The Office: Take Two.

Just a few small adjustments. I'm hardly ever 100% satisfied the first time a room is 'complete'. That stool was horribly uncomfortable to use, so I spraypainted my folding chair espresso brown and put an IKEA lambskin on it for some cushion. Eventually I will get a real office chair, but it is really difficult to find one that is comfortable, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing.

I exchanged the colored cups for white ones. I kind of miss the pop of color though. And I downloaded a new screensaver.

I really wasn't loving how the Expedit looked in conjunction with the desk and buffet, but I still needed the storage, so I put it in the closet and moved the filing cabinet out. It's more efficient this way also since I keep a lot of my office supplies in the top drawers - stationary, stapler, staples, pencil lead and pen refills, etc. And it coordinates pretty well with the Crate and Barrel desk even though it's from IKEA (Effektiv, in case you were wondering).

I had to replace my curtains since the kitten decided to mess with them and being a very thin cotton, they just looked trashed. I used the curtains from the dining room that had shrunk a couple inches after I washed them (yes, I washed them before hemming, but they shrunk again). I also installed a proper curtain rod and holdback hook.

 

  

You can see the closet is still pastel blue from the previous owner. Her daughter's growth chart is drawn on the wall too, in permanent marker, but you can't see it in this photo.

The buffet is still the same.

Since the bookcase is in the closet, I moved my reference textbooks to the printer table and put the sewing machine, which is rarely used, in the closet as well.

Overall I'm much happier with it now, both aesthetically and functionally. We've also been building more shelving for the laundry room, so I'll get that posted after I finish the touch up paint and get everything organized.

P.S. I was featured as a Workspace of the Week on Unclutter.com! I was pleasantly surprised to find out, and it was amusing to read the entry as I had only added the photo of the desk and floating shelves to the Flickr group, and Erin was trying to figure out what was going on as far as a filing system (digital or analog). Then there's the comments, with almost everyone assuming EVERYTHING came from IKEA. I was really contemplating buying a cheap office chair there, but I decided against it. I love IKEA but I certainly don't want to look like I live in an IKEA showroom.