The Office.

The office has actually been organized for awhile, but I was waiting to take photos until we built the printer table, which was the last thing. Well, actually, I still need a proper chair too. That stool isn't exactly comfy. I have a couple folding chairs that I've been considering painting and upholstering, like this.

The shelves are the IKEA Lack ones we originally had in the dining room for the cat shelves. We still need to replace those with stud-mounted shelving for her.

To keep the desk uncluttered I bought the bar with the hanging cups at IKEA to hold all my pens and scissors and such. It looks nice, I just wish they had other colors available. I'd like to get a plant to put in the white ceramic cup. Maybe a tillandsia.

I based the printer table off this design, but with my own dimensions. It turned out well and was basically free. My husband had some MDF boards he got for free at work, and we already had paint, wood glue and nails. The only thing we bought was some wood filler to cover the nail holes. I'm thinking of doing another smaller one as a nightstand in the guest bedroom.

We originally had the Expedit bookcase in our master bedroom, but I needed more clothing storage in there and more book storage in the office so we moved the bookcase in here and the little dresser that matches the vanity from the guest bedroom to the master. I'm not totally loving the bookcase in here, but it's functional. Maybe it will grow on me.

And of course there's the buffet that matches our dining set which I'm using as a bookcase. It's gorgeous and massive and this was the only place we could fit it. I can't imagine trying to move it again. I've thought about adding some sort of patterned wallpaper or fabric to the back of it to add some contrast.

Oh, and that's my collection of Breyer horses on top of the buffet. I had them on the top shelf of our linen closet in the master bathroom but my husband thought it was very creepy to have them all "looking at him" when he would get a towel. He still thinks they are creepy in here, and keeps suggesting I put them in the attic. I told him to suck it. The cat likes to jump from the bookcase to the top of the buffet, so I'll have to secure them with museum putty.

And here's the before when it was the previous owner's preteen daughter's room:

The Neglected Office.

Normally I would refuse to show something like this. It's embarrassing. It's my office. Or at least, I want it to be my office. Right now it's more like the catch-all of everything that hasn't been organized yet. For almost two years it has remained in utter chaos.

This is an improvement actually. Well, it looks worse, but that's because things have been coming out of hiding and getting put away properly. Everything on the desk used to be INSIDE the desk, and I've gotten rid of about half the boxes that were in there previously. Yesterday we installed the IKEA Lack shelves above the desk (that the cat ripped out of the dining room wall). She loves the office, and has decided to climb on them in here now. Cats....

The IKEA Expedit bookcase used to be in the bedroom, but as my collection of paperwork has grown exponentially, I co-opted it for storage in the office and we moved the little dresser that matches the vanity out of the guest bedroom and into the master bedroom.

One of my summer goals is to get this room organized and functional. My husband is going to build a table following this design to house the printer and probably also the sewing machine.  I can't wait to get this room under control.

New Hardware in the Kitchen.

They say hardware is the easiest way to update the look in a kitchen. Before we didn't have any. I'm really liking the way it looks now. It's making me itchy to paint or restain the cabinetry now too.

Summer 2011 To Do.

This summer, I would like to:

• Finish painting all the trim and doors white (They are currently this ugly yellow-beige. What would you call that? Beijlow? Whatever, it's hideous)
• Install shelves on the other half of the laundry room
• More book storage
• Restain the bathroom cabinetry an espresso color (And possibly the kitchen, but I'm hemming and hawing over whether I want a dark stain or white paint)
• Replace the lighting in both bathrooms (well, we got the guest bathroom done at least)
• Replace the fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen
• Finish organizing all the boxes of paperwork in the office and make it a usable space
• Get an estimate for gutters and rain barrels 

My husband also offered to paint the exterior of the house. It's butter yellow, which is probably my least favorite color in the world.  I also think it makes the white door look really out of place.

See:

I'm envisioning a sage green or soft brown, or maybe a dove gray, with a creamy white for the trim (maybe black). But do I really wanna spend the money on all that paint? The existing paint isn't in bad condition, except for where the garage door rubbed against the trim and picked up some of the dark teal. And eventually, if we stay here long enough, we want to replace all the wood siding with Hardieplank cement fiberboard siding and redo the insulation, and we'd have to paint again then. But, that's a ways off, and maybe the house will need to be repainted again by that time anyways.

Cat Stairs in the Dining Room.

Our kitten Athena turns one year old in a couple of weeks. Her favorite thing to do is to play fetch and gazing out windows (there's a very large squirrel that likes to harass her from the tree outside the kitchen window). We installed some shelves for her to climb on some empty wall space in the dining room. The shorter shelves are IKEA Lack and the longer ones were made from whitewood boards from Lowe's. We still need to install carpet or something for traction, but I think it looks pretty spiffy right now.