Okay, well as I first mentioned in my Scraps vs. Crap post, I am doing a complete redesign/overhaul of our office. It is in DIRE need of attention. Being that I work from home and I NEVER go in this room, that’s pretty sad I’d say.
So in this post I thought I’d post the (eek) dreaded before pictures, what my basic plan is, and some inspiration I’ve been coming across. This is a work in progress and will probably take awhile because 1) we have not saved up money so we are paying for things as we go, 2) we need to replace all the moldings, doors, and install carpet and 3) we are also doing a lot of other things outside right now so finding the time to do this too can be hard.
But my goal for this room is to be done by October, when my mom is coming to town to visit again. This is because she needs the guest bedroom then and basically everything from the office is in the guest bedroom right now. 
Moving on, here are the before pictures (sorry for the bad quality of these, I don’t know why they turned out like this)…
View #1 – Looking into the room from the hallway door. I know, it’s pretty bad. Not only is it not decorated – but it’s also a mess. This is really because I have no organizational system here whatsoever. I also picked a country blue color when we first moved in; which at the time I loved, but now it is just not my style at all. 
View #2 – The wall to the right of the hallway door. This is just bad, I know. It’s a big blank wall basically. I plan on doing something fun here. But I think there might be room for this settee loveseat that we got from my husbands grandmother. It needs to be recovered but it would look great here I think and would be good for extra seating.
View #3 – The wall opposite the hallway door. Again, this is just a mess. That lamp sitting on the desk is not even in use. I just have stuff sitting in here that need to be worked on because I have something planned for them, but they don’t go here. It’s really become a dumping ground.
View #4 – The wall to the left of the hallway door. I am honestly ashamed that I’ve been living like this. But it’s been such a task that I’ve been avoiding it. The big ugly grey desk we got on CraigsList for $30. Although it is quite ugly, it gives us SO MUCH room to do crafts, sewing, work, whatever. So I’m going to be sprucing it up to make it look less like a cubicle and more like a sophisticated home office.
View #5 – The hallway door wall (the hallway door is to the left). This craft cabinet I bought is amazing. It has so much great storage that I haven’t taken advantage of and I need to finish getting the drawers and paper trays for the empty spots. I’m also doing something fun with this to make it fit more with the look of the room and make it look more like “furniture”.
View #6 – This is the left of the closet you saw on the right side of the last pic. It may look like I have SOME organization going on here, but not really. The boxes are just filled and not really organized so I won’t take any credit for that. We did install these great shelves in the closet (instead of a hanging bar) that are just fantastic, but I need to do more with.
View #7 – The right side of the closet. So much worse looking than the other side. The top is candles, which don’t even belong here. Then it’s material which needs to be better organized.
So as you can plainly see, my office needs help. It’s screaming and crying, and begging for mercy. Not only all that, but on another note, basically all the base moldings in the house need replaced because they are so gunked up with old paint that they’re impossible to clean now. Also, we have no window and door casings, which drive me crazy. We need new doors in the entire house, and we need to carpet the bedrooms (including the office). So all of this will kind of be tackled within this makeover. The carpet, however, will be taken care of all at once, after I makeover the other two bedrooms as well.
Here’s a collage to give you an of what I’m going for here:
This will be broken down as I go, but this is just a rough idea really. Because things will change. They actually already have since I made this. So I’m flexible, but it’s to get me going and give me a starting off point. I’m a big believer in this because it really helps when you’re hitting up the garage sales, clearance sales, etc. so you can find things that will fit into your design if you stay within a style/color.
Finally, here is some inspiration I’ve found. It’s also a good idea to keep photos on hand of things you’d like to incorporate or like something about. I always try to keep my sources of the photos too so I can go back to look at the original post and credit for things like this.
Organization Inspiration:
Image Credits: 1) Flickr – plump_pudding 2) scrapbooking365.com 3) thehomeinparadise.com 4) Rate My Space – granfors1_11146774 5) Flickr – decorology 6) 33shadesofgreen.blogspot.com 7) myvintagewhimsy.blogspot.com 8) Flickr – decorology
Skirted Desk Inspiration:
Image Credits: 1) Source Unknown 2) sweetpeas.motime.com 3) brendariddle.blogspot.com 4) Source Unknown 5) brookegiannetti.typepad.com 6) decorpad.com
Miscellaneous Inspiration:
Image Credits: 1) thecraftsdept.marthastewart.com 2) fireflyhilldesigns.blogspot.com 3) Chic Home Decor Mag 4) marthastewart.com 5) Country Homes Magazine 6) censationalgirl.com
For the last two pics (#5 and #6 of Miscellaneous Inspiration), these are the two rooms I really love the all-around color scheme of. I also noticed that they both have practically the same color scheme going on the with area rug so that’s something to think about when picking that out. I originally planned for a light blue area rug, but now that I’m looking at them side by side, that might be a similarity I’m picking up on subconsciously. So this is another good reason why it’s good to keep and even lay out your inspiration photos.
So we’ll see where this goes and how long this actually takes me! I’m excited, but nervous about meeting my deadline. Stay tuned for more updates on this and other projects I have going on!
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