home office mini-makeover, part two

(read part one here)

Once we (and by "we" I mean Nick) got the new curtains up, I was anxious to get my home office fully functional and pretty, to boot. The Ikea in Conshohocken, PA, that is closest to us (where we got all of the pieces for the curtain project) did not have the Skruvsta swivel chair that I wanted, but the Ikea in Philadelphia did. Since I am impatient, my wonderful Nick headed out there the next day to pick it up for me. Isn't he nice?

Once I had my chair, I got to work really setting up an organized, inspiring and productivity-inducing workspace. Remember what we started with?

Well here's what we ended up with.

I absolutely love it, and I love sitting down here to work each morning. The natural sunlight flows in all day long (even when I took these pictures it was raining cats and dogs but the room is still bright and cheery without any lights on) and it's my very own little space.

Here's a little bit more of my home office.

The view from the kitchen doorway. If Nick is watching tv in the living room while I'm working into the night, I can just close the French doors you see on the right to have a bit more privacy.

Behind my desk sits this beautiful breakfront; it used to live in our old house on Claremont Road (the namesake for this blog), but when my mom sold that house and moved in with my stepdad, he already had a full dining room set. She saved her old dining room set for me (currently it's in her basement), and the breakfront lives with me now. The top portion holds wine glasses, my grandmother's China, books and design samples; the drawers on the bottom hold electronic cords, manuals, and discs of archived work. Over the years I've tucked tons of photos (mostly of friends' kids) into the panes on the glass so it doesn't look like such a formal piece. I look forward to having this in my future dining room someday. (To the right of the breakfront is the doorway to our kitchen.)

I think I bought this bookshelf for $12 in college when I was moving into a house to share with 3 other girls. It currently houses a mix of books that both Nick and I own, as well as a few photos of his grandfather and great uncle.

On top of the bookshelf sits this framed poster, one of the few things I bought when I went to Paris for a long weekend in 2001 during my study abroad trip to London. Les Années Pop was an amazing exhibit at the Musée D'orsay about pop culture.

My MacBook Pro now lives on the desk; I try not to get back in the habit of sitting on the couch with Mac on my lap.

Above my desk sits this cork board with some little things that I like... Operation NICE stickers from my friend Melissa, a letterpress Valentine from the lovely ladies at Orange Beautiful, a handout I got at a Johnny Cupcakes lecture, some sweet letterpress items from designer friends, our 2010 Valentine, a program from our wedding ceremony, a photo of my grandmother as a young woman, fun fortunes from fortune cookies, and old driver's licenses. (Yes, I'm weird and I like to keep my old driver's licenses. Am I the only one who does this??)

Next to the cork board is a Yellena print that my brother and sister-in-law gave to me for Christmas (left) and a screen print that I made in college... it's one of my favorite pieces.

I picked up some fun file folders from Target that sit to the left; in front of that, my Night Owl Paper Goods woodgrain desk calendar and inMotion speaker for listening to ma' tunes all day long. A few photos and other fun trinkets spruce up the windowsill.

Since the desk is juuuuust short of being wide enough to sit on top of our radiator, the desk actually sits about a foot out from the wall. I rigged up some risers that sit on top of the radiator so my printer and little shelf that holds copy paper don't take up valuable real estate on my actual desk, but they're also not melting away on top of the radiator (which doesn't ever actually get warm enough that it would melt anything, but I'm paranoid like that). My printer is a little HP printer/copier combo that was free with my MacBook Pro 2.5 years ago; I don't use it for printing jobs since I outsource most of my printing, but it's a great little printer and copier for day-to-day needs.

Overall, the space makes me super happy, and it didn't cost much money at all to spruce up; so far, working from home has been a great experience and I have never felt happier. Plus, on days that I don't have to go anywhere, it's pretty nice to work in PJs and slippers :)

What does your home office look like? Do you actually use it?

PS, that cool flip-clock screen saver can be downloaded here — just click the floppy disc image on the left and it will guide you to downloading!