Tuesday, September 7, 2010

the office big (little) makeover

Aside from the master bedroom, the other room I ever spend any time in is the office. It's the room I know will be with us from house to house since I actually need an office when I work from home and because using up part of an office at home is a tax write off.
Anyway, the past few weeks off I've been doing stuff to it to increase its functionality.
Luckily it still looks non-office and cutesy girly. I work in real offices and I don't want my house to look like that. I want the ugly stuff hidden.
Under the coffee table is a flowery box with a bunch of home catalogs. Once it fills up I'll start tossing them out. I'm not buying a second box dang it.
The top always has the current mags on display. It works as seasonal decor. I'm debating subscribing to Real Simple instead of Martha Stewart Living. I dunno yet. Of course once my subscription ended stupid Martha came out with a great issue about decorating. Bitch.
It wasn't the teal frames that were bugging me, it was the pink. It made it look childish. So now it's green and I dig it. I could add three more frames to take it up another row. The frames are on clearance and are $2 each. What you guys think?
I still think my font art thing was a pretty genius idea.
Now we have this stool here. It's counterpart moved elsewhere, I'll show you guys where later. I want a nicer table here I've told you guys about. 
I only do manicures in this room 'cause Matt hates the smell. I got three of these little flowery bowls the matches are in at World Market. You'll see the other two in a second.
A theme that has emerged in the office was traveling souvenirs. The matches all come from places I've eaten at that have stories and the snow globe was from Jenni my office PA when we sent her on a "run" to San Francisco. We put her on a plane, had her drop something off, and she came right back. Anyway, I love San Francisco and I love snow globes. We all know why
The daisy has been alive since last fall when Matt gave it to me. It's not blooming yet but give it a little bit, it's a resilient little bugger. Still nuts about my pink flamingo.
This looks benign right? (Nine and a half) But look, NO CABLES! How did you do that EvY? What is your secret? Please oh please tell me.
I velcroed a power strip to my desk and tied cables together so they wouldn't show on the floor. 
This is what the desktop looks like now. I had to bite bullets on things I just had done aesthetically that I couldn't deal with function wise. I mean, the box of pencils was cute but it was so not functional. I had to open a lid to use a pen or pencil. That's just lots of wasted seconds.
But just cause something's functional doesn't mean it has to be ugly. So here's my Jonathan Adler magnetic board. It's so pretty! At least to be different I got a magnetic pencil cup. And I put matching but different colored pens and pencils there. I love my Hawaii post card and I love that pic of the palm tree by Chops and I love the calendar Matt let me use for the year from Nintendo.
This one is just for pretty that makes me happy. You can see a key for The London West Hollywood, Crown and Crumpet SF post card, 85ÂșC pastry topper thing far as travel souvenirs go and things that make me smile like my girls and my man. Plus Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.
I tried to deal without a letter sorter. Needed one. I got it from Container Store along with the magnetic pencil cup. It's quite beautiful as well as very helpful in reminding me what notes and cards I am due to write and mail. Also holds a postcard from The Hotel Coronado in San Diego.
This is new too. Underneath it hides all the cabling for the speakers and the laptop. I had another one before that is all white and not as cute. The lotion and chapstick are cute as well as functional (how often am I working and look down at my hands only to realize they are quite dry) and come on, tiny little chevron post its? I'm down.
The left drawer is wrought with function. All happily contained.
And the right still has my beautiful stationery and address labels and stamps. Sigh!
I moved the recycling bin that was here before to my bathroom. Makes more sense. Also please look under the desk. NO CABLES!
The shelf with pictures got shifted a little. The pink frame has the only picture taken of all my siblings, all our significant others, and the babies. Ambre took it and it's quite epic.
The top of this got a new vase thing. 
You know what's missing from the vase? This. It's on back order. Can't wait!
Here's the other two bowls from World Market. They hold office supplies. Not to beat a dead horse but function + pretty = happy OCD EvY.
The other side of the beast has the dry erase board with my to do list. And I got a new clip board.
I plan on clipping crap I mean on getting to but will take weeks to actually get to. Wow, I even have plans for my procrastination, that's crazy.
And there's the closed closet. Shall we peek inside?
I spent most of an entire day going through the shelves and their contents. Hours upon hours of sorting and trashing old Mac OS 9 software and finding business cards from when Ali worked at Cedars and Man-D worked at a soccer league. Yes guys, I keep all your old business cards. I seriously had a ball going through them, I was gonna just input the info in my computer and toss the rest but business cards might as well be tiny tiny post cards so they're staying.
Yes, I am short two boxes. Yes, I want to get matching boxes for the bottom row. Yes, it drives me crazy to see it like that but I am not about to go to The Container Store for a THIRD time in a week. Next time, I am just gonna buy the big bin of 20 matching boxes and call it a day. 
This practically makes me weep with joy. When I was a wee child I dreamed of the day when I'd have matching boxes with labels indicating what the contents of everything was. Plus, clear really is the key, it's so cute seeing all the contents peeking through.
Here's another shot of the huge gap ruining my otherwise perfect shelves. When we move to our house, I'm planning on making the office closet floor to ceiling shelving.
I put the stuff I use often in drawers for easy access. Also from The Container Store.
This is the memorabilia bookshelf. The top row is all my journals. See I can commit to something. The middle row holds cards and invitations and the bottom has scrap books and photos and such. Maybe later today I'll continue the scrapbooking. Don't get the idea I do like Ambre and make beautiful books. Nope, I just buy those albums with sticky backs and shove souvenirs and stuff in there.
I include this picture because I'd like to point out that I have a shelf just for that purpose of putting my work computer bag there and nothing else. I am planning on purchasing the kind that rolls because of my back. Either that or a backpack. A cute computer backpack.
Here's the other side that has all the giftwrap supplies and spare hangers. That giant binder at the top holds menus for restaurants around work. I plan on scanning them so I won't have to carry that beast around and just have menus in my computer. Since its inside a closet, I doubt that's gonna happen soon.
So that's my office's big (little) makeover. If you actually read all the descriptions my hat's off to you. I would have just browsed all the pictures.
Oh and if you're willing to buy me lunch and/or dinner and an iced coffee, trust me implicitly, and purchase the containers I suggest, I am willing to help you guys organize your closets.

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