For the Fall 2015 One Room Challenge, I made some major transformations in the room over our garage. At the end of the Challenge, there were still a few lingering projects, and I’m sad to say that most of them are still lingering. I thought the Spring 2017 ORC was the perfect time to get them done once and for all.
For anyone new to Homespun by Laura, welcome and thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet! You’ll find a variety of topics on my blog: anything from sewing to drawing to upholstery to woodworking. I’m up for trying almost anything DIY related and share my experiences here.
The basic idea of the One Room Challenge is this: Over a period of 5 weeks, bloggers transform a room in their house and share it in 6 posts. There are 20 featured designers – and then there are the rest of us – so there’s plenty of inspiration to see if you head over to Calling it Home, the hostess of the One Room Challenge.
Alright, let’s get back to the room over our garage, known in our house as ‘the office’. Once upon a time, the Mister used it as his office when he worked at home. Then he started working outside of our house more and the room gradually became the place where we put ALL THE STUFF we didn’t know what to do with. Then I started working from home and decided to make it into a useable space. And pretty, too. I came up with a plan and got to work.
I cleared out (a LOT of) the clutter!
 |
| Goal #1: to be able to go up the stairs |
 |
| Oh my… |
 |
| …it gets worse! |
I found/made/painted furniture to fit my needs!
 |
| My friend gave me this sewing desk that belonged to her mother. It lived in our guest room as a nightstand for a while before once again becoming a sewing desk. |
 |
| I painted it and added new knobs |
 |
| I’ve been meaning to update the upholstery on this awesome $20 chair for some time now… |
 |
| I was pretty excited about the tall craft table, which is great for doing watercolors, measuring fabric, and putting together sewing patterns. When I get tired of standing, I can sit in the stool! |
 |
| My huge new bulletin board is hung above a big unit made of craft cubes from Michael’s |
I painted the walls and the built-ins!
 |
| Painting all the shelves was a huge undertaking that I was quite relieved to complete! |
I created a display area for our running medals and awards (and wound up with my top post of all time!)!
 |
| These medals make it look like we’re better runners than we are. They give just about anybody a medal these days! |
We replaced the old fluorescent lights with ceiling fans and added a new window unit that actually works!
 |
| Fluorescent lights be gone! |
 |
| You can see the new window unit sitting on the floor in front of the old broken one. It sat there for months. |
If you’d like more detail on anything from the Fall 2015 ORC, you can read the complete posts here.
Everything was great for a while even though I hadn’t finished all of the projects. I enjoyed using my new but unfinished space for a few months. I intended to finish clearing out the rest of the clutter and finally stitching up some curtains, but I never quite got to it.
Then the Mister got a new job and needed a place to work from home most days. He stole my desk.
 |
| His assistant sits in inappropriate places sometimes. |
We now share the office most days, which has been an adjustment for both of us. And that brings us to my list of things to do for the Spring 2017 One Room Challenge:
- Create new desk for myself! (by reconfiguring the cubes in my craft shelving unit)
- Finish getting rid of ALL THE STUFF.
- Make the shelves look nice instead of using them to store ALL THE STUFF.
- Repaint sewing desk (I accidentally used outdoor paint and it wound up kind of sticky, so every little thread sticks to it!).
- Find or make a better plant stand (this is the only window in our house that gets enough sun to grow any plants indoors).
Why, yes. That is an unfinished scrap of wood on top of a TV tray table. Isn’t it lovely? - Replace fun pink folding chair from college dorm room with a real chair?
- Update upholstery on desk chair.
- Make curtains and cornices for the windows.
I love these from an episode of I Brake for Yard Sales
and plan to do something similar. - Make new lampshade for cool Eiffel Tower lamp.
I never really loved the shade that came with it.
