I’ve made a huge deal out of this. I’ve posted on instagram about it. I’ve done multiple stories leading up to it. I’ve laid awake at night thinking about what chair would be best? What lamp? What rug? I’ve talked to friends. I’ve walked through Ikea with two kids for 3.5 hours (only to find out they offer child care at the END of my trip). I’ve literally lost sleep over this silly little area in my home. My “cloffice.”
Let me explain. When we moved into our house about a year and a half ago, I knew I wanted a home office. There was plenty of room for one, and coming from a 920 sqft house, I was so excited to finally have some space. (Fast forward to today, where toys are spread everywhere and all I dream about is a tiny home with only enough room for capsule wardrobes and no where for my kids to sneak the ipad and hide, but anyway). For some reason finding the right spot in my house was proving to be way too difficult. The only area that hadn’t been decorated or put to use was a small room between my bedroom and my closet.
My cloffice, as I’m now referring to it, an 8 x 8 foot room, was completely empty besides the ironing board (which I don’t ever use) and a small plastic set of drawers for my random clothes that hadn’t quite found a space in my closet (which has since been shoved into my small walk-in closet). We have ideas to eventually turn it into a master bathroom, but in the meantime, it was the perfect room to overhaul and mark as my own.
I knew I had to paint the walls white. Truth be told, I wanted to paint the entire interior of my house white when we moved in but everyone talked me out of it. I’m really regretting it to this day and still considering taking the plunge… when I can justify repainting (or paying someone to repaint) 3000 sqft of home. Anyway, I tried a few whites and ultimately ended up, after purchasing and painting the whole space twice, with a bucket of paint from our garage that we used on the exterior of our home. No label, no idea what it is. Hope you weren’t looking for design advice here.
Knowing that this space may become a master bathroom one day, I didn’t want to go overboard on furniture so I went the Ikea route. I loaded the kids up one morning and drove an hour and a half to the West Sacramento Ikea, proceeded to push two carts around the store for 3.5 hours, and managed to get almost everything I needed. AND I only spent $400. It felt amazing. I got my desk, desk lamp, artificial plants and pots, a real fiddle leaf fig tree and pot, baskets, curtains and a curtain rod, a laundry basket (since this is part of my closet), and a few other goodies. Plus, the kids survived the whole thing without totally loosing it or me killing them, so we celebrated with soft serve on our way out.
The only things left to buy were the desk chair and the rug. I love jute rugs, so that was a no brainer. World Market had a great selection. The chair on the other hand was super hard for me. I dreamed of a beautiful Serena & Lily Balboa Side Chair that would have been perfect. I just couldn’t stomach spending $558 plus tax and shipping on a chair that would be locked away upstairs all alone – it clearly deserved to be a set. So I went with a really comfy and modern acrylic chair from Target.com – and I totally love it! Plus, it was a great deal and since it’s such a trendy piece, I won’t feel bad letting it go when it’s not in style anymore.
I wanted the styling pieces to be chic yet functional and also look like they belong. I used a bell from my husband’s late grandmother’s collection of knick knacks he inherited, black spine books, gold frames I have littered throughout my home due to Aaron Brothers going out of business and a wild hair to buy 15 of the same large frame, I filled the frames with my favorite images of my family and then designed and printed a to-do list for one, a letter board with my son’s favorite saying on it “for real life?”, my new Kelly Moore camera bag my mom got me for my birthday, and two gorgeous ceramic pieces from local design studio, Alex Marshall Studios, including the most amazing smelling soy coconut milk candle from P&P Candle. I LOVE how it all turned out.
All of this looong post to say, that I truly relished in getting to decorate a space from the ground up. Hope you enjoy hearing about the process and the finished product as much as I do!
I love it! Looks beautiful!!!
Thanks, Ang!