Office Update/ I'm a Flake

  I'm such a flake.  Its only taken almost two years, but my office is done.
I know your thinking "Yeah, yeah... shut your face. You always say that."
Really. I WANT to be done.  I've tweaked and changed so many things along the way, and I finally have it how I like it.  Remember, this room started off almost 6 years ago as a nursery.

Its been about 4-5 different colors, but I kept going back to the pale pink. So pale pink stays.

I painted a chinoiserie mural on my closet/whiteboard wall

(there is a flip down queen size bed inside that closet so this doubles as a guest room).  Behind the doors there is yellow and white stripes and a leopard headboard.
I'll take some photos next time a guest comes.

 The bookcases (actually my entire office) are all IKEA pieces that have been trimmed out with crown molding or hacked in some way.
Lots of storage for all my junk.

The base cabinets are IKEA Sektional kitchen cabinets that 

I added homemade faux bamboo trim to. (see last post)

My I made the giant cork board over my desk from high density 3/4" thick foam insulation board wrapped with fabric and nailheads. It was a cheap fix, costing me under $25.
It herds my all my visual crazy to one area.

Starburst light tutorial is here.

 My white boards are made out of a 4x8' sheet of tile board ($13 a sheet) that I cut down into 4 pieces and framed with flat stock molding.  I will do a post on these.. really easy and they clean up great.  The trick is using a rag dampened with Windex.
Look how clean they are! They are usually jammed up with jibberish and to-do lists.

I made some more bamboo trim for these babies, and painted a yellow lattice background...

I change shit around here so much that I forgot how many looks this room had.
Here's a little memory lane montage...

Starting back in 2010 when I starburst the crap out of it and made it the guest room with a tiny desk jammed in it.  It was always a mess- note the laundry basket and printer on the bed!

 Then I got crafty and put my office in the big closet, and painted out the sunbursts with a dark charcoal brown:

 I really loved this set up, but the bed still hogged the room and collected crap like a magnet...

 I tested out a sofa bed option, it just wasn't comfortable.  I had a vision that I would lounge on it and read mags.  Never happened...

 I also built a work station, but the height was weird and I constantly had back problems from craning at the computer:

Then the room went coral for about a month:

And finally about a year ago I built a work area using a giant laminate counter and two IKEA Malms:

 The Malms started to buckle under the weight, not good! So that lead to where I am today.

I think this situation is going to stick around for a while.  I'm too tired to change it, and I think I have finally found a layout that is functionally pleasing.  The only thing I still need to do is make a new slipcover for my desk chair. That thing is pretty tired.

Happy weekend peeps!

(First 4 photos by Tabitha Sherrell- thanks lady!)

One Pot Painted Three Ways

I can play this game all day!

I've been staring at a couple of metal cachepots that have been sitting on my kitchen window sill for the past year and thought "these little buggers would be so easy to zhush up"- but then the phone would ring, or someone needed a snack or I'd see a squirrel and then I'd forget about them...

SO today, in the midst of a big deadline, I decide NOW was the time to bedazzle those babies. Procrastination gets shit done that doesn't really need to be done- am I right?

This took me an hour to do, and I have about 50 more ideas on how to paint this little pots, but for now I'll show you three.  It just takes a little paint, a steady hand and your imagination.

There's a style for everyone here-

 traditional chinoiserie, clean and simple modern lines and the eclectic/funky "evil eye". 

 Here are some tips...
-don't try this after drinking 2 cups of coffee- shaky hands, disaster!

-If using spray paint let your base coat color dry completely before doing your top pattern, otherwise the Sharpies and paint pens will get gooey/smudgy.  Learned this the hard way. 

 Use acrylics to avoid the wait.

-I used a white chalk marker (this one) because it was very smooth and fluid for drawing the chinoiserie scene.  It also will wash off with a wet rag if you make mistakes, so be sure to seal it with and polyurethane when you're finished.

-Sharpies work great for fine detail, just be sure to use an acrylic polyurethane on top, since some oil-based ones will make Sharpies bleed.

-Krylon Gold Paint pen does it again!  Easy peasy for lining the rims and coloring in the feet.

-I used a ruler to draw in the lines on my mint green pot, and then free hand traced to beef them up a bit.

-For the eyes, draw in the whites first with a chalk marker or acrylic paint.  Add colored irises with paint, and then line, lash and dot with a black Sharpie.

 The change up is fast and easy to do, and they'd make great little gifts.

What's your favorite?

p.s. -I found my pots at a local floral supply shop last summer, but I've seen these ingarden centers too.