Project Office Space

Inspired by 1) Elizabeth's house and 2) an Argument of Epic Proportions in which one voting member of the Cheung household declared he was going to install his computer on the dining room table because he can't! use! the office!, I am going to (GULP) get my HGTV on and do a little room makeovering.

The first step in Project Office Space was to get Molly outta there. She's been napping in the pack 'n play in the office for, uh, months now? I forget. It's practically her bedroom, seeing as how she naps there, she gets moved there whenever Jack has a fit of drama queeniness and has to cry it out, and whenever SHE has to cry it out, usually at 3am. But the office is small and the office contents are large and numerous and the pack 'n play wasn't helping things. So out it went. We moved it into the living room last night in preparation for the inevitable 3am wake up. In an event that stymied the entire neighborhood, a certain someone SKIPPED her 3am wake up and all four members of the Cheung household slept through the night. I cannot remember the last time that happened, folks, and it certainly puts a fresh face on things. By which I mean: be grateful I deleted the post I wrote before the Blathering recap post. TRUST ME.

SO ANYWAY. The office. It is ugly. It is tiny and has potential, as evidenced by my neighbors' office which is slick and professional and properly colored. But I'm not going for Martha Stewart so much as No Longer Like Phillip's Bachelor Days Bedroom. The bar is set low, is what I'm saying.

The office contains a bookshelf, a filing cabinet, a ginormous treadmill, a medium-sized desk and 4000 miles of cords and cables. There are two shelves on the wall that aren't doing much besides holding a stapler and some blank CDs. There are also storage boxes, guitars, winter coats, board games, more cables and cords and an extra chair stored in the space under the stairs. It's more space than you realize, but awkwardly shaped, so it's hard to use it well. This afternoon I cleared out all the things that don't belong in the office, as it really is the House Dumping Ground. So there's Step Two. Check.

Step Three is gently leading Phillip through an Initial Throw Out. Phillip, while always up for filling Goodwill bags, is the sort of person who needs to do it painstakingly. Kind of like how it takes him nine hours to clean a bathroom. He'll do it, but he's going to do it RIGHT and it's going to take a LONG TIME.

(This is guaranteed to drive me around the bend.)

Step Four is moving as much furniture out of the room as possible in preparation for Step Five which is (HOLD ME) painting. I KNOW. Cue the shuddering, the hyperventilating, the panic attacking! But you know, I've painted four rooms in my house already and only ONE of those rooms sent me to the mental institution. And Elizabeth's house was so CUTE and she is always talking about PAINT and, well, maybe, wouldn't it be NICE?

My idea is to create a NEW ROOM. This is no longer going to be the dumping ground. Sure, we'll probably have to hide things down there when we have parties and it's still going to be where the talking Yoda lives, but I want Phillip not only to have his OWN space but PLEASANT space. I really think a fresh coat of [gray] paint will make it feel new and different and officey.

Step Six gets a little murky, because I'd really like to throw out the bookshelf and the metal filing cabinet for something quiet and modern at Ikea, maybe something with doors to hide the talking Yoda the heaps of computer manuals. But that might not be in the Project Office Space budget. So Step Six might be to just put everything back and figure out a way to better use those wall shelves.

Step Seven is Decorate. I have no idea how to decorate PHILLIP'S OFFICE, as it's HIS space and he's not much for things I enjoy, like bright colored cartoony prints and matching office supplies and fabric covered bulletin boards and vases of flowers and baskets instead of drawers. (Fact: Phillip hates baskets. He hates that our clothes hamper is a basket. He hates when I put food in baskets. He hates Easter baskets. He hates the basket holding books on my side of the bed and the basket holding rogue bags in the living room and the wastebasket that is an actual basket. This is a character flaw I am continually trying to overlook.)

But I'm not sure we're even going to GET to Step Seven. Apparently I am going to have to "fill holes" and "SPACKLE" (so, uh, when we were moving into the house Phillip may or may not have put his elbow - or something, I can't really remember - into the wall, which we promptly covered up with a filing cabinet) and I have only the vaguest idea of what spackling even MEANS. And apparently I have to do that FIRST.

But I promise to take a before picture. Even though I have zero confidence in my Room Makeover capabilities and I don't know if I'll get to do all the things I'd like to do with the office and I was even too nervous to take a picture of my rearranged bedroom back when I was talking about THAT and- OK, OK, I WILL TAKE A PICTURE. FINE.

Comments

[Lindsay]

I think it is so nice that you want to make him a nice office space, especially with the grad school thing. Our "office" is an L shaped desk b/t the dining table and living room and I found it so very draining to have my school books staring me in the face all the time when I was supposed to be in relaxing mode.

What, oh what will you do with the treadmill though?

[Ashley]

Oh, goody. I was reading through this whole post thinking, "I hope there are before and after pictures!" We are planning to do something similar in our office soon and I NEED INSPIRATION!

[Raven]

Depending on the size of the hole you might need to patch it, instead of just spackling. How big is it?

I LOOOOVE projects! and paint! and decorating!

Elizabeth and I e-mail about this stuff. :)

[C @ Kid Things]

You forgot step 4.5, NAP.

I'm an HGTV nut. I love home makeovers. Well, I love watching home makeovers. Can't wait to see pictures!

[She Likes Purple]

Elizabeth inspired me to redecorate my entire home.

[-R-]

I need to redo our home office too.

We had a hole in our wall, caused by my husband kicking a baby bottle into the wall at 3 a.m. when B was a newborn. Anyway, it is much easier to fix a hole than I thought. You can do it really easily!

[Elsha]

How can he not like baskets? Doesn't he see how useful they are?

[Jess]

I am so glad that Torsten and I BOTH have offices in our house, because whenever he wants some hideous piece of decor for our house I tell him he can do whatever he wants in his office. And I have a couple things he hates too so I've put them in my office.

[HereWeGoAJen]

I have a better plan. Step One: Invite this Elizabeth to visit. Step Two: Bribe her with brownies until she does it.

[Manda]

I WISH I WAS THERE! I LOVE THIS SORT OF PROJECT! Especially when it's at someone else's house because John is SO HARD to convince that these projects are worthwhile. And after I spend 2 hours convincing him we do the project in like an HOUR (rearranging usually) he slobbers all over me about HOW RIGHT I was and how much more AWESOME everything is. WHO CAN TAKE THE DRAMA?

[Elizabeth]

Erik hates baskets too, but he will tolerate fabric or wire bins. They're like the gateway drug to baskets in our house.

And I see IKEA furniture constantly on our Craigslist so maybe you could look there? half my house came from Craigslist or garage sales - you know you're awesome (And by awesome I mean poor) when it's IKEA via a garage sale.
Also, if you can frost a cake you can spackle. It's easy!

[Amy --- Just A Titch]

I echo Jenni---Elizabeth sets the bar HIGH and makes me want to just move out of my apartment and get all brand new stuff.

[Tara]

"Kind of like how it takes him nine hours to clean a bathroom. He'll do it, but he's going to do it RIGHT and it's going to take a LONG TIME."

That is Sooooooo Adam. He does lots around the house, really. Normally I don't WANT him to clean up the kitchen when he offers because I don't want to watch the kids for an extra 1.5 hours while he makes sure that every fleck of food particle is scraped off of every fork before it goes in the dishwasher, that is before he gets distracted by the microwave splatters and disorganization of the spices. (Love him!)

And yes, we need pictures!

[Christiana]

Congrats on the sleeping through night. I love those nights. They are few and far between.

Looking forward to your pictures.For the decorating? Pick a simple, theme - abstract shapes? asian letters? architecture? I don't know what he finds appealing other than computers, but keep it simple.(If it were my husband it would be old B&W movie posters or some such). If you're doing gray walls, you can either keep it monochromatic, Blk/Gry/Wht or add a subtle bold color (red?) with items on the desk and bin-like storage items.