I'm SO excited today to share the big reveal of my office makeover! Target was so generous in providing me with this opportunity to redecorate and reorganize my office with the help of Sabrina Soto, Target's Home Style Expert, and my choice of Target products!
If you haven't read the "Before" post, you can find it here, where I share the reason behind the makeover and the Design Consultation Q&A with Sabrina.
I hope you enjoy the new look as much as I do! I will go over some of my process in this post, then, I will follow up subsequently on some of the details and products behind my organization choices, especially as they relate to craft storage.
Also, Target is giving you a chance to win some of the items in my room, by participating in a Pinterest contest!! You can find more details at the end of this post! It's going to be a lot of fun friends, so grab a cup of coffee, and join me on my Office Makeover Tour:
Sabrina had a lot of great suggestions for my office in her Design Consultation, and I spent a lot of time reading her responses and reviewing my questions before I started the project, because I wanted to make sure I did this once and did it right.
One of the first things I wanted to deal with in this space was a major purge and reorganization of my shelving. I decided quite early on that I liked the shelves and the standing desk, I appreciated the time and work that went into John installing them for me, and I thought they still had great potential in the space...they were just a mess. Before we tackled anything else in this room, it was time to do a major purge!
One of the things that Sabrina advised was to eliminate small items and knick-knacks. As a collector of cute objet d'art, it was a hard to face that some of these items needed to go. But, it was the easiest project for John to help with, so it was the first thing we did. Once it all started coming down, I realized that I wasn't as attached as I thought. (Isn't it always that way with stuff?) Then, I concentrated on clearing off the top shelf as much as possible, moving the boxes off the floor and up to the bottom shelf, eliminating a lot of clutter that had accumulated until the shelves looked and felt lighter. Next, I worked on grouping my storage bins in "like" combinations as Sabrina suggested, to reduce the visual clutter. I replaced quite a few of my colored storage boxes with Target's Room Essentials white Y-weave containers, to blend with the other white paper boxes.
Sabrina also suggested new task lighting, and I liked that she picked an Architect's Desk Lamp, because it just so happened that we had a pair of similar lights on John's desk, so naturally I commandeered them for my use. :D
The 5 Y-weave boxes each hold a great deal of craft tools; there is one with my paper punches, another with my glue guns and glitter, one with all my ink stamp pads, and another with scissors, tape, pens and pencils and other tools like my bone folder, awl, and glue sticks. The last one is left empty for future items.
I also purchased a clear multi-use organizational tray in the bath section of Target, and that is where I put some of my latest scrapbooking supplies for work on my Christmas album, which I hope to finish before next Christmas.
On the far left side of my desk, I put my photo printer, my button press and my Silhouette. They are close enough to my computer to be functional and out of the way of my working space.
The little nook area behind the door originally housed my tower of vintage lockers. In its place, I moved the bookshelf that was already in my office. This keeps all of the "open storage" together in one area, and my papers and supplies are an arms reach away from my standing desk. I also like that it gives me an out-of-the-way space to put a couple of decorative items, and additional lighting.
The locker tower was moved across the room into the window corner of my chalkboard wall and next to a small white bench that serves multiple purposes. It gives me extra seating when I have a friend or two over to craft with me, and it also gives me a spot with great lighting where I can prop and stage my shop items, prints and craft projects for photography. I also have some hooks in the ceiling, that I can use to hang photo backdrops when the urge strikes.
Sabrina offered the suggestion of adding either mirror or vinyl decals to my wall instead of frames, but the wall opposite the window is made up entirely of mirrored closet doors and with the chalkboard wall, I would prefer to add chalk art instead of vinyl. Usually I would make my own word art to put on the wall, but I didn't have the time to design something from scratch. Instead, I searched Pinterest for a quote that resonated with me, and was lucky to find a pin of this amazing art piece by Dan Cassaro (www.youngjerks.com) for HelpInk.org. This time, I had John take some pictures of the process, so I can share the details of how I transferred a color image to chalk art in another post.
Sabrina suggested that I give myself more working area in the form of another desk. I was open to that idea as long as it didn't take up much space. I found a simple, long white table that fit perfectly across and under the window. I would like to find a set of drawers to put under the desk for pens and paper, USB drives, cords, etc...but haven't found what I like yet. So in the meantime, I just used a desk organizer in the window well, a vintage mint and gold ceramic tray, and a couple of small desk catch-alls.
My desk area was really fun to decorate and style, and I spent the majority of my budget picking out the items to help dress it up. First was this amazing acrylic chair from Target that Sabrina picked out, which I love, love, love! On top of the desk are two bouquets of fresh flowers, and under the desk, there is plenty of room for this vibrant yellow nailhead storage ottoman, another Sabrina tip! It's already a great extra seat for Maggie and I can fill it with a few buddies and busy toys for her when she's hanging out with me.
I also found this art print at Target, which I hung in the middle of my rather large window, using a 3M Command Hook picture hanger. I love typography and this happens to be one of my favorite prints, so I was excited when I spotted it! I am also madly in love with the pair of lampshades and bases I put together! Target has fulfilled my lamp lust completely with their vibrant collection of lighting options, and these tie in so well with my overall decor, I bought another pair for my dining room!
The curtains and rod were another Sabrina suggestion, and one of my favorite DIY's for this room. I wanted a graphic pattern on the curtains, but I had specific needs. I wanted grey, I wanted white, I wanted long, and I wanted them lined and not sheer. Well, I did a lot of searching, but couldn't find exactly what I needed in the drapes and curtains of my Target store and Target.com...so instead, I looked at sheets and duvet covers, and found what I was looking for immediately!
This DIY was so easy, I can't stand it. To make the two curtain panels, I simply folded the duvet cover in half, lengthwise, and cut it on the fold. That's it. Since it's a cover and not sheets, it's already two layers, which gave me the opacity I wanted. I didn't even sew the raw edges. We spray painted an existing curtain rod and curtain rings in teal blue, per Sabrina's suggestion, and hung the rod pretty high up on the wall to give the curtains a straight drop and stronger visual impact. And, to hide the raw edges on the panels, I just folded it over and clipped the curtain ring onto the fold to hold it in place. Unless you are hand inspecting my curtains, you can't tell at all. :D My kind of decorating.
Last but not least, meet my other fave DIY project (well, half DIY)...my bingo paper chandelier! Sometimes it pays to hoard craft supplies, and this would be one of those times.
During the holidays, I bought myself an "ornament chandelier" from Crate & Barrel, which basically equates to a bunch of concentric circles welded together to make a wreath looking thing, and two dozen or so metal rods that hang from it; each rod has a couple of clips where you hang the ornaments from.
I decided to attempt to attach this wreath to the existing rental light fixture. We unscrewed the dome, took out the light bulbs and basically wedged the metal circle base over the light bulb sockets. Then, we screwed the light bulbs back in and the dome back in place, adjusting it a bit here and there to get it mostly centered, and guess what? It worked!! Or should I say, it worked, which then meant I needed to find a whole bunch of somethings to hang from it. And that's when I found my stash of bingo sheets. :D
There was too much of a gap around the top, so I used the clips from the wire art hanger that previously hung over the window. The bingo cards came in sheets of 3, which I cut into squares, but for the top layer I used two, cutting off the square on the end, giving me the length I needed.
I love how it looks, and so far, we haven't burnt the house down! :D
My Office Makeover with Target was a true labor of love! I'm so lucky to have this chance to work with them as part of the Target Inner Circle team, and I so appreciate the time Sabrina took to give me such a great consultation!
I am looking forward to many productive hours looking out the window over my desk, watching the birds and squirrels in our big tree, and checking out the people walking along my street. It already makes me feel less isolated and more a part of an urban neighborhood, which is sometimes hard to remember when living in such a tiny town.
Even Maggie loves my office, she keeps walking in and telling me, "Mommy! You're new office looks pretty! Can I watch Diego on your computer?" How can I say no?
And now, as a reward for making it through this marathon of a blog post...
it's GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
If you don't have a Pinterest account, you can go here to sign up, and make sure to follow me, Jennifer Pebbles. I will be pinning some items and similar goods that I used in my room on Pinterest. When the item pinned has been repinned 50 times, it will be "unlocked" and one lucky repinner will win that item. The contest will run approximately 2 weeks, so keep your eyes open and be ready to repin!
I will come back and edit this post as soon as the contest is up and running, and will also send out the alert on Instagram and Twitter. I will also use these social media channels to alert you each time a new item is pinned. :D
**Edited to add: The Contest is OPEN and LIVE! You can follow along here Pinners will have between Jan 29th and Feb 12th (12pm EST) to repin items to be considered for the drawings. Please remember that 50 repins unlocks each item, and if an item is sold out on Target.com, it will be substituted for a similar item in color, style or price. GOOD LUCK!!!
Thanks again for taking the time to read all about my office makeover! If you have any questions about the items shown in my photos, feel free to leave me a comment or tweet me @jenniferpebbles!
XOXOXO
-JP
*I am a member of the Target Inner Circle. All opinions are my own.