Buffalo Check Curtains for the Office: Welcome to 174th Metamorphosis Monday!

Greetings!  Hope your weekend was great!  I'm really excited about a change I made recently here in the office.  Did you guess what it was from the hint I left a few days ago?

Not long after I moved into this house twenty+ years ago, I purchased plantation shutters for all the windows.  In hindsight, that was one of the best purchases I've ever made for my home.  If you're interested in knowing more about plantation shutters and what features are important when shopping for shutters, check out this previous post:  Plantation Shutters.

I've really enjoyed having shutters here in the office, especially during the winter months when the leaves fall from the trees and privacy is more of an issue.   In the evening, I usually just close the lower louvers unless it's really cold outside.  Then I close them all.

It takes me a long time to finish/decorate a room.  I sometimes wonder if this blog should be called "The Accidental Decorator" because it seems like the rooms in my home evolve through lots of happy little accidents.
Click HERE to continue reading...

Short or Tall...Please Help Me Choose! Welcome to 172nd Metamorphosis Monday!

Greetings this fine springtime day!  Hope your Cinco de Mayo, Kentucky Derby weekend was fabulous!  Last week for Metamorphosis Monday, I shared a wee Before and After in my office/craft room.  I removed the TV I never watched from behind the lamp and added a great little file organizer.

Here's a close up of the organizer.  You know how sometimes you buy something to better organize your life, but then you find you don't use it?  Well, this isn't one of those things.  I'm using it daily and it has really helped keep paper clutter off of my desk.  If I make a phone call and I'm on hold, I grab the "to file" folder and file while I wait.
Click HERE to continue reading...

Office Updates & Shell Charger Progress: Welcome to the 171st Metamorphosis Monday!

Greetings!  How was your weekend?  What did you work on this weekend?  Do anything fun?

I have a couple of small little updates to share this week for Metamorphosis Monday.  I decided to remove the TV from the office since I found I only turned it on a couple of times a month.   You can see it in this older photo to the right of the wallpaper organizer, beside the lamp.  I guess I hadn't added the ottoman yet when this pic was taken.

In place of the television, I have a new little file organizer.  Sorry this pic is a bit dark; these photos were taken after dark.
Click HERE to continue reading...

IKEA Expedit Closet Makeover: Welcome to the 163rd Metamorphosis Monday!

A while back I wrote about how on a recent visit to the Atlanta IKEA with a friend, I repeatedly decided and un-decided to buy an Expedit shelving unit.  I really wanted to buy one for my office closet but there was one big problem.

The Expedit measures 58 5/8 inches wide and my closet measures 57 1/2 inches wide and 47 1/2 inches deep.  With the baseboard molding removed, the closet measures 59 1/4 inches wide.  So, my office closet was barely wide enough to fit an Expedit across the back wall if I removed the baseboard molding.  But the real problem would be getting it through the closet door and then rotating it to go against the back wall.  The Expedit was just too wide to make the turn once inside the closet.  I knew this because I created/cut a fake foam-board shelf the width of the Expedit and tested pushing it into the closet and turning it.  No go!
Click HERE to continue reading...

Pottery Barn Bedford Office Additions: Welcome to the 157th Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Metamorphosis Monday!  Thank you for all the supportive comments and e-mails I received about changing the start of our Met Monday party to Monday morning and our Tablescape Thursday party to Thursday morning.  You guys are awesome!

I'm so excited to share some fun tweaks and additions I've made in the office this week.  (You can follow the full transformation of the office in THIS post.)  You may remember in the past I've mentioned I would love an ottoman for the seating area.

I have envisioned something with a rattan or wicker base and a nice cream or light colored cushion on top for comfort.  I thought it would add some additional texture and interest in the office and would tie in nicely with the baskets you see in the desk unit below

Ideally, I wanted it to be a storage ottoman so I could hide away the throw I use during the wintertime.  After searching online and in local stores, I hadn't been able to find one I liked or that fit the budget I had in mind for this purchase.  At one time, I tried a few large rattan baskets (with lids) but the tops were either too weak to act as an ottoman or they were too large or too tall.  Plus, they weren't really that comfy under foot.

The ottoman shown below at Pottery Barn came the closest to the look I wanted, but it's way too big, too expensive and isn't a storage ottoman.  If it had met just two of those three requirements, I probably would have gone for it.  It's a pretty good example of what I had in mind.   I do this to myself all the time...conjure up what I want/need in my head, then discover it doesn't exist. lol  Do you do that, too?

Source

In a recent post I mentioned my quest for an ottoman, and a dearheart suggested looking at World Market.   I did and found an ottoman that works well for this space and at a great price, only $67.  Okay, enough talking...come check it out.
Click HERE to continue reading...

Blogger Updates and Dremel Deserves a Crown! Welcome to the 156th Metamorphosis Monday!

Greetings Friends!  I hope you've been having a marvelous weekend!  I have a mini-metamorphosis to share for this Met Monday, but before I let cha see what I've been up to, I want to share a big change Blogger made recently, a change that made this girl very happy.

You may already know, Blogger added one of the most oft requested features to the Blogger platform a few days ago: the threaded comment system.   In the past, when several comments/questions were left on a post, when I moderated and published the comments and tried to answer a question or reply to a comment, my reply/comment always ended up way down below the comment to which I was replying.  Not any more!  Now I can reply directly under the comment, and so can you.  YAY!  This greatly enhances and encourages the flow of conversation.  It should make it much easier for you to find any follow-up replies that are posted.

If you see someone asking a question, feel free to jump in and answer.  I don't have all the answers by a long shot so I welcome your input.  I'd love to see us all pitching in to answer the questions that arise...or just to add something to the conversation.  For example, if someone asks where I purchased a particular item, if you've seen it for sale somewhere, feel free to reply.  This helps everyone.  I'm so excited about this new feature!

BNOTP has the most positive, friendly, caring, uplifting readers around.   Your comments are always so appreciated and I read every single one.  In fact, a recent comment solved a problem I had and you'll be reading about that in today's post.

If you are a blogger and you would like to know how to activate this awesome, new feature on your blog, visit Blogger Buzz and you can read all about it.  Don't ask me how to do it because I just sort of clicked this and clicked that, and then suddenly realized it was working.  I have no idea what I did, but it seemed to work.  I just followed the directions I found in the Blogger Buzz article. It wasn't hard and only took a few seconds to get it working.

Mini-Metamorphosis:
I've been dremeling.  Yep, I'm using that word as a verb today.  You may remember I recently shared a post called "Fun Stuff Worth Sharing" which included, among other things, a wee addition to the office.

Click HERE to continue reading...

Fun Stuff Worth Sharing: Part II

Sometimes I think these are the most fun posts.  I've accumulated all these tidbits and ideas to share with you, but somehow I just never found the right day or time to do so.  So here they are, all lumped together.  I dare say, there's something in here for everyone.  :)

Before Christmas I found this cute little deer door hanger at Lowes for $9.99.  He ended up out here on the porch.

I decided to leave this wreath up for a while.  It may look a bit Christmasy but I don't mind.  To me it says winter.

Click HERE to continue reading...

Playing in the Office

For last week's Metamorphosis Monday, I shared a couple of ideas I had for this big ole blank wall above the seating area in the office.  (If you're new to reading BNOTP, you can follow the evolution of this room from a child's bedroom to an office in THIS post.)

I've decided to keep the mirror that's a wee bit too big (for now) as well as the clock.

Click HERE to continue reading...

Office Additions: Welcome to 140th Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy weekend!  I hope you've been having a great one.  Mine was happy.  Then it was sad.  My son drove all the way down from Ohio for a visit and to ask his best friend (in person) to be his "best man" next May when he and his sweetie, Nancy, are married.

I always feel so sad when it's time for him to leave and return home.  So, being the amazing, strong woman that I am, ;) I dealt with it in a mature and adult fashion.  First I stopped by McDonalds and bought a Caramel Apple sundae, french fries and a large Coke.

Then I went shopping.

I headed over to Marshalls to see what fun Halloween/fall goodies they had gotten in.  I found a few things I had been hoping to find for the office.

I've had some ideas brewing in my head about how I might decorate the wall space above the sitting area in this room.  I had envisioned a mirror above the chest.  I love, love, love mirrors and have used them in pretty much every room of my home.  I really like how they brighten a space and reflect the available light.  A mirror above the chest would reflect the light coming in through the double windows, as well as the view and greenery of the trees.

Click HERE to continue reading...

Favorite Decorating and Design Books

I started collecting decorating and design books many years ago when I discovered I could buy books online for around the same price (sometimes less) than a magazine.  I still love decorating magazines, but who can resist a great design book for just pennies on Amazon and half.ebay.com.

Recently I added a mini-library along one wall of the office.

I gathered books together from all around the house, including the family room.

The bedroom...

And the upstairs Family Room ...

Click HERE to continue reading...

Billy Bookcase, Easy to Assemble

Billy, where have you been all my life?  I'm a latecomer to Billy bookcases but it turns out they have been around for 30+ years.   The factory that produces the Billy bookshelf makes 15 Billys a minute.  That's 3.1 million a year!  Wow!  After buying three of my own, I can see why they are so popular.   They are sturdy, easy to assemble and reasonably priced.

I shared my small (but growing) office library for Met Monday, HERE.

Before my Billy bookcases looked like this...

They looked like this.

As I shopped IKEA on the day I purchased the Billy shelves, I was not really looking forward to putting them together.  I won't go so far as to say I dreaded it...but I was just a tad apprehensive.
Click HERE to continue reading...

A Library for the Office: Welcome to the 136th Metamorphosis Monday!

If you've been reading BNOTP for a while, you're very familiar with this view of my  Office.

I've shared this side of the room in previous posts, too.

But, I've rarely shared this side because...well, there's just nothing to see.  Pretty boring, right?  Well, that's about to change!
Click HERE to continue reading...

Chaos, Progress and Mario Buatta

Today my house is completely topsy turvy. If you rang my door bell and I invited you in, you'd be here for about 30 seconds before you would suddenly remember you had a pressing engagement elsewhere.  And I wouldn't blame you, I'd run, too.  But I live here.

You know how something prays on your mind...something you've been putting off.  The weekends are filled with friends and activities, places to go and things to do.  But then a weekend arrives, and you know.  You know there are no more excuses...time to get down to it.

Click HERE to continue reading...

A Few Changes in the Office: Welcome to the 131st Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Met Monday! Hope your weekend has been a fun one!  I don't have a dramatic Before and After for this Met Monday, but I do have some fun little changes I can't wait to share.  But before I show you what I've been working on...


A Few Mini-Mets for this Metamorphosis Monday:

A Naked Porch:
Recently,  I blogged about having the house and porch pressure washed, HERE. The company I used was awesome and their owner Wesley asked me to remove the sheers from the porch just to make sure they didn't get dirty during the cleaning process.  I haven't had a chance to hang them back up just yet, so I thought I'd share how it looks with them down.  I always enjoy having them down for a little while...makes the porch feel more open on these hot, muggy days.  Something tells me they will be going back up again before too long. In the meantime, change is good. :)

I also put away the patriotic decor you saw, HERE.  I loved the look but I was missing the serenity of the soft greens.  The red, white and blue will be back for our next patriotic holiday. :)

 A Few Small Changes in My Office/Craft/Sewing Room:

You know, I think we need to invent a new word for a room that functions as an Office, a Craft Room and a Sewing Room. Maybe that's what folks call a Studio.  If not, what should we call it? How about a Sewcroff? Or, a Croffsew?  I think I like Sewcroff better. ;)

Okay, I just looked up the definition of a studio and that won't work because a studio is "a room where an artist, photographer, sculptor, etc... works."   If you stretched that a bit, you might be able to squeeze crafting and sewing room into that definition...but a home office?  Ummm, just doesn't fit.

So, where was I?  Oh, yes...I made a couple of wee changes in the Sewcroff this week.

Click HERE to continue reading...

Another Piece of the Puzzle: Welcome to the 126th Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Met Monday! Hope you've had a wonderful weekend and a great Father's Day! This Metamorphosis Monday I'm excited to share an important addition to my home office.

Have you ever searched and searched for a particular piece of furniture for your home, and being unable to find it, gave up...only to have it immediately appear the next day? :) If so, I know just how you feel!

Not long after I started working on the conversion of my son's old bedroom to a home office, I started looking for a small chest to place beside this cottage style chair with the plan of creating a little sitting/reading area on this side of the room.

I've been to just about every antique store and thrift store in the surrounding area multiple times, hoping to find a piece I could rehab or paint, but I was never able to find anything close to what I wanted for this spot. I have this very bad habit of envisioning the piece I want in my mind, which always often leads to a frustrating search for the proverbial "needle in the haystack."

Click HERE to continue reading...

Pottery Barn Office Renovation, The Journey: Welcome to the 124th Metamorphosis Monday!

This was my office, if you could call it an office. It was really just a dressing room off my master bedroom with a built in dressing table that I was using as a desk. After several months working in this space, I began to have neck pain and tingling pain down my arms. It turned out this "desk" was about 4 inches shorter than it needed to be in order to be a working desk. It was time to do something about that before the tingling and pain running down my arms became permanent.




The logical place for a home office was my son's old room. Chip left the nest many years ago and the room was left untouched since I had no need for the space. You can see more of this room, HERE.




Once I made the decision to turn Chip's room into a home office, I knew the direction I wanted to go. I loved the look of the Pottery Barn Bedford Collection. These were my inspiration pics/rooms.




On January 9th, 2011, I began the mammoth job of dissembling a room that had been in place for 20 years. It was physically exhausting and mentally draining. It was so hard to face that my little boy was really grown and gone. :( I know you Mom's and Dad's know what I mean. I boxed everything up, took all the furniture apart and hauled everything down to the basement and garage by myself. Advil was my best friend for a few days.  The only two pieces I had to get help with were the large book case and desk.




Furniture was purchased both in-store and online since some pieces I wanted were not available in the store. I picked up the furniture that was locally in-store, hauled it home, and pulled it up my carpeted back stairway by those little yellow straps. I unpacked each piece and recycled the empty boxes back to the Pottery Barn recycle bin since the store is only two miles from my home. In the end, twelve boxes were hauled back to PB, if you count the boxes the smaller pieces came in. Whew!




Here's where much of the furniture lived (click for guest room) until the room was far enough along for furniture.




Next, I began the grueling job of striping the wall paper. I know y'all got tired of reading about my trials with this blooming wallpaper. ;)




After trying every product Home Depot sells and buying a steamer from Lowes,




AND making my 185th try at removing the paper, the score was still Wallpaper: 185, Susan: 0.




Since the wallpaper removal took way longer than I ever dreamed, the date for the installation of the hardwood floors arrived. The hardwood flooring guy is always booked out a few weeks, so I went ahead with the flooring even though the backing of the paper was still permanently stuck on the walls. The pain down my neck and arms was a reminder this project needed to proceed.

The carpet was removed and hardwood floors were installed. I'm gradually "hardwooding" the entire house...got two rooms to go.






I temporarily gave up on the paper and went ahead and moved the furniture in. The neck pain was getting worse with each passing day. I needed a proper desk at which to work and one was just sitting idle in the room next door.

I had the desk surfaces measured for glass; it was cut, delivered and installed. Pottery Barn sells a plastic type protector for desks, but in the store it was sort of buckling up. I went with glass which was a little more expensive but very durable.




I decided to call a professional wallpaper remover in for an estimate. Though she declined to share the name of the product she tested on the paper, saying it was only available to the trade, I was able to figure out what it was and ordered some to try myself.  It turned out it was not just available to the trade. You can read all about her visit and how I figured out what she was using in THIS post.

Over the years, I've removed wallpaper from 5 rooms in this house, and I've never had any real problems. This situation was beyond anything I've ever experienced. In the past, regular ole hot water did the trick.  It was slow, but it worked. This time, nothing worked, until I found Safe and Simple. I guess that's why professionals use it. I still had to scrape it off, but the paper finally came off. What a huge relief!




Then it was time to cover the furniture with drop cloths and repair all the damage and gouges  I had created on the walls while trying to remove the paper. This took several days and it involved wallboard joint compound, a putty knife and lots of sanding. Lots! Next to the wallpaper removal, it was the (second) worse part of this metamorphosis.




Somewhere along the way I ordered this chair from Pottery Barn Teen.  It came in feeling wobbly, so it was returned and a new one was reordered.




I wanted a little sitting area in the office, so in between all the wallpaper removal and wall repair, I went shopping for chair.  Found this chair in Pier 1 and it was love at first sight.




Once the paper was down and the walls repaired, it was time to prime (sniff, sniff) over the mural I had painted for my son so many, many years ago. You can read about that very difficult day HERE. Would someone explain to me why they can't stay 8 years old forever? ;)




I considered about every color of the rainbow for the walls. I narrowed it down to a soft green or my favorite stand-by, Duron, Sugar Cookie. I decided I didn't want the walls to compete with the pretty view of the greenery/trees outside my office windows. Plus, I love Sugar Cookie and have used it in many rooms of my home. It goes with EVERYTHING. No, really! It truly goes with every fabric, every furniture style, antiques, you name it. It's one of those paints that can feel casual or elegant. In the end, Sugar Cookie was my choice.

Home Depot still has the formula and can mix it up. In their system it may be listed as "Sugar Cook." Sherwin Williams has the formula, too but when they last mixed some up for me, it looked a bit too dark in the can so I never used it. Home Depot's formula is the one that looks like what I've always used. You can see that formula in THIS post.

Having been a while since I painted a room, I had a "paint panic attack" in THIS post when I began painting the office. I had forgotten how paint looks against white primed walls when you first start cutting it in.




I kept going and thankfully when I finished, it looked just the way I had envisioned. Relief!




During all the paper removal and wall repair I spent a good deal of time shopping for a light fixture locally and on eBay. I wanted something that didn't feel at all like it belonged in an office. My inspiration for lighting came from one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun. You can tour Bramasole, the wonderful Tuscan villa in the movie in THIS post. I set my sights on an Italian tole chandelier for the office.




I almost won this tole chandelier on eBay...missed it by $10. I loved its whimsy, but it wasn't meant to be because...

The chandelier faeries had this one in mind, instead. Do you think there really are chandelier faeries? I hope there are.




While I waited on my contractor to come install it, I decided to hang the wallpaper craft organizer and a bulletin board I had purchased at Ballard Designs. I had planned to use the end of the desk (where Max loves to sleep) for wrapping gifts, so I wanted the organizer close by. I tried it on the wall behind the shutter, but I just didn't like the way it looked there. I decided to move it which led to purchasing additional Pottery Barn desk furniture for the other end of the desk.

I was glad I moved it because not only did the wallpaper organizer look much better on the other wall, but the additional PB furniture balanced out the whole layout beautifully. Even though more PB furniture had not been in my original budget for the office, I was planning on eventually buying something for that area at the other end of the desk.  In the end, this worked out great providing additional storage and work space.

My contractor came out and installed the chandelier and the crown molding. I had him install crown molding in the guest room, too, since he was already here.   He helped me re-hang the craft organizer. A few days later I found a new bulletin board and hung it myself.  I loved the other one with the shuttered doors but the shutter design just didn't work hanging so close to the actual plantation shutters on the windows. So in the end, I changed to a different board and the shuttered board found a new home in the beautiful craft room of a local BNOTP reader.




A bee pillow I wanted was finally available at a price I was willing to pay.




I started adding in some decorative pieces like this adorable lady. She was labeled as a "French doll" but after I bought her, a friend told me she was a Santos. I had never heard of those but the history is fascinating. Mine is not an antique, those can be really expensive. She is a reproduction and I just love what she adds to this space. 

I googled "Santos" and discovered a wonderful shop HERE that carries Santos.  I was so excited to find they had my exact same Santos!  They also have angels...love those!




There are a few new updates to the office this week, although nothing huge. I had a Pier 1 coupon that was about to expire, so I used it for another cushion for the office chair. I still love the other one, but I thought it would be good to have a spare.




The cushion was originally $24.99 but with the coupon, I only paid $4.99




Finally found the chest I had dreamed up in my head to go beside the chair.  You can read more about it, HERE







Update on 08-28-11: Added a small "library" to the office.  Click HERE to read more about it.

In May 2012, added Buffalo Check curtains to the office.  

Read more about the curtains in this post titled: Buffalo Check Curtains for the Office.

A final look at the office:

It has been quite the journey...this creation of a home office. Thank you so much for coming along and for all your suggestions, encouragement, and support. You were there with me every step of the way, holding me up and encouraging me when I wondered why in the world I had taken on this huge endeavor all alone. I love you, guys!


Receive BNOTP updates right in your Inbox:
To receive the latest posts, as well as updates about upcoming blog parties, subscribe To BNOTP posts via an RSS Reader. Or, have BNOTP delivered right to your Inbox. You'll find links to subscribe via RSS and e-mail on the top ride sidebar of the BNOTP home page, OR click HERE to subscribe via RSS Reader and HERE to subscribe via e-mail.




Metamorphosis Monday:
If you are participating in Metamorphosis Monday you will need to link up the permalink to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar at the top of your blog, into the "url" box for InLinkz.

If you'd like to include the MM button in your post, just copy and paste the Met Monday button to your computer or grab the html code from underneath the MM logo under the "Join a Blog Party" header at the top of this blog.

In order to link up, you'll need to include a link in your MM post back to the host blog, Between Naps on the Porch so your regular readers will be able to find the Met Monday party which ensures your friends and fellow bloggers will receive lots of visits, too. Isn't that what a party is all about? :)

PLEASE DO NOT type in all caps...it spreads the links waaaay out. Thanks!


Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!