This weekend, Greg and I had four projects on our “To Do List”. All of which had to do with or needed to be done outdoors. What did Mother Nature decide to do? Rain… and rain, and rain, and rain, and rain.

So rather than complaining about how I was supposed to be sharing our patio project with you today, I’m going to turn lemons into lemonade and use this post as my sounding board for one of the most neglected rooms in the house to date: my office.

Even though I have yet to do anything in the area of decorating, I spend A LOT of time in my office. It’s where I write blogs, edit photos, write emails, work on projects, package orders from our store, oh, and Bentley hangs out in there too. To date, this room has undergone three phases.

Phase 1: The day we closed on the house, the office (which was a dining room to the previous owners) looked like this:

Phase 2: After removing the chair rail, taking down the light fixture, painting, refinishing the floors, and moving in the furniture, the office looked like this:

Phase 3: Now before I show you what the office looks like now, please note the following:

• I am fully aware that it looks disjointed, lacks style and not to mention color.
• The artwork isn’t hung (just leaning against the wall). If that wasn’t bad enough, both of the large pieces are currently in “college dorm poster frames”.
• The furniture placement is… well, who knows what it is.
• Yes, that’s a Sonic Route 44 on the desk. Diet Dr. Pepper is my fuel.

The major thing I’m having issue with at the moment is the furniture placement. I’ve tried it about four different ways and so far this seems to be the most functional set up. Yet, still, the office is not as functional as I feel it can be. Most likely, the main reason why I’ve been having a problem is the furniture itself. We first bought the furniture for my and Greg’s cozy (fancy word for “small”) office in our apartment. At the time, it was the perfect setup for us. However, for this room, it’s not very functional. So we’re planning on Craigslisting pretty much every piece (except the chairs) and upgrading to pieces lighter in color and more suitable for my mega storage needs.

I don’t want to go out and simply buy a furniture set because I’d much rather collect the room piece by piece until it’s just right – like Goldilock’s porridge. I’ve been working in the office as is for months and we’ve got nothing but time. So I’ve decided to go about the office transformation in zones. Everyone loves a good zoned room right? The first zone we’re going to start with this wall:

At the moment, nothing is going well for this wall. I know the desk can’t go on here so ideally, I’d like to find storage solutions that will be able to store a plethora of randomness such as ridiculous amounts of paper, two printers (one big boy and one little guy), extra ink, packaging supplies, and craft supplies (I have an unhealthy collection of markers). I also need a space to keep our inventory of art prints when we get them in from our “printer guy”.

Trying to think everything through, I ended up sketching out this idea:

Please don’t hate on my lack of “drawing” skills.

Here’s the breakdown of my sketch:

• To the left of the window, my dream piece of storage furniture will include glass door shelf storage and flat storage (long, skinny drawers for art prints).
• The window will be adorned with panel curtains, mounted near the ceiling to give the room height.
• Under the window will be a storage ottoman. Not only will this be a great place to store extra printer paper and ink cartridges, but Bentley would love a spot to lounge, nap, and hang out where he can also keep an eye on things outside. He’ll think it was all his idea.
• To the right of the window will be another storage piece with the lamp and the “big boy” printer on top. As for the little printer (which I barely use), Greg said he could put it in his office and rig it so when I need to print to that printer, I can do so over the network (ah, perks of being married to a geek).
• Hanging above will be a gigantic inspiration board – which is something I’ve been dying to have in my office since day one.
• I also like the idea of adding a rug to the room for a layer of warmth and coziness.

Armed with my plan, the obvious choice is to start with choosing furniture so I started searching online for storage furniture options. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Hemnes Glass-door Cabinet by Ikea 2. Craft Space Storage Cabinet by Martha Stewart Living 3. Eight-Drawer Flat-File Cabinet by Martha Stewart Living 4. Edland Linen Cabinet by Ikea.

The end. If it seems like this post is ending abruptly, that’s because it is. This is about as far as my mind has wrapped around this room. One day at a time. One day at a time… Right?