Interiors | Home Office Refresh
When we moved house last year, I was super excited about the fact that I’d have my own office WITH A DOOR! At our old house, I had a little nook off our living room that housed my desk, but it had no door and was really dark. My new office is only small, but it has a door I can shut and a window overlooking the garden that lets lots of light in. While I kind of set it up last year, I’ve never gotten into the habit of working in there. When we first moved in, I just grabbed my laptop and worked wherever I was.. usually in the living room. It was always a case of grabbing 20 minutes work time here or there, kids depending. Now that Beastie has a good long nap in the afternoon, that is my dedicated work time most days. Until recently I’ve still been working sat on the sofa, which usually means I end up with varying girls talking to me whilst I’m trying to work. {and trying to write a post about sofas whilst being told all about badgers isn’t easy!!}
So the other week I finally got around to giving my office a proper tidy and sort out. The room already had a built in desk with an open shelf underneath. This shelf is general storage – housing boxes of Christmas decorations, Christmas trees and all sorts of other junk stuff that we need to keep but have nowhere else to put… great but messy! For a quick fix, I cut up an old white sheet, fixed some velcro to it, and the top of the shelf and quickly covered up all of the mess. It actually looks pretty good, and is a vast improvement on before when you could see all the clutter. Out of sight, out of mind!
While the big window is great, come the afternoon when I want to work, there is so much sunlight coming through that I couldn’t see my laptop screen – hence why I didn’t work in there. G picked me up a bamboo blind and popped it up for me last week, it looks great and means I can actually see to work, which is kinda helpful really!
I had a good declutter whilst I was at it, leaving the room feeling much more tranquil and a pleasant place to work. The lamp I won in a giveaway last year, {can’t for the life of me work out where from though – baby brain!}, the faux flowers are photo props and the metal memo board is actually just a spray-painted cooling rack!!
Those little drawers you can see I have had for years, great for keeping washe tape in and other bits and bobs, but they’d faded so much, so I quickly recovered them with a sheet of wrapping paper to give them a new lease of life. I picked up the white basket on the windowsill in a shop in town – great for keeping scissors/chargers/stuff out of sight and tidy. I want to pick up some more office supplies, so I don’t have to grab things from downstairs all the time – I’m planning a mini shopping spree at https://www.officemonster.co.uk/ soon to stock up!
I’ve been working in here most afternoons for the past fortnight now, and I’m so much more productive. There are fewer distractions, tucked away with the door shut and it’s my own little peaceful hidey hole in my very noisy house!
My office essentials….
LAMP // PRINT // FAIRY LIGHTS // MEMO BOARD // CUP // DRAWERS // BASKET // CACTUS PHOTO HOLDER // PLANT
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Fiona Peacock
June 10, 2016 at 16:54Spray painted cooling rack, actual genius! I went to tidy my office today and ended up totally distracted by paint colours so I think I’m going to try and paint it this week, I haven’t touched it since we moved in two years ago. xx
Laura
June 13, 2016 at 11:48I absolutely love your home office Polly – I am craving a space with it’s own door – the dream!! When I eventually do have my own office space I intend to surround myself with house plants and pretty stationary :)
Laura x
Adele at Beautiful Tribe
June 13, 2016 at 12:14I currently have a little nook and it is so distracting! It’s extremely messy too so I desperately need to sort that out. I always think when I look around your interiors posts that we have a similar sort of style. There’s a lot here I would have chosen too.
Kathryn
June 14, 2016 at 12:17So nice to have your own space, I really appreciate it too. I love the hand-lettered prints. ‘Work hard and be nice’ is what I say every morning to my kids as I kiss them good bye in the school playground :) xx
Fritha
June 16, 2016 at 11:52I love those lights! you reminded me to put ours up that we have knocking about the place, lovely work space xx
Lucy Melissa Smith (Hello Beautiful Bear)
June 16, 2016 at 22:12This is THE most beautiful work space, I am so jealous. I have our old dining room as an office but it’s not pretty at all and quite uninspiring so I usually end up on the sofa as well.
I love how inventive you’ve been with the drying rack and how you’ve refreshed a few older items as well.
Serious inspiration here, honestly, you put my workspace to shame!
I’m glad you’ve got it how you want it (bloody lovely that it is!) and that it’s making you more productive :)
Lucy
X X
Kostas Chiotis
June 1, 2018 at 13:57The cooling rack with clothespins is hands down amazing! What a great idea! I think after you’ve got your most necessary furniture settled, the rest is an open sea of DIYs to make you smile.