Remember this post about transforming the formery nursery into an office for Dewman? It has gone through more changes because we decided one office can work for both of us. Since we re-homed our iMac with a more loving family we only have a single desktop system so it made sense to have only one office.
Sidebar: I have never been a fan of Apple but have tolerated their products to support Dewman who used to love them. I even caved and bought an iPhone. Disenchanted with Apple post Steve Jobs, D-man has sold nearly all of our Apple stuff but I have no plans to switch my iPhone. Ironic, no? I am still not a fan I just loathe learning a different system. If all tech users were like me, we would still be using an abacus!
Here is what we did to complete the office “merger”:
1) Re-paint walls and trim. Yanni (RIP) was the best cat ever but he was also very allergic and prone to spraying snot everywhere: computer monitors, walls, trim, windows etc. (To help erase THAT mental image, here’s a better one:
2) Sand the floor. We rented a sander from Home Depot which was super heavy and clunky. It did the job quite well, stripping nearly 100 years of possibly-lead paint from the floor. Super D was the true hero here and was sore for days from lugging that monster around. On the plus side, our house smelled like a pine forest!
3) Paint the floor. We waffled between leaving the floor plain and re-painting it. In the end, after all that stripping work – there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere – we went with the second choice. As you can see from the pictures above, the floor still had some stubborn paint remnants so painting was the fastest and cheapest option.
4) IKEA trip. We needed more storage to house all of our
crap indispensable supplies and materials.
5) Clean, clean, and clean some more.
6) Sort and organize books to decide what to keep, donate, throw out.
Here’s were we are today:
Here’s what we still need to do:
1) Figure out the windows. Trying to decide between IKEA ENJE shades or curtains. I have been hoarding this great IKEA Asa Ekstrom fabric but I am still frightened of my sewing machine.
2) Find the perfect stool for my work station. (Yeah, come back in another year or so!)
3) Purchase a slightly larger table to serve as my work station. (I will not be defeated by a sewing machine!)
I am sure you’re dying to know what supplies we used:
– wall paint: Benjamin Moore Regal, Simply White in Matte
– trim: Benjamin Moore Regal, Decorator White in Pearl Finish
– floor: Benjamin Moore Aura, Soot in Matte
– red stool, sowing table, wall shelves and bookcases are all IKEA
– Dewman’s desk is the Blu Dot Paperclip and his chair is vintage Eames
– white picture frames are IKEA
If anybody has any recommendations for desks that work well as sewing tables, let me know!