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?

The other day my mom called to tell me about a new show on Lifetime I “HAD to watch” called Picker Sisters. At first, it sounded like a version of American Pickers – which, I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never really been able to get into. On the other hand, outside of HGTV, my mom isn’t necessarily what you would call a “TV watcher”, and she even called me back later that day to make sure I set the TiVo. So I decided to check it out. Because mom said so.

To sum up my opinion of Pickers Sisters in one word: addicting.

Here’s the rundown: The show follows interior designers and best friends Tracy Hutson and Tanya McQueen (you might recognize them from ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) as they travel cross country looking for what some would consider “junk” to transform into one-of-a-kind pieces for their home decor “pop-up shop” in Los Angeles, I-10. I’m not talking about “Oh, let’s take this old wagon wheel and make it a coffee table”. No. We’re talking big, crazy, home decor pieces that pack a good punch made out of what most people call “junk”.

For example… in episode two, they find this crate of chain at an old sugar mill in Louisiana. They end up buying the entire 1,500 pound box for $250 (apparently 17 cents a pound is good for scrap metal)…

Once they got the crate back to LA, they have their business partner/friend/left brain/contractor, Allen, go to work on their vision. After a lot of strength and ingenuity (that stuff is heeeeavy), they came up with an awesome, one-of-a-kind coffee table…

After $250 for the chain, $200 for materials and labor, and a sale price of $1,200; they’re looking at a profit of $750. Not bad!

I don’t want to show you guys too much because I don’t want to spoil the show for you! But I must show you one of my favorite ultra quirky pieces… They found this old marquee light in someone’s yard and the man ended up giving it to them for free…

They came up with the awesome idea of replacing the wiring and removing the metal front, replacing it with an acrylic photo …

They took the marquee back to LA, thought up a design plan, let Allen do his magic, and $100 later, it’s in their showroom (with a price tag of $1,100).

Isn’t that cool?! Okay, so not everyone has room for a gigantic yellow arrow light in their living room (though I could totally see this in a lofty, quirky living room) but what I love about this show is that what the they do with “junk” can be applied on a small scale projects around our house as well. It makes me want to take a drive down the country roads around here (by the way, check out their tips and tricks for “pickin’” here).

On top of coming up with crazy awesome pieces, their funny, “classy cowgirl” banter is fun to watch, and they totally seem like the type of girls you’d like to hang out go “pickin’” with. I think we’d be BFFs. Just sayin’. They are only 3 episodes it’s already made it to my “keep until I delete” list on our TiVo. That’s TiVo code for “it better not be deleted, or else!”

So go set your DVRs to record Picker Sisters. Tuesdays on Lifetime. Go ahead. Go do it now. I promise you’ll never look at a piece of rusty scrap metal the same way again.

So we’re curious, have any of you been “pickin’”?

By the way… For those of you not in the States, check it out on the Lifetime website here. You can also download it on iTunes here (the first episode is free!).

All images property of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC.

Okay, well it’s not quite 2012 but thanks to Ikea, we can start decorating like it. Okay. Maybe that was just a tad too cheesy, even for me. Moving on! Last night, I finally got around to devouring the 2012 Ikea catalog. The very first thing that caught my eye was the quote on the cover: “A home doesn’t need to be big, just smart.” Not only is this my “quote of the week”, but it’s SO true. The quote is very fitting for the cover because after all, Ikea is the end all and be all of maximizing your space and utilizing every square inch. I love the sections in the Ikea showrooms where they show you what you can do with only 300 sq feet. It makes you think, “Wow, I could SO live like this!”.

While flipping through studying the catalog, the folks Ikea seemed to be doing exactly what they do best: maximizing storage.  However, the rooms in the catalog look much more practical and lived-in than I remember from past issues. It was super-refreshing seeing Ikea step up their game like this, and I was so excited about it I just couldn’t contain myself. So without further ado, here are my favorite spaces in the 2012 Ikea catalog…

Overall, this room looks super cozy. It’s the perfect read-a-book-on-a-rainy-day room. As for the individual pieces, I’m especially digging the Hemnes glass-door cabinet to the far left of the room. I would love to find a place for one of these in our house and try out the same contact paper method we did on our back doors. I’m seriously considering it as a paper storage solution in my (currently neglected) office.

When I first saw this photo, the first thing I said was, “Hey, the walls in our laundry room are that color.” followed by “We should totally paint the back door in the laundry room red!”. Greg just looked at me like I was crazy. I’m not sure if it’s because he questioned the color choice, or if he was about to kill me for wanting to pick up a paint brush again so soon! I also really like the giant clock to the right of the door. I actually had the same one hanging in my apartment in college, but I sold it in a yard sale a few years back thinking it wasn’t my style anymore. I was wrong. The man who bought it said he was going to put it in his barn for his cows. As I reluctantly took his $5, I thought to myself, “Cows? Really?”

Well thought-out spaces like this sometimes makes me want to forfeit my big office for a closet space. I’m a firm believer in that you can make a functional office out of any space, no matter how small or awkward, and I think this makeshift workstation is a perfect example. It’s almost like a little treasure box of productive and useful items! I really like how the strategically-mounted glass-front cabinets to the right create a nice, easy-to-reach storage area in the tiny space. The wall-mount light, magnetic inspiration board, small chandelier, and black and white wallpapered wall are the icing on the cake!

What I LOVE about this room is how it’s divided into different zones: dining + homework area (with a window seat!), a reading nook (with lots of natural light), a tv-watching area (complete with a spunky orange couch), and a flex storage space in the corner (with extra seating). Even though it was created as a show piece, the room looks totally livable and real. Refreshing, isn’t it?

So, how about you… Have you seen the new Ikea catalog yet? Have you found any favorite new pieces?

Btw: Sign up to get a paper copy of the 2012 Ikea Catalog here. For you iPad users out there, you MUST download the *free* IKEA catalog app. It’s very sleek and full of iPad awesomness. Check it out here.