I must confess, I’ve been struggling with how to tackle my home office. This is the only room in the house where I have no idea where to start. I think it might have something to do with the fact that this will be my first office space all to myself. (Greg and I shared an office when we lived in our apartment.) While I’m in this stage of the design process, I have to keep in mind that my office is directly off the dining room, living area and kitchen. It’s also directly in the line of sight when you come in the front door. (Check out the floor plan to see what I’m talking about.) Because of this, it’s important that the office appears as an extension of those areas. Then on the other hand, I want it to feel different enough that I can feel like I’m “going to work” when I walk into the office.

To refresh your memory, here is what the dining-room-turned-home-office looked like on the day we closed on the house:

Since then, we have removed the light fixture, window treatment and chair rail. We also painted the walls Slate by Restoration Hardware and the trim bright white. Here is what the space looks like today:

Don’t fret. I didn’t break the cardinal rule of photography and use a flash. The super-bright, harsh light is from the oh-so-annoying temporary light bulb. It’s the first thing to go out of the door when we start working on this space. Another thing to keep in mind is the hardwood floors are yet to be stained. We’re waiting until all of the gritty work is over before we have that done.

Okay. So this is my plan of action for figuring out which direction to go in: I am going to put together a collection of dream office spaces. Then I will decipher what exactly about that space makes my heart go pitter patter. From that point, I will hopefully be able to put together a plan for my very own home office. Sound good? Then let’s get started!

Let’s daydream for a minute… no adjoining rooms, no budget, no architecture restrictions. Blank canvas.

Isn’t that molding to die for?! I love the wall color and the contrast of the bright white trim. I also love how the “bones” of the room are clearly traditional. But with the clean and mid century modern elements, it gives the space a really modern eclectic feel.

Color, storage and practicality are the three things I adore about this space. The color combination isn’t just happy. It’s inspirational and chic. It’s “happy chic” as Jonathan Adler would say. Love him. Who doesn’t, right?!

I pulled this photo because I really like the idea of an inspiration board. It will also be a fun DIY project to take on! Since this space is going to be where I do all of my creating and whatnot, it’s important to me that I have inspiration right at my fingertips. And since I like everything to be nice and organized, the idea of having a designated ultra special board to contain the inspirations makes me ultra happy.

This one has a lot of bold colors, too. I love it! I also really like how the backdrop of the space is black and white. This really helps bring out the colors in the accessories. I adore the restored antique lighting. Painting the light fixtures white really brings a modern flair to the room and draws your attention to the splashes of color.

I’m the kind of person that can’t even concentrate unless the work space is clean and organized. When everything is in its place, I feel like I’m free to put all my thoughts in place as well. Obviously, for that to happen, I need some major storage space. Aside from 7HL, I occasionally do graphic design and photography work, as well. So storage is an absolute must.

Now that I have these six to-die-for home office inspiration photos to pull from, I feel just a tad giddy. I’m organized, and I feel like I know the direction I want to take. Until next time we visit this space, I’ll be busy narrowing down what elements I want to bring into my home office.

Inspiration photos found here, here, here, here and here.

We spent this last weekend doing something we have been very anxious to do ever since we closed on our house: we painted the shutters and doors. To refresh your memory, here is what the house looked like back in March:

We wanted to amp up the curb appeal and bring out the darker bricks to give it a warmer look. Our first thought was to paint the shutters black, but then we realized the roof was brown and we didn’t want the two to clash. So we opted for a rich black/brown instead. After going through what seemed thousands of paint swatches, we finally decided on Valspar‘s Posh Red (1011-4) for the front door and Fired Earth (6011-1) for the shutters (which we will also be using on the back doors as well). Here is what the house looks like now:

Now that the painting is done (holla!), we have some more exterior projects up our sleeves. The game plan includes some much needed landscaping (our poor little bushes need CPR), giving the brick a good power washing, some eye candy for the porch (planters, maybe?), and a new lamp post. Wouldn’t that be cool if John Gidding was hiding in the bushes to surprise us with a Curb Appeal makeover?! That would be epic. Then again… he couldn’t hide in the bushes. Our bushes are too wimpy. Unfortunate.

And no, we didn’t get a new roof. The lighting on this particular day as well as the season change simply makes the roof appear darker. One change that isn’t an optical illusion is the tree missing from the front yard. This particular tree was leaning toward the house and blocking the view of the front porch. So we opted to have it removed. And we are so glad we did!

The price tag for Phase One of our curb appeal make over?
1 Gallon of Oil Based Primer: $22.37
1 Quart of Valspar Posh Red: $12.48
1 Gallon of Valspar Fired Earth: $25.47
Tree Removal: $175

The Grand Total: $235.32*

* We already had the rollers and brushes, so we couldn’t really figure it into the cost.

Since this was our first experience with painting shutters and doors, we thought we would share some pointers for anyone who might be thinking about tackling a similar project. Keep in mind that we are not professionals by any means. We are merely passing a long some information that we found helpful along the way. So here we go:

Clean Up. To get your painting project started on the right foot, make sure you clean the surface of everything you will be painting. For the door, we used warm soapy water and a scrub brush. When it came to the shutters, we used a dry paint brush between the slats and then wiped each shutter down with a damp cloth. By cleaning everything prior to painting, the paint will last longer and give it a much cleaner finish to the final product.

Prime time. The “paint guy” at our local Lowe’s suggested that we use a tinted primer since we would be using dark colors. The only downside to using tinted primer is for 24+ grueling hours, our front door and shutters were a horrible light gray. I was so worried that our new neighbors would think that we had totally lost our minds.

After what seemed like forever, it was finally time to put on the first coat of Posh Red on the front door. The agonizing wait was well worth it! We were really glad we listened to the oh so awesome”paint guy”. Using tinted primer along with the Valspar paint (which has amazing coverage by the way) proved to be the right thing to do. Here is the door after only one coat of paint!

It’s time for liftoff. Let me preface this next tidbit by letting you know that painting shutters while they are attached to your house is hard work. Well, it’s more tedious than hard.  See, our shutters are all wood, and they’re attached to the house with concrete nails.  That meant we couldn’t take them off unless we wanted to destroy them and risk damaging the brick.  So, if you have the luxury of taking yours off, we highly recommend it!

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’. We found the best way to get the job done (and not take hours upon hours) is to roll the fronts of the shutters first then go back with a brush to get the tedious nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, this didn’t dawn on us until after the first few shutters. But once we got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing. We did the same thing on the front door. We rolled the nasty gray primer coat as well as the first coat of Posh Red. Then did the second coat of paint with a brush.

Patience is a virtue. After I painted the first coat on the front door, I got a little overanxious to see our new, pretty front door. So what did I do?  I decided to put a second coat on while the first was still tacky. Bad idea. With each stroke, the wet paint started to take off the tacky paint. I then stopped, let it dry completely, lightly sanded down my mistake and continued with the second coat. Lesson learned!

Don’t be hasty. This may seem really obvious, but while you may be really anxious to get the job over with (like we were!), try not to put too much paint on the brush. Using too much paint will cause drip marks on the finished product. Even if you’re not dripping all over the place, putting too much paint on a surface at once can lead to the final finish being wavy or showing brush strokes. If you do this, guess what you get to do? You get to sand, scrape, and repaint the whole thing all over again. Put multiple thin coats on your doors and shutters. This will give you a beautifully clean final product. Yes, unfortunately, we learned this the hard way.

So there you have it, our “two cents worth” about painting doors and shutters. We hope it helps those of you thinking about tackling an exterior painting project for the first time as well. Do any of you out there have any painting tips to share? We would love to hear them!

Everyone says that kitchens and bathrooms “make the sale”. I guess the same can be said for this sale as well. But it was the potential we saw in the kitchen and bathrooms that made us fall in love with this brick ranch — one of the things anyway. Thanks to the popularity of HGTV and the DIY Network, we’ve been able to learn that almost anything is possible if you have good “bones”. And in some cases, you can even break a few of those “bones” to make your vision a reality. Demolition time, anyone?

It’s important to Greg and me that we do these renovations without credit cards or loans. For this reason, we made a list of renovations in order of importance. The hall bathroom turned out to be number one. We had the keys for barely an hour when all of a sudden I hear my dad and Greg down the hallway, ripping out the vanity. Luckily I was able to grab these two photos before pieces of the bathroom were thrown out the window and into the borrowed flat bed trailer (thank you, Mr. Glen!).

After what felt like a few short hours of demolition, the bathroom was completely gutted — down to the studs. Every time I walked past the empty bathroom, I got so excited! With everything taken out, it was easier to envision what Greg and I had planned.

The overall feel of the bathroom was narrow and long. Since the bathroom was gutted anyway, we knew if we wanted to reconfigure the layout, it was now or never. Check out this rendering of the original floor plan.

When you opened the bathroom door, you were “greeted” by the wall of the small linen closet in the hallway. This was our first big decision as new homeowners: do we take out the linen closet to open up the wall? Since we had another linen closet just across the hall, this decision was an easy one… Bye, bye closet! Ordinarily, I would never get rid of valuable storage space. But one tiny closet was a small price to pay for almost 2+ feet of additional vanity space and a much more open feel to the bathroom. Even though we knew this is what needed to be done, when my Dad made that first big cut into the sheetrock, I couldn’t help but think, “Oh my goodness! Are we sure about this?!”. But as soon as the wall was down, we were 150% sure we had made the right decision (cue happy dance!). Here is a snapshot of the bathroom after the closet was taken out:

We now have enough space for two sinks, which will be awesome for our friends and family when they come to visit. We also decided to make the doorway wider. What was once a narrow 24-inch doorway is now a roomy 32-inches. Here is the new and improved layout — as well as a preview of some of the finishes we have in mind:

Now that the demolition is complete, it’s time to for the fun stuff!! I’ve always heard that picking out  finishes and fixtures can be overwhelming. I guess I’m getting ready to find out! Anyone have any advice? We would love to hear it!

By the way… stay updated with the renovation process by following us on Twitter @7thHouseLeft.