One Small Step For Organization, One Giant Leap For...

So I'm happy to say I am coming to you from a clean and organized office. That feels wonderful to say considering last week you would have thought a tornado went through here. It looked like the craft box (You know the one you keep to entertain children) straight up regurgitated in here. In the midst of doing this project, I got fully inspired by my Halloween costume (more on that later) and just went into sheer project madness. The fact that I can fully see the floor now, makes me happy. One small step for organization, one giant leap towards world domination. Well maybe not that far, but my office is definitely coming together.

So on to the project at hand. I decided to add a Command Center type area next to my desk. Well actually it was already there, I just decided to give it a face lift.

Sorry for the terrible before picture. In my haste to start the project, I just got up and started taking everything down. Kind of one of those...start it now before you get lazy and talk yourself out of it type things. The picture you see now was taken months ago. First thing was to measure the space. I did some image searching on Command Centers. A lot of the ones I saw used the existing wall color. However, since I am trying to cut up the red I decided to go with a different color and a border to distinguish it from the rest of the wall. I came up with 39"x40". I made a trip to Home Depot to pick up white molding strips, and cut the pieces to the correct length. Then I put them in a square and used wood glue and tape for reinforcement. 

Next it was on to the actual wall. Before I could start I had to do some patchwork. I created a few unsightly holes in the original placement. Unfortunately, taking anything off of this wall is difficult seeing as how there are 4 coats of paint on it (Lesson learned: Never paint red unless you are SURE). Once the wall was patched I added the color. I debated a few techniques. The biggest concern was that I was adding floating shelves, so the wall needed to be able to accommodate that. The obvious thing to do was just to paint the wall itself, but then I felt if I ever changed my mind I would have to paint it back red and getting the same tone could be a bit of a pain. I debated using paper, but then I would run into the rippling issue when painting. I also contemplated fabric, but finding the exact color or pattern I wanted would have probably been a little more difficult than I cared for it to be. I ended up having a Eureka moment and using adhesive shelf liner. I had some leftover from doing my bathroom drawer dividers, and adhesive liner will stick and then peel off easily if need be. I placed it on the wall, and gave it a coat of all surface primer to prepare for painting.

   

I have a few other elements going up so I didn't want the background to be too busy. That meant no patterns, prints, or bright colors. I ended up going with a very subtle gray tinted white. (I know SUPER boring)

I know it looks pure white in the pictures, but trust me it isn't. Once the background was done I attacked the shelves. Before I just had one at the bottom. This time I decided to add a second one at the top. So I grabbed an extra pair of shelves from the craft closet (because we all have extra shelves laying around in random closets). The length I needed was longer than the actual shelf so I had to put 2 together. 

...And somewhere in my infinite of wisdom I decided to get interesting. I was feeling that there were just too many squared shelves in here, and I wanted something a little different. Don't judge me people! Tanaira madness is very real. I decided to cut the shelves at an angle. I made a mark a couple of inches in, cut them on the miter saw, and used balsa wood and wood filler to finish the edges. Then I sprayed both shelves with all surface primer so the paint would stick.

I gave the shelves a couple coats of white paint and rehung them on the wall. 

Now that the wall was painted and the shelves up, it was time to finish this thing. It was in dire need of color. I added the rest of the pieces and knick knacks and PRESTO...a brand new Command Center

For the bottom shelf I pretty much kept it the same. I did decide to move my quote. With the addition of the top shelf there was no place for it over the magnetic board. So I hot glued magnets to the back and placed it at the bottom of the magnetic board.

The magnetic board got added back in the same spot. I was going to make a new one that was a little smaller however it was hard to find a piece that was either the right size or easy to cut. So, I just worked with what I had.

As for the top shelf I added my cool clock from Z Gallerie. It was supposed to go in the bookshelf, but much to my disappointment when I got home and realized it was too tall. Sadly it is really too tall to go in anything. So, on top of something is where it has to be. The name sign is something I worked on a while back. I did an ink pen doodle, and used the drawing to cut out the letters. Then I glued the letters onto scrapbook paper, and put it in a frame.

On the other side I added a pegboard. I bought a pack of cork board, and cut it to the size I needed. Then I wrapped it in black and white chevron fabric. 

Lastly, can't forget my new marker holder. I found a random decorative piece at Homegoods. Not really sure what the intended use for it was, but I thought it fit my markers very nicely. I turned the piece on its side, added some legs, and VOILA there you have it. 

 What do you think? I love that it keeps me organized, and it's pretty too. I’m one of those out of sight, out of mind type people. If you don’t see me write it down or set a reminder, it’s probably not going to get done. So one more project and the desk area is complete. It’s kind of exciting to be getting closer to the end of this office redecorate. 

Oh and what about Halloween?  

I decided to do Black Swan. I have a list of Halloween ideas, and every year I never leave myself enough time to do the most elaborate ones. So I contemplated several things, and finally about a week before Halloween I settled on this one. It actually was pretty easy. I already had a tulle skirt and black corset. So I used those as my base, and then just embellished the heck out of them. For the skirt I took the one I had and made an extra one to add fluffiness. For the corset I added rhinestones and feathers. For the crown, I did some Google-tubing and found lots of different tutorials on how to create one. I could have just bought one, but I really wanted it to look authentic. I saw a Youtube video that used glue sticks. The girl on the video made it look a lot easier than it actually was, but I pulled it off. Once it was all said and done, I absolutely loved my costume. I felt fabulous and pretty all night. It is definitely one of my favorites to date.

So with another large project done, I am exhaling. These large ones seem easy at the beginning, and then here I am a month later still working on it. I’m on vacation this week so hopefully I can be super productive, and get lots done. Until then….It’s on to the next project. 

Desk Update 2.0

I'm back! It's been a busy month to say the least. I apologize for the lapse in time, but there's been a lot going on around here. The biggest thing is that I just got a new computer. So needless to say that, along with the following project has kept my office in quite the state of chaos. So before you even start reading this post I'm just going to warn you that what is about to happen is totally and absolutely not necessary. I would put it in the category of a smidgen overkill. Yes I know, and trust I contemplated just keeping it the way it was. However I feel like by now you all have met me, and know how I roll.....so though totally on the level of "Uh...she's doing too much" none of you should be at all surprised by the following events. 

So now that the disclaimer has been given and out of the way, let's get to the awesomeness at hand. My desk upgrade. Now my desk was designed in my head for at least a year before I even moved into this house. However my original idea (read all about that here) did not quite fit into the room the way I wanted, and so I decided it was time to finally make some modifications. This is the original desk.

The basic plan was to change the trim, the legs, and create a new top. As you can see below I've already removed the black and white design and trim from around the desk. The black and white design was just specialty paper that I bought from Michaels. The original trim was made out of 1 3/4" molding strips. 

I stripped the sides and used my razor blade to clean up the edges and then resanded them down. I made a trip to Lowe's to get thicker trim at 2 1/2" wide. It was a little wider than I wanted, but I wanted the desk to have a little more of a weighted appearance.

I added the new trim around the edges using wood glue to set them and tape to hold them in place while it dried.

Then I gave the whole thing a fresh coat of white paint. 

While the main piece dried I moved on to the top design. The original clear pieces sat right on top of the desk. Without them, the top was a little jagged and the rough spots were a lot more noticeable than I thought. This time around I decided to add a piece to set on the top to create a flat surface and also be used as an anchor for whatever design I choose. The desk itself is 48"x 30". The only thing I know that is that big is matboard, but while in Hobby Lobby I came across extra large foam board. Which happened to be thicker and cheaper.

I used my roll of large white paper. I wrapped the paper around the matboard and taped it on the back side to secure. Then I flipped the board over and began painting the top. I decided on a light gray with some sort of white design. I did need to test the paint first though. A lot of thinner paints make paper wrinkle upon application. So, I painted a test first to see how the paper would react before I did the whole thing.

As you can see the paper rippled. I took to Google and did some research on how to handle such a problem. I can't be the only person in the world using paint on paper. I found out that paper expands when wet and that is what causes the ripples. The solution is to wet the paper first and let it ripple and then stretch the expanded paper pulling the ripples tight. So I tried that. I spritzed the paper with a spray bottle filled with water, and laid down a thin coat of paint. Once it dried I restretched the whole thing around the matboard and secured it with tape on the back. Then I finished it off with a few extra coats of paint.

Once it was done and dry it looked lovely and ripple free.

With the surface painted I proceeded with my design. I wasn't sure what to do, but was mostly concerned about it clashing with the other design elements in the room. I had an idea for a giant flower. Why? Absolutely no clue. I am not even into flowers like that. I wish I had some thoughtful or overly creative and amazing inspiration, but I don't. That's just what popped into my head. I started with a sketch and just went in with white paint until I got the opaqueness I wanted. White paint is a difficult color to use to cover over something so it took quite a few coats to get perfect. I have to admit I was a little 'Eh' at first because it wasn't coming out the way I had imagined, but I kept going. The closer I got to the end, I started seeing it coming together. 

For the last piece, I made a top for my set of drawers that sit next to my desk. I had this idea/epiphany to make an extension piece that would make the drawers the same height as the desk and thus the whole thing appear as one piece. I used scrap wood from my stash. Using my jigsaw I cut out a rectangle, and used the same 2 1/2" pieces I used for the desk trim for the sides.

The piece was meant to sit completely on top of the drawers. I used wood glue to add all of the side pieces to the top and set it aside to dry. The piece didn't go as perfectly as I hoped, so I had to go in with my wood filler and extra wood glue to fill in the gaps and rough edges.

Once I flipped it over the top was nothing to marvel at either. There were uneven edges everywhere. So I decided to add a hard cover to the top. I was working on another project and had some 4 inch balsa wood lying around. I cut it into pieces and glued it down to the the top. Once it was done, I added wood filler into the grooves and smoothed it out.

 Once it dried I gave the whole thing a light sanding and a few coats of white paint.

I added the extra side piece on top of the drawers and pushed it next to the desk. 

My new updated desk area. 

I must say I'm quite impressed. Not that I didn't like the other desk, but I am really digging this one (For now that is....) I like the light color of the gray, and it seems to be more in line with the rest of the office. Oh and I bet some of you are wondering what happened to the legs. Well I went through lots of ideas. That's partially what took so long. I actually came up with an idea that I liked. However, half way through designing the first leg I decided I wanted to just keep the ones I had. When I returned the pieces to Michaels, the checkout guy said "I take it you changed your mind?" Yup, pretty much. It happens. All and all I am pretty excited to have this project checked off the list, and have my office back. Until then....it's on to the next project

Too Much Permanent Marker Is Not Good For You

Finally! I have figured out what to do with the oh so giant space above my TV *happy dance....BAP BAP BAP* Yes, I'm just a little bit happy to have this one done. For the last year I have been trying to figure out what to do. I have thrown around several ideas. A giant picture, a giant painting, lots of small pictures, shelving, shelving and pictures, a wall sculpture/installation....you name it, I've thought about it. However, nothing has seemed quite right. All of my ideas thus far have either looked out of place or like they were competing with the rest of the room. Then one day I was looking through my daily HGTV newsletter and came across what looked like a black and white wall print. It was made up of 8 circles, all in different black and white designs. I looked at it for awhile, and thought it would look really cool in the office. I looked online but couldn't seem to find it, so instead I did what I do best, and made one of my very own.

So first things first was design. I measured the size of the wall and then sketched a general outline of the piece so I could figure out the placement and size of each circle.

I originally was just going to take a large piece of paper or mat board and draw the circles right on it, but then I decided I wanted to create a little dimension. So instead I decided to do the circles individually on poster board and attach them to a large piece of paper. I found this 4ft x12ft wide roll of white paper at Michaels. 

Next I measured the radius of each circle. I went for a combination of big and small. For the smaller ones I used my protractor, but the larger ones exceeded the size that my protractor would go. Typically I would have just tied a string to an anchor and a pencil, but I decided to elevate my tools this go round. I decided to make a large protractor that I could use for really large circles. So I grabbed 2 rulers, a mechanical pencil, BBQ skewers and a big screw and nut. I taped the pencil to one of the rulers and the skewers to the other. Then I put the 2 rulers together and put the screw through the hole at the top and tightened it from the other side with the nut...and Voila! A new protractor. 

Using poster board I cut out 8 circles, 4 big and 4 smaller.

For my design I stuck to black and white. I bought a pack of fine and ultra fine black permanent markers. I debated using acrylic paint, but that could be a lot more time consuming and limiting, especially when it came to detail work. So I went with marker. I grabbed the first circle and just free handed a design. I really didn't have a plan or an idea of what it was going to look like. I started in the middle of the circle, and just did whatever came to mind. I continued drawing outward using varying size circles and designs until I reached the edge.

1st circle

Isn't it pretty. You know as much as I think and go for simple, the outcome is always beyond what I imagined. Originally I was thinking I would draw a few lines, some circles, and get fancy by throwing in a diamond or 2. Clearly that didn't happen. After the first one was done I moved on to the next one. Same thought process as before. Start from the middle and just design outwards with whatever came to mind. 

2nd Circle

Each circle took on average about a few days to complete. Sometimes because it was a lot of detail, other times I just didn't know what to do. Seeing as how there was no real plan on the design, it was real easy to get Artist's block. So sometimes I would just stop, hang it up, and let it sit until something came to me. 

3rd Circle

At this point I realized how toxic permanent markers can be. I don't think I've ever worked with so much permanent marker at one time. The 3rd circle had a lot of black in it, and I was just leaning over the desk inhaling every bit of fumes. Man, talk about getting light headed. I had to actually open the door and take it out to the garage so it could air out. I was not trying to pass out!

4th Circle

Now I originally thought this project would take me months. Each circle especially the larger ones were quite time consuming. I also didn't want to rush and do a sloppy job. I estimated about 1 per week when I first started.  However I seemed to somehow get a wave of inspiration and energy over the last week, and just started cranking them out. 

5th Circle

I finished the last 3 in a week

7th Circle

8th Circle

So in case you didn't notice I am missing the 6th circle. Somehow in the madness I missed photographing it when I was done, and unfortunately it is already taped to the wall at the time I am writing this post. Sorry. #BlogstarFAIL! As I designed each one, I laid them next to each other to make sure they were all somewhat cohesive. I didn't want them to be the same, but I didn't want them to all be so different that they clashed and looked odd together. 

With all 8 done I laid them on the floor and played around with placement. I arranged them around in various combinations to figure out which one worked best. I settled on this one.  

I wanted the piece to be in the middle of the wall. Hard to do when there are no distinct corners. So I measured the highest, lowest, and furthest points on both sides to get the basic size. I came up with 74" across and 48" down. To adhere the pieces to the wall I used Scotch photo tape. I used a couple of pieces per circle just to make sure they were secure. 

I marked the lowest mid point of the wall using Painter's tape so I could use that to place the first piece. Then I found the lowest midpoint of the circles and matched that up with the piece of tape. 

While they were on the floor I measured where the second piece would hang in conjunction to the first. So once the first one was placed, I placed the second one right next to it.

 After that the rest of the circles were easy. One by one I adhered the remainder of the circles to the wall until I had a completed piece. My new collage of circles we'll call it.

What do you think?! I'm actually digging it. It does wonders for how the room looks. Oh and let me just take a moment to reiterate how excited I am to finally have this done. After a year of not knowing what to do it's nice to have this checked off the list. One thing that I am still contemplating is color. Originally I was going to use my colored permanent markers and highlight each circle, but now I'm not sure. What do you all think? Color or no color? I'm hesitant to do anything because once I touch it, it's a done deal. There's no going back and changing my mind. So for right now I'm going to hold off until I'm sure. I have a few ideas of other options, but we'll just see how it all plays out. Until then it's on to the next project....And one step closer to my oh so MAGICAL office!