Home Tour: Office.

In the last home tour post, I showed you the office bathroom. Well, now (finally) here is the office itself!  Our office is definitely a multi-purpose room. We use if for an office (of course) and also as a guest room and home gym. Riley and Zoey stay in this room during the day too.

The room is pretty big -- 20' by 18'. We've really struggled to use the space in the best way. Frankly, it's almost too big. When we first moved in, this room was our main guest room and the office was on the third floor.  We switched them a while back and like this set up much better. This room is still a work in progress (but what room isn't, really?).

To give you the lay of the land first . . . as you walk in, this is what you see over towards the right back corner.

This is the view over on the left side of the room. We definitely want to add another rug and either a comfy chair or a smaller couch for lounging. When we first looked at this house, the first thing I noticed was the terrible light fixture/ceiling fan. Since we bought the house, I've talked about changing it, but as you can see, it hasn't happened yet!

All of my favorite offices have the expedit shelves from Ikea, so I thought why not include them in ours. They really are a great storage solution! I'm still tweaking the styling, but it works for now.

From this picture over on the "daybed side" of the room, you can see where the door from the entryway is. We definitely need to add something above the daybed and over to the left of the TV.  And don't worry -- the exercise bike is on wheels, so we can wheel it out in front of the TV when we use it. We don't torture ourselves by facing the corner while we work out!

And the doorway to the left of the clock is the bathroom and the door in front of the bike is a mini-closet that is under our staircase (just so you get an idea of the whole layout).  

If you keep going around, you see the other corner of the office where the mail center is above the Ikea cabinet I jazzed up.

We each have a bin to keep magazines, ads, etc.  There are also places for receipts, bills, and coupons up on the wall.  It always seems like when I'm running out the door to shop, I know I have reward points or a coupon somewhere and it takes me a good 10 minutes to find where I put it.  Now I know to check here first (assuming the system works correctly).  And it's nice to have the recycle bin handy for all those ads we get! 

Here's where we work when we're at home, which we both have seemed to be doing a lot of recently. 

I like the desk set up where we are facing each other.  We used to have the desks side by side, facing the wall, but this set up seems to work a little better for us.  Riley and Zoey usually lay down by our feet under the desk.  We can peek around our monitors when we are deep in conversation!  And no matter how hard we try, the wires and cords on the desk always look so messy! 

You can also check out a close up of the chevron boards in action.  The color ties in nicely with the cabinet by the "mail center." 

For those of you with an excellent memory (since it was forever ago), you will remember that I was debating what fabric to use for the drapes and roman blinds.  It was a close call, but I ended up going with the theo fabric.  I am happy I went with that choice.   

Tonic Living made the drapes and the blinds.  They were so easy to work with and did an excellent job.  I would definitely recommend them.

I found the dresser on Craigslist.  It isn't staying the yellow color forever, but oddly enough it doesn't seem too out of place.  I hope one day soon to paint it a muted teal color.

And were back around to where we started.  Phew -- that was quite the tour. 

And because it's technically the dogs' room, since they stay here during the day, here they are in the room looking as cute as ever. Excuse the tripod in the back. 

A lot of napping (by people and dogs alike) happens on the daybed.

Thanks for joining me for the grand tour!  That wraps up the first floor.  Now on to the second floor . . .  

{And don't forget to enter the Uprinting canvas giveaway -- it ends today (Monday)!}