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Monday, September 1, 2014

A Pink Space

Holy moly, it's September already. In addition to my birthday, I always associate September with the beginning of school and fall as well as the chaotic closing of another insane fiscal year. This particular year has been especially busy because I am preparing to transition into a new career. With that, I wanted to share my home office because 1) it's temporarily clean, and 2) there are no cats in the frames.

When we first bought our house, I was apprehensive about having so many rooms. After all, it's just the two of us and our herd of furry children. Additionally, it's just so American to have an unnecessary amount of bedrooms in a suburban cookie-cutter style home, but I am nothing if not patriotic I guess.

As soon as we moved my husband moved (I was conveniently absent in training when we closed on the house.) all of our belongings inside, I insisted that we dedicate one bedroom as my home office. This way, I wouldn't end up writing on our living room coffee table and cutting teeny, tiny pieces of paper for homemade cards on the kitchen counters anymore.

A pink, girly office has always been my dream. I painted the walls and ceiling a very soft, slightly yellow pink called Musical Mist by Glidden in a satin finish. The desk is a white, two-drawer Parsons-style knockoff from Overstock. The gold, sunburst mirror is from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. To the left of the mirror, I have a Milk Toof print as well as a Harry Potter print (I don't remember from where!) framed in garage sale finds. To the right, I have a framed dead butterfly, an owl carving that I painted gold and pink, and a cork board covered in fabric with my racing bibs and photos pinned onto it at the moment.

Where I Facebook study and write.
My desktop is not usually this neat.
That is really a dead butterfly.
Initially, I wanted my desk to serve as a craft table as well, and I was holding out on a wide, expansive desk with a weathered working surface. The room is quite small, though, so I had opted to go for a small, practical writing desk and it has served me well. My desktop is normally littered in notebooks, folders, and various SD cards, but I cleaned it up for the picture. The placemat underneath my keyboard is from a high school friend when we were in high school and is older than I care to admit. When I do manage to sit down for a big, crafty project, I typically just park it on the floor and make a mess of everything anyway.

Don't let the white boxes fool you.
Across from my desk sits an Ikea Vittsjo shelving unit that I painted yellow using a combination of spray paint and industrial strength paint from a carcinogen-laced can (because the spray paint just wasn't cutting it). I had seen a lot of Ikea hacks on Pinterest for this versatile shelf, so I was excited to give it a whirl and do my own DIY spin on it. As luck would have it, I am not good at Ikea hacks and getting this shelf to DRY with that bumblebee shade of yellow in my humid garage was a total nightmare. There are quite a few dings in the paint here and there, but it holds my junk and that's what counts. The white boxes and drawers are needlessly labeled: I always end up opening every damn one of them to find whatever it is I'm looking for.

Top shelf of knick knacks.
The top shelf is just tall enough to be useless to someone who is as short as me, so it's decorated with various Funko dolls, Hello Kitty blind box items, and framed pictures instead of arts and crafts supplies. That green L is for Lewis because I am what I am.

Tree of Scissors
Originally, I wanted this ivory hook situation from Urban Outfitters to house my favorite necklaces and racing medals. However, my cats took it upon themselves to bungee jump from those items, so I decided to use this as a way to corral all of my scissors. I never have a problem opening letters, and my cats have since left it well enough alone.

I recently switched out to a light, airy pair of Ikea panels to let in more natural light. I didn't get the chance to finagle my camera settings properly, so the picture below is kind of blown out from all of the sunlight. However, it makes for a happy working environment.

A corner of stuffed cats.
Right now, I preparing to upgrade from spindly, foldout chair to a plush, vanity style chair as well as changing out the little dresser below the window. It might look cool with the gold and white stripes, but  it is not as functional as it could be. And I lied: there are some cats in this photo, but one is Pusheen and the other is not a cat, so it's actually OK.

If you're wondering where my cool, geometric patterned rug is, then just look at my dog because she ate it. I guess she isn't a fan of the whole "rugs on carpet floors" look, and honestly, I can't blame her.

I eat rugs on carpet because it's unnatural.

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