maybe we’ll still do that someday but for now, I repurposed a small coat rack from IKEA, painted it the same teal as my home office nook and hung it below my Are You Happy? flow chart. Quick easy solution.


Home Office Part 4: Decorating & Customizing

11/02/2010

Since my last update on the coat-closet-turned-home-office I have (all by myself!):

• painted 3 walls teal … with a brush, using watery old paint. It took 3 coats.

• hung my second monitor on the wall. Jason? Please help me re-hang it straight and centered.

• mounted under cabinet lights below the shelf to shine on my desk. Currently the right one is shining on my monitor because it’s not centered. Jason…?!

• hung my silver @, my bulletin board and clip board for quick inspiration and fun designs

• relocated my printer to the bookshelf in the living room where it’s connect to our airport extreme so we can access it wirelessly. The brown fabric box below the printer holds all the printer paper and accessories. Apparently I have a mess of cords that I need to do something about.


Home Office Part 3: The Coat Closet

10/26/2010

A home office in a closet can be a great solution when you don’t have a room to spare. We have limited closet space but we do have a 46″ by 24″ coat closet in our hallway across from the door to our bedroom. Before discussing my revelation with Jason I immediately started sketching out where everything would fit and where I could put everything that was currently in the hall closet: coats, hats, gloves, scarfs, extra blankets and pillows, vacuum, tools, cans of paint, lightbulbs and other odds and ends. Once I had a plan, I took my idea to corporate for approval. (Joking, but it does help to have a well thought out plan before presenting my crazy ideas to Jason.)

He was fine with my plan! Over the course of a few Saturdays when Jason was out on tour I managed to move everything out of the hall coat closet. Coats are in the closet of the spare room (for now anyway), extra blankets and pillows are in tubs in the attic, and the rest of that stuff is in our new but not-yet-finished laundry room. So on to that empty hall closet …

With Jason again gone on tour I decided to tackle this job on my own to 1) keep myself busy, 2) keep up the weekend warrior pace I’m used to when he’s home, 3) impress him with my renovation skills, and 4) get it done. When we had Jason’s giant birch desktop cut at the hardware store last month I had the guy trim one of the offcuts to 46″ so it would be the right length for my desktop. I used scraps of wood from Jason’s old desk to make little wood ledges on the side walls of the closet to hold up an additional shelf (the top one was already there) and the desk top.

For now my printer is on a crate to the left of my computer with paper underneath. I’m going to come up with another solution since my desk surface is limited.


Home Office Part 2: Closet Offices & Inspiration

10/21/2010

I saw an ad for Unplggd’s Roundup of Home Offices In a Closet one day and had an epiphany. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? I know people put home offices in closets. That could be the perfect solution! (Between the time of the epiphany and the time of this post, one of my sweet blog buddies, Julia, actually suggested I try a closet as a home office solution. Great minds think alike! Heehee.) Here are some inspiration photos I found:

(All images from Unplggd’s Roundup of Home Offices In a Closet and here and The Black Hole Home Office)

The only hitch: our 55 year old house doesn’t have a whole lot of closet space. The two original bedrooms (master and my office) have closets with sliding doors—not large, not walk-in, and packed with stuff. The third bedroom (Jason’s studio) has a squarish walk-in closet full of musiciany things and is frequently used as an isolation room for his amp.

But wait, we have one more closet … the coat closet in the hallway!

*****

See Home Office Part 1: Small Homes Require/Inspire Creativity if you missed it.


Phone Photo Friday

10/15/2010

Chihuly Nights exhibit at Cheekwood


Jason’s Studio Before

10/14/2010

I shared some pictures on Monday of the not-quite-finished main part of Jason’s studio remodel. I was able to find a few before pictures but the rest must be on a different hard drive. When we moved in the room was carpeted. (I can’t find any of those pictures.) Then our cat peed on the carpet various times in various places and we ripped it out and threw it away. (I hate cats. And carpet. Sorry to anyone that I just offended.) Under the carpeting we found that the original flooring had been painted some some kind of white something. It was dirty so we painted it with Kilz. Then we painted it chocolate brown thinking maybe it would match the rest of the house. It didn’t look good. (Again, can’t find any pictures …) Then, we decided to do the whole room in black VCT tiles. Cheap, durable, dark … good for a room that people are dragging amps and guitars and drums in and out of. As this room has evolved into less of a practice room and more of a full-blown home studio a real remodel was desperately needed. Here are some pictures from the previous state:

We love this gigantic, unbelievably-heavy gold vinyl mid-century sofa bed. Besides weighing as much as a car, it’s really long and in the original floor plan of the room there was only 1 option of where it could fit. Right smack in the middle of the room facing the door to the living & dining room.

Jason’s brother’s drums lived in the corner of this room for about 3 years.

Jason’s desk was fitted into the space between these 2 closets covering an impractically high window seat. Not conducive to proper studio monitor acoustics.

This is without a doubt Lucy’s favorite room in the house. She always keeps her toys in here. When Jason is working at home she’ll curl up on the couch or under his feet. Sidenote to a sidenote: I HATE this leather shag rug. I thought it was a bad idea from the beginning. I remember when Jason picked it out at the store and I was distracted on the phone with my sister and couldn’t say “What are you thinking? How are we going to clean that thing?!”

Lucy also loves to look out the backdoor. It’s a window just her height. I always imagine she’s waiting for him to get home from a tour. (Actually, here she seems to be staring at that guitar, doesn’t she?)

The original floor plan was this:

The new floor plan is this:

It’s amazing how much bigger this space feels now that it’s cut in half. Even the main space feels bigger than the old space. Jason took out of the closets which allowed us to fit that giant couch perfectly into that nook. The space behind it is half the impractically high window seat and half a ledge that will eventually be shelves on top. The smaller room, “the loud room”, will be used for storage and tracking. It’s still needing insulation, sound absorption and drywall; shelves; lighting; rug; etc.

I’ll have some finished after pictures whenever the room is fully finished. Don’t hold your breath – it might be a few months. Check out Monday’s post if you didn’t see the pictures of the mostly-finished main space.


Home Office Part 1: Small Homes Require/Inspire Creativity

10/12/2010

We have a three bedroom house. One room is used as a bedroom, another is Jason’s studio (he’s a full time musician) and the other is my home office. We plan to have kids someday, we’ll need another bedroom and if you know me you know I like to plan ahead. (Remember my post about the addition we’re planning to do … in 10 years or so?) Therefore, I’ve been pondering for a while now about where I could relocate my home office.

(LUDVIG $120, CYRIL $199 and JONAS $150 from IKEA)

I love this corner desk that Jordan Ferney created for their living space. They have a modest size home and therefore have to be creative with their space. This room is a living room, home office and a playroom! The desk is from IKEA but Jordan made it much prettier! (Sidenote: I also love these posts on her son’s closet bedroom and wisely planned toy area! Seriously smart and creative use of space.)

IKEA sells a ton of home office options. Even more compact than the armoires above, I’ve considered one of these for a spot on the wall in the living room or maybe even our bedroom.

(IKEA PS $59.99)

But the living room is crowded enough already and how would I concentrate on work if someone was watching TV? And I hate the idea of bringing my work into our restful bedroom. And with this or with an armoire, where would I put my printer and second monitor?

This is not going to work …


The Tree of Life and the Starburst Clock

10/07/2010

I decided to swap locations for our metal Jeré-like tree sculpture with my favorite retro starburst clock. I like the tree in the dining room (though I want to lower it a bit) but I’m not sure a clock in the hallway is very practical. I think I’ll move the clock back into the living room/dining room/kitchen somewhere and find something else for the end of the hall. What do you think?


Before & After: Love Birds

10/06/2010

Jason and I picked up these ceramic birds at a thrift store a little while ago. Birds are kind of trendy and I like the trend but also my parents used to collect white bird figurines. That could be partly why I thought these would look best in white.

Though, I have to admit, my first suggestion to Jason was that we paint them orange or red. Ultimately we decided white would go with anything and emphasize the shape. I like them.


A Sneak Peek of our Next Renovation

09/20/2010

Jason building a wall in his studio:

Me providing moral support (I’m very good at that):