Workstation Rehab

 Well hey there!  I hope you all had a fab Memorial Day Weekend.  It was cold and rainy here for the first half, so I got busy on some indoor messes I had.  I have many, but my (lack of) office has been bugging me- so I got creative and built this here desk/workstation out of spare things I had laying around the house:


Here was the problem.   Since renovations began, my office has become the dumping ground for EVERYTHING that temporarily needed a home.   That is my desk under under all that crap...

 And the guest bed made its way back in here too.  Once again, under a load of junk...
It hasn't been a place I wanted to be. 
(and don't even ask about the zebras- I will get to those in another post)
  
So I put my computer on the kitchen table and the kids have hijacked it.  Please note the sticky cupcake fingers that Joe is about to lick and then touch my computer with.  I couldn't take it, so I decided to move back into my office.


Having the bed back in the room was cramping my style, but it had to stay.
My big desk table had to go.  Time for a new desk area.

I had 4 of these upper IKEA Effekiv cabinets (they are now discontinued)...
and I had these closet doors from our old kitchen pre-reno...
please note the Effektiv cabinets in their past lives- 
above as banquette seating and below as a side board

So I stacked the Effektivs 2 high and cut a top out of the old doors...
I was able to configure an "L" shape and use the Effektiv with doors on the left to hide my junk, and keep them open on the right to act as shelves for things I use a lot...
 Everything needed paint. 
 I was liking the black top so I went with it.  I used the chalk board paint to cover the sides  and painted the lower cabinets white....
 I then coated the top with two coats of a flat polyurethane.  The thickness of the door and the lack of sheen makes it feel a bit like soapstone.  
I was going to cut a circle in the top for my computer wires, but I lucked out with an uneven wall that bows a bit right where my computer is.  I have a 1/2 inch spacing for teh wires to come right through, and since the top is black I don't notice it.


I joined the seam with a metal mending plate underneath to hold it all together...
filled with caulk, then painted. 

 I attached file holders from IKEA to the ends to keep papers at bay and I repainted the starburst O'verlays white and reattached them to dress it all up...
My husband thinks its perfect just like that- with no clutter- and I am sure many would agree.

But I am from the polar opposite camp and I need to be surrounded by it for inspiration, 
so I prefer "my brain neatly exploded on the wall" chic.
I still need a light fixture and some tweaking, 
and the other half of the room is undergoing a bit of change too. 
Needs bedding, window treatments and the search for a perfect headboard that won't obstruct the window.  Here are some ideas I'm kicking about:

Be back with the second half soon!

the outside

 I hope all you Mamas had a great day yesterday!  
I know I did.  I spent it laying pea-stone...

 Our backyard has been a dirt pile since we ripped the old sunroom off and I was fed up with how much sand and filth was being tracked in.  I told my husband we have to finish the patio and put some stone down ASAP.  Well it turns out if wanted it done I would have to do it myself.  So I grabbed a pick axe and hummed "Hi-Ho" and leveled the area last week
 It took 3 days, totally sucked, but I tried to think of all the calories I burned.
My husband finished it up by making sure it was graded level and I planted some shrubs...
 Then for Mother's Day I got just what I wanted.
10 tons of pea-stone!

 And the party started...
Landscaping fabric was laid down to keep the weeds out, and stone was dumped.
 It was hard, I am pooped, but it is shaping up...

 Kid's even helped...

 Still have the area around the beds to finish and some edging to do, as well as trying to decide how I am gonna layout out the furniture and plants...
 but I already christened it last night with a bottle of wine.
Be back with some real "done" pictures at the end of the week!
(I also have some garden magic I am working on along the fence)
Right now I need to let my arms recover.

Yo Mama...

Its almost Mother's Day, so I just wanted you to know O'verlays is giving 15% off the entire site with code MOM15.
Why? Because Moms are awesome! 
And check out this nod to mid-century Malm makeover by Sarah Hearts.
If you thought you had to O'verlay every drawer, think again.
Just two will do.

sale runs until May16th

What's happening...

I have had a the deadly blog trifecta strike.
1) Nice weather.  2) Heavy workload.  
3) Messy desk syndrome that makes me do all my biz from an iPhone instead of my computer- therefore no blogs 'cause I am not smart enough to iBlog.  Insta-Facebook gets my love.

So here is what has been occupying my creative minutes.  
A whole bunch of unfinished, non-glamorous stuff with a cloud of ozone depletion.

Lets begin with the last post.   The upholstery class.

Moldy chair update- I have spared its life... 
I am a masochist.

And can I say hand tied springs suck.  
I am learning that there are things I don't ever want to do again.  Like grain alcohol punch, acrylic nails and hand tied springs.
I will appreciate every penny I pay my upholsterer in the future, because I really don't like or understand this mess...


 Sunroom chairs are done, but I wish I painted them white.
Still might ... I want calm out there and I think it might happen if they are white.
(You can see the base of the one in the back is still white primer... I like it better)


P.S.A. time...
 Make sure your children wear helmets when crafting...
 (and get a tetanus shot too)

Also, Rustoleum Automobile Primer works great for ceramic lamps, 
just add a high gloss color over 
Rustoleum Orange in Gloss
(- P.S. call me Rustoleum, I like you. Lets do drinks.)...

before
after

 and I tried spray painting a stained dhurrie rug with white paint....
it turned it a soft gray, which actually wasn't bad.  But I just couldn't leave well enough alone.
Stay tuned, still trying to fix this one.

I discovered cheap black Home Depot plastic planters actually look OK with some Hammered Bronze spray-spray
 (Hey, I live in the North, so I totally overindulge in spray paint once it thaws out up here)
and the old porch railings got trimmed into trellis panels for the garden...

and finally, this nonsense came to my town on Saturday...
We had an American Idol "Homecoming" parade and concert over the weekend.
Turns out that one of the top 3 American Idol finalists is from my little town of Beverly, MA.

Watch all about it tonight (if you do that stuff), you might even see my youngest Joe.  He got some camera time during the parade with the guy in gray below.
 My kids were so excited.  Not gonna lie, I totally got into it. 
 Like 8th grade minus the mushroom cloud perm.
Good times.  Don't judge.







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