Office Tour

The remodel was a little bit of a challenge, because the room I use for an office was only 80-some square feet to begin with, and adding built-in shelves made for even less floor space. The room is big enough for what I need, but I found that taking photos was a challenge in a small space -- I couldn't back up or zoom out enough to get a wide view.

Here's a couple of wide shots from the doorway (disregard all the clutter on the floor in that corner behind the desk). The walls are not actually as pale as they look in the photo; I painted them a somewhat deeper shade of gold called "Anjou Pear" with white woodwork and trim. The desk is from Pier One and is wicker over wood, with a glass top. I had a hard time finding a desk for this space -- everything I looked at was either too big or too small. It does have a few drawers; don't know if you can see them in the photo.

My chair is new -- I was having neck problems and needed something ultra-ergonomic, so this one was expensive but it adjusts about 6 different ways. It was a custom order, so I opted for burgundy leather.





The niche behind the desk was once a closet. I took off the doors and removed the clothes pole so I could add a built-in credenza of Venetian Gold granite, with some cabinets above for closed storage of supplies. I can just swing around in my desk chair and have another work space behind me. (Again, disregard the clutter underneath. I hope to put a couple baskets under there to hold things.)





The major expense in redoing the office was the shelves and cabinets. They're melamine, not real wood, in a color/grain called "Wild Apple" but they look great and give the room a cozy library feel. The crown molding helps give them a custom, built-in look. One of the high end closet companies did the plan and the installation, and it was cheaper than having a carpenter do it.






































There are shelves and cabinets on three of the four walls; the fourth wall is taken up by the window. But to make room for my reading chair, the shelves don't go all the way to the floor in that "reading" corner. And the shelves above the chair are not as deep from front to back as the others so I won't bump my head!


Here are two angles of my reading corner.




































I wanted to replace the ugly door to the office and ended up replacing all the bedroom and bathroom doors as well (the old ones were ugly hollow slab doors). I love these paneled doors! The handwoven wall hanging in the space behind the door picks up the gold and burgundy color scheme; my sister brought it from Mexico. You can't see the detail in the switchplate cover, but I painted it myself at one of those paint-your-own pottery places (which I was writing an article about!)



Of course, since I was doing all this other work, I had to mess with the ceiling as well. The office ceiling is vaulted to 10 feet and has exposed beams that the previous tenant had painted flat white like the ceiling. I wanted more of a wood look, so I used a faux technique on them, using dark brown paint mixed with glaze.

The beams are actually darker brown than they appear in this photo, and they resemble weathered wood now. But you can get a better idea of the wall color here.




A major splurge was replacing the window -- it cost $1200 in labor to install a $300 window because the contractor had to cut brick on the outside! But well worth it: the old window was high up in the wall and I couldn't see out of it without standing up. Here's the view from outside looking in; you can see what a nice job they did replacing the brick once the window was installed.




The new window is five feet wide and nearly as tall; the right end of my desk butts up to it, so I can see outside all day. This past summer I watched hummingbirds visit the flowers on the cypress vine right outside my window! This winter view is a little bleaker, but you'll see my potted palm tree on the patio (mild winter in Atlanta this year) and the urn I bought to enhance my view (it picks up the purple color of my front door). I hope to make a fountain out of it some day, so I can hear the water burbling on warm days when the window is open. (Can you tell I LOVE my new window?) I'd like to make a little flower garden in that space you see across the concrete driveway.






New Artwork

These came from Pottery Barn... or was it Crate & Barrel?
They took half a day to hang, to get them just right, and now I'm worried that my punctuation marks look like a cuss word instead of a clever occupational witticism.

My office manager

I've just been told she looks very capable and in charge...