A bit of designspiration for you as you sip your morning coffee…. enjoy!

{All images c/o Lonny mag, borrowed from here}

This past weekend was all about containers at our house. I’d been longing for a trip to The Container Store for some time now. Have you been to this place? It’s an organizer’s dream! Any sort of item you need to contain? They have the container for it.

The first order of disorganized business was our office closet. This has become the dumping ground for old shopping bags (which I compulsively save), tools, office supplies, games, paint, wrapping paper, you name it. If it doesn’t have a natural home in our house, it winds up in that closet. We even have some boxes in there that we haven’t unpacked from moving!

It’s still a work in progress but I at least got the crafty stuff organized. I got a five drawer elfa system which is a great, easily customizable piece of furniture. The large bottom drawer is for shopping and gift bags and tissue paper, the next drawer up is for paints and brushes, then ribbons, doilies and other random craft items, then papers and stationery, then markers and glue on top.

We also finally got a shoe organizer for our hall closet but I forgot to grab a picture of it and it’s not so exciting anyways. What is exciting (I think) is this nautical striped canvas bag I snagged to store some books next to the hallway couch. I’m glad that this sort of in between, awkward space in our house is finally starting to come together. (Before picture here.)

I’ve been looking for a bathroom shelf for awhile now and just couldn’t bring myself to pay $60 for one at Target. Luckily I found this “shabby chic” shelf (which actually used to be a drawer in a former life and still has the drawer handle to prove it) at a little boutique and voila – instant bathroom shelf.

Finally, some other new-ish decor items that I adore. First, a blue farm chair with painted flowers that now lives in our hallway, bought at the same boutique as the shelf. Then, these wall koi that are perpetually swimming around on our bathroom wall. And finally, a pair of throw pillows for the office with a Shepard Fairey screenprint on them (available here).

It’s amazing how a few little accent items and a bit of organization can make you feel even more settled and cozy in your home. And of course, looking down at this face every day helps a little too.

Well it sure has been quiet around these parts, eh? And what a false representation that is of my life these days because it has been anything but quiet. I believe the only word one could use to encompass it is batshit, which according to Urban Dictionary is defined as “A level of insanity that the word alone cannot justify.”

Yep, that just about covers it.

The new job? Batshit. I think I’ve done more work in these two and a half months than I did in six at my last job. And yes, it’s been fun at times and certainly a hell of a learning experience, but to go from wanting to scratch your eyeballs out if you have to play hide-and-go-seek one more time to feeling like you can’t remember your name because you’re juggling so much at once takes a bit of getting used to, to say the least.

Then on top of that, throw in two trips down south for the holidays, Christmas shopping, buying a new car (the Volvo, I regret to inform, shit the bed), one ever-growing and curious puppy, and me, three weeks before Christmas, deciding to throw a holiday party for 15 people. (I bring it on myself, I know this.)

But you know what? It was great. The holiday party, I mean. I set the menu a week in advance (cocktails, heavy apps and dessert), spread out my shopping, did my baking during the week, then pulled everything together last Saturday. And I’ll admit, there was a moment about two hours before the guests were due that I had panic moment. One of those what-the-f-did-I-get-myself-into kinds of moments, but with the help of a friend and one very patient husband, we pulled it off. And with time to take pictures before the guests arrive too!

And now we’re home in Maryland laying low for the rest of 2010. Wouldn’t you know it, the minute I stopped running around at top speed, my body decided to shut down and get sick! But that’s okay, I have my new toy from A to keep me plenty busy:

But what about you? How are your holidays treating you? Do tell, it’s been far too long.

It started off as a storage room, really. As our least necessary room, it was where all the “non-essential” boxes got left after the majority of the unpacking was done. I wish I took a picture of it at that time, but imagine this, without the couch, and with half-unpacked boxes strewn everywhere. It was the perfect place because when I got stressed out about how much unpacking was left to do, I could just shut the door and forget about it!

Now let’s talk about that couch. It was the first thing we got for the office and it really became our “starting point,” as all the design shows would say. I found it on a blog called Crocodile Tears that weeds out the best finds from Craigslist Boston. This really was an invaluable resource as we designed this room so thank you, Keyse! Andreas went to pick it up from a guy in South Boston. We think he’s an antiques/vintage stuff dealer because we’ve seen him with a stand at SOWA‘s vintage market.

Anyways, it’s a pretty aesthetically pleasing, mid-century-esque couch. The back part can be straight up, at a 45-degree angle, or lay flat to form a bed (we’ve heard it called a “click clack” couch). Sadly it has no tags and no markings of ANY KIND on it so we have no idea who made it, how old it is, how much it’s worth, etc. But the guy claimed it was from Mohr & McPherson (a fancy Boston antique-y type store). This was easily the most expensive thing we bought for the room at $300.

Next up was figuring out the paint color. As you can see, we were working with a blank canvas…

I really wanted to go bold and dramatic with the color. We were inspired by some images of offices with dark navy blues contrasted with lighter colored furniture and accents so we chose Benjamin Moore’s Polo Blue. We painted the room ourselves back in February and the rumors you’ve heard about painting with dark colors are true – it ain’t easy! The store recommended we start with a tinted primer, which we did. They thought we’d only have to do that plus one can of the actual color, but we ended up having to use two cans of the color (two or three coats total), so I’m not sure if the tinted primer was worth the trouble after all.

After we had the walls done, the next big thing to figure out was the desk situation. We knew we didn’t want just one desk, because we both wanted our own work areas (we’re such good sharers). Then I came across this images on one of my blogs (sorry, don’t know which one now so I can’t give credit. If this is your image, please let me know and I’ll fix it right away!).

We loved the idea of one long surface that forms two work stations, with shelving above it, so we worked out a way to recreate it. We knew we wanted a sort of rustic looking long piece of wood for the surface, so we drove out to a lumber yard in western Mass and had them cut one for us. They only planed one side of it though so Andreas spent many hours sanding it to perfection, and then putting several layers of glossy finish over it. Wait til you see the result. We attached it to the wall with three strong L-brackets that we spray painted black so you hardly notice them against the dark wall. It seems to be holding up pretty well but we know that if we ever hear a loud crash from in here, it will be this enormous piece of wood falling off the wall!

Those are the big features of the room I wanted to explain beforehand. Now on to the reveal!

Ta-da! It is so cool to see it photographed. I look at this photo and think, I can’t believe this is my office! So the wingback chair we got for $15 from an older couple who was moving in Gloucester. The lady told me that it had been in her family for generations. It is definitely well-loved in all the right spots. The side table from a kind of crazy lady in Medford who collects furniture and art with her daughter. I think that was $25. The rug is from West Elm but we got it off Craigslist for $100 I think. Maybes less. The coffee table, also Craigslist, $40. ALL of these we found via Crocodile Tears!

The two framed pieces on the wall are from my parents house… things they didn’t want anymore that I grew up looking at. Of course I wanted them! The globe we found on Etsy for $45, I believe. But check out our latest addition, the chandelier! We knew we wanted something gold or bronze colored and ornate but they’re hard to find and very expensive. This did end up being our second most expensive piece for the room at $145 last weekend but it was so, so worth it! It’s a beautiful fixture and it totally completes the room.

Now for the desk!

The gold star on the wall we got for $5 a long time ago from Home Goods. It used to hang in our old apartment. The filing cabinet is from CB2. That was one of the pricier items too ($150?) but we loved the stark white contrast. Up top there’s a letterpress drawer that I found on Craigslist (yes, all by myself this time) for $20. Under that on the desk is an actual drawer that we found at an antique store on our way home from buying the wood for the desk. Don’t remember how much it was but in the $20-30 range. It has so much character.

Obviously we have yet to figure out a solution for our printer so for now it rests on the floor. The chairs are from our Ikea kitchen table. We have been looking and looking for real office chairs but never found anything we liked but could afford (office chairs are so expensive!). For now I’m happy with these ones. The giant Bombay Sapphire bottle turned desk lamp is a one-of-a-kind thing we sort of made ourselves. My old college roommate passed along the bottle to me ages ago in a fit of, “I’m moving and want to just get rid of it!”. Her loss, our gain! She had collected it when she worked at a restaurant. Anyways, it pretty much sat collecting dust in our storage unit for many years until Andreas got the brilliant idea to turn it into a lamp. I was leery at first but I love the way it looks now!

So that’s the “new” office! What do you guys think?

For many reasons, we had been majorly dragging our feet when it came to getting deck furniture, the main one being that it is so. flippin’. expensive. Seriously, have you checked out patio furniture prices lately? Because it will set you back a good limb or two. Or who knows, maybe it has always been expensive. Former city dwellers like us wouldn’t know because we’ve never, you know, HAD a deck. (Or a grill!)

Or maybe we were holding back because it felt like the last straw in finally admitting that we are officially surburbanites (shudder). There’s something so permanent, so… settled about deck furniture. Either way, with the weather getting nicer, we couldn’t pass up this six piece set at Stop n’ Shop (of all places) and were impressed by the quality it offered for the price ($129.99!). While we were at it, we picked up a grill at Home Depot, bought a minivan and joined the PTA. (Okay those last two are complete lies.)

But as we flipped burgers in the breeze and enjoyed our first meal on the new table outside it was impossible to deny that being a suburbanite? Has its perks.

In the beginning, sure, we were punch drunk on homeownership. I remember looking around the bathroom one day thinking, I own these baseboards. I own this vanity. I own this little metal thing that holds up my toilet paper.

I own this toilet.

But then the shit started to hit the fan. For starters, it’s easy to forget that when you own a house, you’re responsible for it. There’s no calling up the landlord to tell them there’s a giant piece of siding hanging from the side of your house that bangs up against it everytime the wind blows and makes your heart race in the middle of the night because you’re SURE there’s a robber and Babe! BABE! Wake up! Do you hear those footsteps?

Nope, can’t do that.

Or how about if your house has this inexplicable tendency to let out what could only politely be called a loud belch every couple of hours but actually sounds more like a foghorn that you thought only you could hear inside your house but which is actually blasting straight in the direction of your next door neighbor’s house who happens to have a newborn baby but who also happens to be too kind to say anything about it? About your belching house? How about that, landlord?

Landlord?

Oh right. Heh. That’s me.

$%^$#%#&^!

This whole issue was only brought home (no pun intended) last week when our basement conveniently flooded with two inches of water when Andreas was conveniently out of town. It wasn’t until I was vacuuming up murky basement water with our neighbor’s shop vac (yes that same neighbor with the baby who is too polite to tell us that our house has taken to yelling at their house every so often) and sloshing that murky water over to a makeshift piping operation near the basement door that it hit me. Literally. In the face. The pipe leading outside burst out of the pump sending aforementioned disgusting basement water all over me and it was then that I realized that homeownership is a bitch.

And then, we’re doing our taxes at H&R Block (you know what’s not a bitch? The first-time homebuyer tax credit, athankyouverymuch Mr. President.) when we realize that we paid for our quarterly taxes to the city of Beverly when we actually didn’t have to, because our mortgage company was apparently covering that for us. Hi. Who was supposed to inform us of this? We’re just lowly first-time homeowners. We don’t know these things! Isn’t someone supposed to tell us these things? So now we’ve got to call the city of Beverly to try to get our money back. Groan.

And speaking of you, city of Beverly, thanks a whole bunch for not taking our recycling this week. I won’t even complain about the fact that you only pick up recycling every other week which, to me, seems pretty ridiculous because we generate more of that stuff than we do regular trash and we would generate more but we don’t have a place to store all of it because you only pick up every other week. (Okay so I did complain.) I’m sorry it wasn’t sorted for you. We didn’t even know you needed it sorted.

Not to get up on a high horse, but in Brookline, we didn’t have to sort anything. There, it was just like, “all recycling is good recycling so give us what you got.” And also, in Brookline, they pick up recycling every week. Just saying.

Sigh. I kind of miss renting. And Brookline. I know, I know. The house is a good investment, blah blah blah. You know what I think sometimes? I’m too young for this $%^&.

We haven’t quite bonded with Beverly yet either.  So far it just seems like it’s: 1. Far from Boston. 2. Lacking great restaurants and shopping. And 3. Being very difficult on the matter of recycling. I’m giving it until the summer though to really decide where I stand. Because like I said, Beverly is a shore town, a beach town. So you can’t really judge it in the winter, I say. And those few days last week when the weather was wonderful, I gave one of its oceanfront parks a chance. And then I went back three times in one week because it was just. so. beautiful. So there’s hope for you yet, Beverly.

But as for homeownership, well, we’re kind of stuck with it anyways. That was the other thing we learned at H&R Block. If we sell or even rent this place before we’ve lived here for three years? Adios tax credit. So, yeah. We’re stuck. Which leads me back to my original point: homeownership? Is a bitch.

I took (or was given, I should say), this entire week to myself to rest and recuperate. My physical recovery is going well which has been a pleasant but welcome surprise. I’d say that’s helped with the emotional recovery too. Since I haven’t experienced too much pain, I’ve been able to do those things that make me feel like me. I baked. Finally! I haven’t baked in weeks. (More on that soon.) I’ve been reading. I finally resolved to make some real progress on Anna Karenina, which I’ve been reading since last summer. I’ve been watching cooking shows. I’ve been tidying up. I’ve been nesting.

Today I even left the house which was a BIG STEP. I went to the HomeGoods store and picked up some little gems for our office. I even found a $20 bill in the parking lot! Then I went to the grocery store and bought what I needed to make homemade chicken stock, something I’ve always wanted to do. And I’m back to regular blogging. That feels good too.

Anyways, we’re not ready to do a big reveal of the office yet but here’s my little corner of the desk. Andreas turned that old, giant Bombay bottle I had into a lamp. More of the office to come soon.

More of everything to come soon.

Here’s the little corner of our kitchen where we hang our keys.

And here is the painted and finally starting to get decorated hallway area. Milo says hello.

A cozy corner of our living room. The painting we bought on our honeymoon.

Dining table in the living room (we don’t have a formal dining space). Crab painting by New Orleans folk artist Martin Welch. Notice box of thank you cards and stamps. Yeah. Still working on that project…

Our bed (bedscape?). Pillow shams by West Elm (less than $10 each!), framed photos by family friend John DeFabbio.

This little corner of our room features the Our Love is Here to Stay poster by Enormous Champion, a housewarming gift from my parents. Our Love is Here to Stay was our wedding song and this exact image was on the cover of the card I gave Andreas on our wedding day.

Finally, this little row of books on the shelf in our bedroom. My first time experimenting with organizing by color. I love how it turned out (and trust me, I’m very particular about my books).

Home feels more like home every day. I can’t wait to get started on the office next week. Oh yes, one more “favorite space” in the house. Not mine, his.

Fancy cat beds? Forget about them. He’ll take a folded up old blanket any day.

]]> http://www.thespottedduck.com/2010/02/13/spaces/feed/ 3 http://www.thespottedduck.com/2010/02/09/busy-brain-office-ideas/ http://www.thespottedduck.com/2010/02/09/busy-brain-office-ideas/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:12 +0000 Shelley Senai http://www.thespottedduck.com/?p=2126 My apologies for that short blip in our regularly scheduled blog posts. I’ve been taking some time to think and adjust and rest. I’ve been working on, get this, not making myself feel guilty for taking time to watch Mad Men or read Anna Karenina (which I’ve been whittling away at for nearly six months now) or just freaking nap, in the sun like a cat. Novel concept, I know.

Mostly though, I’ve been thinking. About what I’m really doing, and what I really want to do. Trying to compartmentalize now projects from later projects, good ideas from viable ones. Sometimes when my head gets crowded my blogging fingers get a bit gun shy. I can’t exactly explain it. How much I blog has so much less to do with how busy my life is, and so much more to do with how busy my brain is. Busy brain, quiet blog. That’s how it seems to be.

Anyways, aside from all the big questions like “where are we going?” and “are we there yet?”, A and I have been wrestling with smaller yet no less important questions such as, “what color should we paint the office?”

Our office has become the dumping place for unpacked boxes, tools, framed thing that are still searching for their wall homes, and all other odds and ends. And while it served a good purpose during moving, we’re really ready to have the office be a functional space in the house.

We’re thinking of going dark. The room gets so much sunlight and I love the look of offices with dark walls. They can really contrast well with all the books and papers.

What do you think? I’m thinking of tackling this project next week.