Office Update

I know, another house update. I will get to writing about those little monsters soon. But for now it feels so great to have another item checked off the list! And it is so nice to have a functioning office again. We use it more often than I thought. For bills, PTA projects, homework, watching our favorite videos like this. 

First, we did like everyone else and bought the generic BILLY bookcases from Ikea. There are tons of great installation demos on Pinterest, so I won't bore you here. We already had this desk from Ikea, so we used what we had. And surprisingly I'm digging it. 

To make it all cohesive after they built-ins were finished, we slid the desk in and added mouldings up top, down the side, and wrapped the bottom of everything with baseboard. The worst part (my part) was the paint. I painted every bit off what you see and it was the pits, man. But let's get on to our favorite part (and most obviously the coolest part) of the office. That wallpaper!

It's from Spoonflower, one of my favorite sites. It is also from Holli Zolllinger, one of my favorite designers on there. I have ordered this and this from there in the past. But back to wallpaper. It is removable and was very easy to install. A lot of excess glue, but easy to install and hopefully easy to take out if we ever decide to. And here is the extra bonus, on the sample they sent me the scale of the arrow was much larger and I was in deep love. So I ordered. The order arrived and it was what you see below. Much smaller. I was bummed, but I still liked it. So I hopped on their site just to send them a quick email about it. Not an upset one, but a,"Hey, how come this happened," kind of a thing. But when I was on, I could instachat with a Spoonflower employee. So I did. And Tara was awesome and offered to re-print and overnight it when done, refund my money, or give me a credit. So after a little deliberation I decided to keep it and take the spoondollars. They. Are. Awesome. Not a lot of companies would be so helpful. Thanks Spoonflower!

I love this little office area. Feels good to have a drop zone for library books, a place for our old records from Grandpa (yes, we do listen to some of them) and storage for all those pesky cords and old paperwork that we keep but will never look at again. It may not be perfect (Lord knows the paint isn't), but I love it.

Down the line we would like to do these things as well:

• Repaint the walls (I made lots of boo-boos)
• Add a new desktop. The one that is on it now is super soft and dents easily
• Sell the chair and get a love seat
• Add a desk for the kids in the opposite corner of the room?
• Hang some large scale artwork on the big wall

Have a happy week! We are coming off of Jack's birthday high and warm temperatures. Which means more happy posts to come. :)

Office Sneak Peak (and two cute girls)

The office is slloooowwwwllllyyyy getting finished. There is still a few things to finish up, but it is FUNCTIONAL again. The built-ins are complete and housing books, storage, and a couple of keepsakes. Here is a pic of the sample I ordered from Spoonflower. Loved it and am now waiting for my order to arrive! 

And I can't get enough of this picture. It is rare that I get not one, but two kids smiling in a picture.

And, this one is doing the stairs. We are so ready for her to walk! She may only be nine months, but the past two months of crawling give me the willies thinking about what she has eaten off the floor. I finally mopped last night after the kids were in bed, I guess that is one good thing to come of it.

House Tour: Three Rooms

Six weeks since we have moved in. Six weeks of move this here, unpack this there, dirt and dust everywhere. But, in classic Shupe style we had the mountains of boxes and clutter semi-neatly packed away within a couple weeks of moving in.

Then the real move-in begins. The organizing and hanging and no wait, let's move that here, begins.

We don't have everything the exact way we want it, but everything is findable. (Except the crib screws, they are probably tucked away in a Millie hiding spot) We also have lots more to hang on the walls, but that is such a commitment. And the teenager in me is not ready for a picture and wall marriage.

Here is what we have committed to and are still in the honeymoon phase of. Not everything is perfect, but this is my house on a picked-up day. The good parts, the unfinished areas, and the mirrors covered in tooth paste splatter. Welcome to our home bad camera shots and all...

Entryway
I am still on the hunt for a tall bookcase to go where you see the trunk. When I find one I will move trunk over underneath the coo coo clock. The trunk and coo coo clock were my grandma's and great-grandma's. We have tried really hard to incorporate touches from all sides of our family and are thankful we have items in our home from each of them.
Other than the bookcase, there is not much else to purchase for this area. Maybe a bench. Maybe a coat rack. Maybe nothing. And as for now, my cardinal picture stands alone in all its cuteness and quirkiness. I want to let the entryway wall grow overtime with pieces of art that we fall in love with.

Office
Eek. This room is kind of an eye sore. It's just full of stuff. Pictures to be hung. Papers to be filed. This room is way down on my list of things to finish in this house. We still have dreams of painting, adding something cool to the far wall, adding shelving, and maybe another desk area. For now here is a glance. Yikies, skim quickly please...

Master Bedroom and Bath

Oh, we love this room. It is so cozy and comfortable. I am on my way to finishing the headboard. There is a hodge podge of art hung (at my hubby's 6'2" eye level, love you babe), but that is about it. We still have some stuff to do to warm it up, but for now we love it. And yes there is a pack and play. It is set up for my niece. I am not that ready for baby yet, I am just a lazy 34-week pregnant lady who didn't want to move it.

The rest of the lower level is up next. Then up to kid mania zone. Including the baby's room which I am getting more and more crazy excited about the more that gets put up in there (six weeks until we have a sweet new face to smooch!). And actually upstairs has the most complete rooms in the whole house soooo, holla! And finally to the outside (fingers, toes, legs, arms and eyes crossed that it will be done). I tell myself everyday, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, the dog will be fine, just keep swimming. 

The Dog Bedrooffice

Did ya catch that? Yeah it might be the worst contraction ever, but we are sneak peeking our office slash Spike's bedroom. A room for a dog? Why yes, but not by choice. Our loveable pup spends about 80% of his day staring out the front room window. He loves it. Can't get enough of it. Or me. That dog loves his mama.

Moving on, let's look at the  color scheme for the office:

Ikat Argyle and Jiri Nina

My idea for this room didn't come from these fabrics or an inspiration room like many other rooms in the house. It came from our rug from IKEA that I don't think they sell anymore. We had it in our dining room in the 267. Here's some one's photo, but the blog redirects me to another site.

So when I came across that Ikat Argyle fabric I was excited. It goes with the colors in the rug and on the walls and has a fun, playful feel about it. I sewed pillows and a cushion cover for the office chair from the fabric. With what's left I will cover the magnet boards or figure out how to incorporate it into the window coverings.

We also eventually want to repaint the office cream or navy. It gets lots of sun and I think bringing in a deep color would add something different to our lower level for sure. 

Once I ordered the fabric (back when we lived in our old house) I started to scour Pinterest trying to find a room that I had envisioned in my mind. Something functional first and foremost. I wanted it to have storage for each family members paperwork and room for the kids to spread out homework if they need a quiet area away from the dining room. Something like this:

We already have a desk similar to above from IKEA. It is long and allows for two people to sit at and has one set of drawers. I would like to add another table top to it but lowered down to a kid level. Or add a desk over in the corner by the entry to the room. Not sure if you remember our office in the basement of the old house, I posted it right? Well, like that office, we will incorporate shelving, magnet boards, art, and items that we own.

So where does the doggie part of the doggie den come in? (I should've used that as my title, much more clever! Dang.) Well, it comes in the form of an over sized chair that matches the couch in the play room. It is too large to fit up there, so down it goes to the office.

The only part of this room that I am worried about, is the color scheme going with the flooring. It is a medium brown color, so, not sure how well things will mesh. Guess we will find out next week, we close Tuesday. A crazy thought for me! It's actually happening, what?!