It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Greg’s office. Since our time has been consumed with other parts of the house, not too much has changed. To refresh your memory, here’s the mood board we put together to capture a little of what we’re going for. We like to call it “modern geek chic”:

1. Kivik Chair 2. Circuit Office Accessories 3. Fado Pendant 4. Giant Wipe-Off Board 5. Crane Grellow Desk Lamp (Which isn’t available anymore, but Greg wasn’t a fan anyway. We might be going for something like this instead.) 6. Abacus Wall Art 7. Galant Desk 8. Knitted Pouf 9. Array Bookcase in Blood Orange

Unfortunately, the desk lamp and blood orange version of the Array Bookcase are no longer available. As I mentioned before, Greg’s not too upset about the lamp; but we were both really excited about the pop of blood orange. It would have tied in nicely with the colors from the abacus wall art. In light of the situation, we decided to go with the same bookcase in silver. Our minds were made up… until we saw Ikea’s Lack shelf unit. There were three reasons this made us think twice: 1) We liked how the individual shelves had more surface space to hold things other than books. 2) It was taller is would add some needed height to the room. 3) Weighing in at only $49.99, it cost almost a third of the other option (which was $189). Pretty good price, right? Reason number 347 we love Ikea!

No surprise, we ultimately decided on Ikea’s Lack shelf unit. After about twenty minutes of super easy assembly (in fact, so easy we didn’t even take a picture of it!), it was ready for hanging…

In order to hang the shelf (which weighs a little under 40 lbs), we used drywall anchors for extra support. We mounted the bracket that came with the shelf to the top. At that point, Greg lifted the shelf into place while I stood back and told him where to make the mark on the wall. Everything was super easy at that point – a few screws, a level to make everything was even, and it was ready to be put to good use…

For now we are working with what we have around the office but we’re looking forward to being able to change it up from time to time. To Greg’s delight, he now has a place for his prized Potato Heads, the books he uses the most, and yes… the red stapler. I told you he was a geek.

These aren’t just for looks – from time to time, I pull up a chair to Greg’s desk and we play dominos and card games. Come to think of it, I’m not really sure why we do that since we have a pretty large dining room table. Nevertheless, this glass vase serves as the perfect holding place for the dominos and even has a few of the colors from the abacus wall art mixed in. Convenient on both accounts!

Doesn’t this little guy resemble a husband-blogger we all know and love? Minus the green hair of course! When Greg and I first started dating, my family and I were on vacation at Disney World and I made this Mr. Potato Head for him at the toy store (Once Upon A Toy) in Downtown Disney. We’ve dubbed him the office mascot.

Another mini nod to Disney… When Greg and I got engaged, my brother gave this little bank to Greg and said, “You’ll need this. She’s expensive.”… little brothers. Ironically, filling this up a few times paid for all of our gas to and from Disney World for our Honeymoon. So it’s only natural that Greg’s little modern Mickey go beside it.

‘Tis the rundown of our office storage adventure. The next step will be hanging more shelving above his desk and maybe even a few guitars. By the way, did you guys watch Design Star last night? Do you have a favorite already?

When it comes to decorating, every couple’s decorating agenda is different. Since this is our first house, we are learning about ours a little more each day. Lately, it’s been all about the shell of the room (walls, floors, wiring, molding, lighting, etc) rather than what is actually going in the room, so we haven’t quite perfected our groove, yet. Thus far, we have been working pretty good together as a team. When I find something that I think will look good in a certain place, he says “yae” or “nay”. If he says “nay”, but I really love it, it just takes a little more persuasion. You ladies know the drill. However, today, our process is going out the window because we’re going to talk about a room that is 100% Greg… almost. ;)

Greg’s office. Aside from the hall bathroom, this is going to be the first room to get major attention. The main reason for this is he needs a place to work. I think he may be going a tad crazy writing code and putting together his blog posts in my parents’ dining room for the past 6 months. (Wow, have we really been here for that long?) Aside from that, his room needs to house five guitars, one ukulele, lots of books, office supplies, a bunch of computer parts and all the rest of his tech stuff. All of these things have been neatly packed away in a climate-controlled storage unit, but it’s kind of hard to use them from there. We’re getting a little tired of having to drive to the storage unit whenever we need CD-Rs or printer paper.

To refresh your memory, here is what Greg’s office looked like on the day we got the keys to the house. Yes, he got the Redskins room!

Remember that style quiz we took a few weeks ago? Greg’s results were 80% Rustic Revival and 20% Modern Elegance. But the choices he made on the quiz were based on what he’d like to see in a living area of the house. Since this is his home office space, he wants it to be, in his exact words, “tech geek modern”. So far, we’ve ripped out the carpet, had hardwood floors installed, put Martha Stewart’s Cobblesone paint on the walls and had trim painted with Sherwin Williams’ Extra White. Here’s what the office looks like today:

As we mentioned the other day, we are in the process of wrapping up a few projects, then we are having the hardwood floors stained. Once this is done, it’s going to be time to put everything in this room, so we need to come up with a plan now.  Here’s what we came up with…

For years I have been putting together “mood boards” for friends and family. Actually, ever since I took my Desktop Publishing class in the 10th grade. At this point, it has become such a staple in my everyday life that before I make major purchase for a particular room, I must make a mood board first. That’s just how I roll. Over the past week or so, Greg and I have been slowly but surely putting together a shopping list for his home office. The “tech geek” stuff will come through the accessories and finishing touches (including some fun homemade geek art!). For now, we’re focusing on the room’s decor “foundation”. Here is what we have in mind:

1. Kivik Chair When we set out to find the perfect chair for Greg’s office, we knew it needed to be practical for playing guitar, yet comfy for reading a book. We think this Ikea chair is the best of both worlds.

2. Circuit Office Accessories I love these glossy white desk accessories. They have the perfect mix of modern and tech minimalism.

3. Fado Pendant This simple pendent from Ikea is modern yet affordable; coming in at only $29.99.

4. Giant Wipe-Off Board Some people like to write out their flow charts and to-do lists on paper. Greg likes to do it wipe-off board style! For as long as I’ve known him, he’s said that he wanted a large wipe off board in his office. This gigantic wipe-off board will make this dream of his come true in a big way.

5. Crane Grellow Desk Lamp This is one of those “nay” items that Greg isn’t too keen about yet. I’m trying to convince him that it will look great and tie in with the grellow (green & yellow) beads on the abacus. I assured him that if he hates it after we put it in, we can trade it in for something like this.

6. Abacus Wall Art This is the very first thing we purchased for Greg’s office. It’s 100% math geek, but it has a lot of great colors to pull into the rest of the room.

7. Galant Desk Did you notice the odd-shaped box on the floor of the office? Well, that’s the top to this desk! We are really anxious to put it together and see it in the space.

8. Knitted Pouf Rather than getting a bulky ottoman that would use up a lot of space, we opted for this little guy. It’s even sturdy enough to serve as extra seating.

9. Array Bookcase Aside from guitars, one thing Greg has a lot of is books. Rather than putting them on an ordinary bookshelf, we thought this would be a fun way to display his collection.

So that’s what we have so far! We’re going to address the layout once we get the floors done.  We’ve obviously got an idea of what will fit and what won’t, but we want to wait until the floors are done to plan the final configuration. Until next time, how do you like what we’ve put together so far? Are you worried about the geek factor? How would you do a “tech geek modern” room?” We’d love to hear!