My Office - Finally Complete!

Oh hallelujah! My office /craft room / happy place / is now complete! I've been working on it pretty much nonstop since we bought the ranch four years ago. This is how the room looked when we bought the house.

The above photo shows our "we'll paint it green phase"-  but every color looked horrible when bounced off of the brown. Thus began a laborious bout of priming. I'm pretty sure that there is a room in Hell where those who are condemned do nothing but prime walls for all eternity. Uggh.

All in all, the room was a dark and moody place with the brown walls and carpet  I can understand having a moody bedroom - which is what this room was to the old owners - but a creative space? No way. It just wasn't going to work. We immediately ripped the carpet up. Underneath was black concrete and it stayed like that for quite some time while we flip-flopped back and forth on a flooring choice. The Mr. and I are flip-floppers.



Here you'll see one of the many tries to get the aqua that only I could see in my mind. Poor Mr.  Kitsch hand-mixed colors over and over until he created the color that was in my head. I bet we tried two dozen colors in that room with a brief detour into the world of corals and peaches before coming full-circle to attempt the magical aqua again.  And I'll never forget pulling up the thousands of carpet strip nails and staples out of that concrete. Mister Kitsch used real tools but I swore that a fork was the best method. Until it went straight through my knee.

But sooner or later, we did get the perfect aqua and had some hardwood floors put down. Since then it's been a long and drawn-out process to dress up the aqua box of a room - and kind of a challenge to save up for and wait on the right pieces - but it's finally done!




Here is the desk that I got in South Carolina for thirty dollars. It's an old teacher's or lab desk and it's super heavy and has great, deep drawers.  One of them was stamped with the name of an insurance company in my hometown which made me pretty happy because both my Grandfather and Dad used to hawk the insurance back in the day. I'm pretty sure that whoever sat at this desk spent a lot of time cursing my kinfolk from the rival insurance company for completely kicking their butt in sales!    Yes, this is where the magic happens.  

Except there would normally be a box of Cheez-Its there to the left of the computer. Or a cat sitting in that bowl. And a computer mouse. I hid that because it's ugly. Staging for photos is hard work and sometimes makes no sense. I'm not one of those people who is going to pretend like my house is always clean and my kids are never sassy. Well, not for long anyway. I have no idea what's in that left drawer. There, I said it. 

Here is the light fixture that I got for three bucks.

Something about it reminds me of the circus. Mister Kitsch did some rewiring for me. It was probably fine without but I recommend this with most old lights. I kept the old color intact because well, I generally just like to leave things in their original state. You can gather from that statement that I am either a purist...or just lazy. Take your pick. 

That desk and the light meant that the room was finally done. Thank you thrifting and Jesus. 

Last year, we saved  to get these glass cabinets from IKEA and it was a pretty happy day when they came. They were horrible to put together but once they were done, let me tell you - I shoved so much stuff in those babies! I can't lie - when the doors are opened, the smell of old books and cans of ancient floor wax wafts out. 

Thanks to the kitties most everything in my house has to be behind glass.
You know what though? It means less dusting so I'm totally in!

Part of the shelves are designated to a collection that I am strangely obsessed with. Old packaging!

You'll also see that this is where Mr. "I'm driving a penis" Squirrel went to live.

Most people are surprised when they come into my house that I don't have tons of stuff everywhere considering that I do love tackiness and have "Kitsch" in my name. I think for the most part, I reserve the largest part of it for this one room - which is now at full capacity. Hmm....where can we put more shelves? 

Here is my crafting table. We got this at Habitat for Humanity for a steal. 

Sometimes Mr. Kitsch likes to sit there and pretend like I'm interviewing him for a job.   Hey to Mishka on the windowsill! We got her in the backyard. She was a neighborhood feral when we moved here and it took two years to get her to trust us. Now she's sitting fat and wondering why she waited so long. 

My friend Karen made those pretty curtains for me from some old cloth that she found in Canada. I love the combo of red and aqua so knew immediately that it was the fabric that I wanted in the room.

This side of the room is pretty lackluster but finally saving up for that murphy bed was a huge victory. It meant that half of the room wasn't taken up by a guest bed that hardly ever got used. Murphy beds aren't cheap and if you're on a budget like us, they take quite some time to save up for but let me tell you - if you're sharing your creative space with a bed, it's totally worth the effort! I could go my entire life without looking at another lumpy futon or space-wasting guest bed. Mr. Kitsch found these guys on the side of the road.   

And here is where I keep all of my crafting supplies, found granny crafts and paper ephemera. 

Hello Mr. Kitten Pants, you adorable moody-butt cat, you!

I got the cabinet at the Tennessee Antique Mall. Talk about heavy! Mr. Kitsch painted it for me.

The trays up top represent two of my favorite things: holidays that revolve around food - and Mammoth Cave. Ooh! You know what would be fun? A holiday meal in a cave! 

Once again, I cram a lot of stuff behind glass. I've always thought that things look less junky behind glass. Don't correct me if I'm wrong! Let me happily live awash in the misconception. 

I say that if you're in a space that you don't love, don't let it get you down.  Sometimes, it takes a while to get just what you want and the wait is a hard one. Trust me when I say that I am the most impatient person in the world! My room isn't everyone's cup of tea but it's definitely what I'd hoped for at the end. A place where I can look around and get cheered up when sad - or inspired when in a rut. And obviously somewhere that I can store all of the things that I drag home because I know that I'd be even happier and inspired if they are around me.    This concludes the before-and-after tour of my office. Thanks for stopping by! Now where did I put those Cheez-Its?

Until next time,
x's and o's,
Eartha