Another Office Redo

It's been a joke about the third bedroom that I have. I switched my bedroom last summer (which has since had a few more evolutions)! I set up the spare room as a massage/yoga room/guest room. Ha. Much like before the move, it made a gradual descent into a junk room. If I were fancier, a junque room. In the meantime, I had also done some rearranging/reorganizing of my office. I even built shelves!  So that ALL my art supplies were categorized and organized.

*sigh*

Then I had a thought: Why am I cramming all my art stuff into the smallest room in the house? Especially since I have an essentially unused room. Thus began the move; of shelves, art supplies, and book cases. My house is in a state of upheaval. But I have brought order into the office. It started with this chair, as modeled by Buddy:

I stopped by the Goodwill in Goochland on Sunday. All day yesterday I kept thinking about this chair; cozy, comfortable. Sorta patchwork quilty. I thought, "If it's there on Tuesday, it's meant to be & I'll get it."  But I kept picturing it there in the alcove, so I finally just went and got it. I called Chiro-sis and she came over to help me bring it in; surprisingly easy to maneuver for such a large chair.  

See the dots on the wall behind Buddy?

Well.  I patched the holes left by the shelves. Then I painted, but didn't stir well enough, so I ended up with dark patches.  *sigh*

I was going to paint . . .

But then decided to do this:

Old book pages applied with wall paper paste.

Appearance from Tabby Bobcat:

Tabby is purring. :-)

I ran out of wallpaper paste, so I need to finish the last two feet at the bottom. You can sorta see it:

Zzzzz . . . .

This morning:

The book was a reference to Bible passages. Here's a close up of one of the pages:

 Can you hear my mother thru the internet saying, "Even when it's not Doggie Monday, you still have dogs on your blog!"

Yup.

Zzzzz . . . .

More to come, but for now, this'll do.  :-)

Collaged Wall

Wednesday morning I woke up at 4 a.m.  I had a friend coming for the weekend, so I really needed to get the house CLEANED. So what did I do? Remember my office wall that I wallpapered old book pages to?   I LOVE my meditation / writing corner. It's where I have a cup of tea, plan the day, snuggle with Buddy. I had kept thinking that the wall with the bookcase looked a bit naked. I kept thinking I wanted to do more wallpapering of something, but not the same. Also, the colour needed to match the book pages; so it would have to be tea stained or antiqued, not white. I've been saving programs from St. Luke's because I'm a hoarder I thought I'd do something crafty with the songs in there. However, the covers were the right colour!  Here's the wall in the process of drying:

I also added some old music book pages.

OK, here we go with the finished alcove:

I'll prolly continue to add things to the wall.

Love this old statue:

'member how I ran out of wallpaper paste
& left the bottom unfinished? Ta-da! Done.

 But of course, then I have to cover the chair:

Because:

Tabby Bobcat in a Groom Fest. Buddy's face at having to share HIS chair says it all!

 Can you hear Mum thru the internet?  "Even when you do a non-dog blog post, you somehow manage to put the dogs in it!"  Yup.

Here's one more of Tabby on the bottom of the bookcase:

His new favourite spot until it gets filled. Then he will go over there & MEOW
at me to move stuff out of HIS spot. Because that's how he is. Such a cat!

On the technical side, I just got a bucket of wallpaper paste & a brush and applied it to the back of the page and then also the front when I applied it to the wall. That's it. You'll use more wallpaper paste than what it says on the bucket, but it gives it an even, non-glossy finish.

Office Re-Do

I was going to do a super-clean and reorganize my living room and paint my bathroom cabinets.

So then I did my office, totally not on The List. Here's the main area I worked on:

The BEFORE. 2 giant book cases that fit neatly into the alcove. 
But they were so bulky & really taking up SPACE.
In the foreground is my craft table loaded cluttered with art stuff & TWO boxes for Tabby to sit in! 

Another angle.

I gave the bookcases to my sister. And:

Borrowed my brother's big-boy drill to install shelves.

Here are the shelves installed:

I never thought I'd say this, but the shelves were the EASIEST part of this project!

Tabby Bobcat not sure what to think!

In the meantime:

Some of the STUFF to put back!

And THIS:

You know that point where it's too late to turn back but you're too tired to go forward?
Grenade, meet Office.

Ready for the AFTER?

I glued some pretty scrapbook paper to a few more boxes. 
I labeled the shelves & boxes with washi tape.

Another angle:

The plastic drawer unit to the right was already organized. 
The scrapbook paper shelf to the left came from another area of the office.

Here was the wall before I got the scrapbook paper shelf:

And then this was the latest evolution before I moved it:

Reggie checking out the new space:

It's hard to tell from the photo, but there's space behind the scrapbook paper shelf & drawer unit and the shelves on the wall. See?

Behind scrapbook paper shelf. Also, if you look at that bottom shelf,
it's waiting for some lazy susans to rock its world. 

I put that wooden box back there for Tabby. So far, he hasn't taken any interest.

One of the biggest changes was to move my big table out and replace it with my smaller kitchen table. It's still a decent work space; it has leaves that expand if I need more space. I put it on the risers like the other table so I can stand and work. I have a Teflon oven mat already taped on so I can get down to some craftiness. (It's like those craft mats, only thriftier).

So that's the transformation so far. And speaking of transformation, at the end of my long weekend, I was sitting out with chiro-sis and we saw this:

Symbol of transformation. :-)