Problem number one with this office is that darn corner desk. We thought, when we bought it, that it would work perfectly. Fail! The desk space wasn't big enough so if I had my laptop out I had no place to work. The shelves didn't hold enough stuff in a useful manner. Those plastic stacking containers work well but scream dorm room, not guest room/office space. Storage was hard to find and as a result most things ended up just dumped in the middle of the floor. This was the room where things went to never be seen again. When my mom came we would stash the junk in other, less noticeable places, and then bring it back to this room when she left. No kidding.
Another problem with this room was the guest bed. It sat really really low to the ground. You practically had to fall into bed and then roll out onto the floor and get up from there. The bed in Jonathan's room was more appropriate for an adult and the guest bed was definitely better for a kid.I made a New Year's Resolution that this room would be clean by the end of January and stay clean. Yeah... that so never happened. The room got clean the night before my mom arrived in March and was a disaster shortly there after. Literally we never used this room. Dan's computer was in this room and was never used. Rather than use his computer at home and have to brave the disaster room Dan would bring his laptop home from work every day. We would have to close the door to this room to keep the kids from getting into trouble or hurt. It was bad.
Dan was fed up, so was I. He started looking at new office/guest room options and I started looking at money. Honestly there was no way that we could afford to do anything different in this room. Then we got our tax return. Dan looked online at IKEA and found an office set up that he liked. He pitched it too me expecting to get a no way but I was tired of the disaster room and threw caution to the wind and jumped into his idea.
So while we were in Portland for Sarah's graduation we made a trip to IKEA to pick up the furniture that we had decided on. We debated on wall color, talked about how it would go with the bed when the bed was so small and the totally wrong color, we talked room assessories, size, and spacing. And at the end of the day what we came away with was this...
I'm in love. Seriously, in love. The weekend before finals Dan cleaned out the office and painted the walls a beautiful yellow. The color is called Friendly Yellow and I believe it lived up to its name. I love the color. I love the way the yellow on the walls goes with the dark wood of the shelves and desk. I love all the storage in the bookshelves, although it was a pain in the rear to organize. I love our red accent boxes and I think next time we are in Portland we might get another one. I spend the majority of Monday and Tuesday of finals week in this room working on homework and it felt so good. It was nice to be off the couch, even though I have a laptop always typing in my lap gets tiring.
The bed that was in this room was a really light color and very low to the ground. We solved both these problems, an one more I'll blog about later, by moving the darker bed from Jonathan's room into the guest room and the other bed into his room. The bed isn't an exact match but its way better and I'm sure my mom will be excited to not have to fall into bed this time. :) I got teh bedding ant Macy's for a great deal. We had the curtians already and they are the perfect compliment to the yellow wallas and red bedding. The red bedding ties the office and guest room sides of the room together. I think it looks fantastic!
The dresser matched the bed, kinda, so it was too light in for the space. So we took the darker dresser from Jonathan's room and switched it with the dresser that was in this room. This also solved another problem but again I'll blog about that later. ;)All this has been done without telling my mom. Its been really hard not to tell her because I tell her everything. I slipped up and told her about the bed switch but that's all. I don't feel too bad because she remodeled an entire bathroom in our house in Fairbanks as a surprise for me. I think she'll really like the space and I'm excited for her to see it when she gets her today.
Dan and I really feel like this is a space we will use and keep clean. We have some great storage slutions in place that will make it easier to keep the room tidy.
And so that is my surprise project that I've been working on. I can finally mark off that New Year's Resolution! And hey, its not even June yet. I'm doing great... or something.
*Those before pictures were taken in January, I forgot to take new ones befe Dan graciously cleaned out the office while I was at a birthday party. My Christmas tree box and the suitcases from our vacation were put away long ago... just sayin'...
