Welcome Part 7: the Studio.

Having enough space for my own studio and office space was one of the things I was most looking forward to when I moved into my house. Before I was forced to store most of my fun crafty things wherever there was room. Now I love having a little sanctuary where I go and release some creative energy.

This desk is another one of my restoration projects from a few years ago. I bought it at a hotel liquidation sale for $15. It was an awful looking cream color with bright blue crackling and a faux marble laminate top that was peeling up at the edges. I (literally) chiseled the laminate off and painted it this beautiful blood red color. We’ve been happily together ever since!

I love, love, love these shelves. I can’t find better words than that to describe how awesome it is to neatly store everything in it’s own designated cubby. A total lifesaver and the boxes and other things within hold some of my favorite supplies.

I definitely need a new desk chair as this one clearly isn’t meant for sitting on hour upon hour. The comfort level just isn’t there. I’ve seen a few I like, but haven’t managed to commit to one just yet.

To the left of the shelves is an empty corner and window. The plan is to get a comfy chair and lamp to occupy it and give myself a little “Inspiration Corner” of sorts.

I try to keep my desk as cleared off as possible, but that generally doesn’t last for long. I like to store the pens and brushes I use most in cups for easy access.

Part of my K collection gets displayed on top of the shelves along with my framed Breakfast at Tiffany’s movie poster. If you didn’t know, I’m a big Audrey fan and this is one of my all time favorite movies!

Deciding on some sort of inspiration board area was one of my main focuses when thinking about how I wanted this space to be set up. I ended up going with individual cork squares set up in a grid for easy separation of thoughts. In retrospect I would have done six – three over three – instead of four squares.

There are two windows in the room that let in really great amounts of sunlight. I want to get a window covering that won’t shut out the light, but diffuse it instead.

My knock-off Rothko painting. Just a little something I did to take up space on an empty wall for the moment. When I lived in an apartment these shelves sat in my kitchen and held food. Now I’ve re-purposed them as a large magazine rack.

You can’t see the ceiling in any of the photos, but if you could you’d see the generic light fixture dead center. Since this is a creative space where magic is supposed to happen I want to find something really fun to replace it with.

BOLIDEN Chair and Footstool • LILLBERG Rocking Chair •
Westmore Casual Chandelier • Portfolio Brass & Gold Ceiling Flushmount •
BRASA Floor Lamp • Anemone •
Marimekko Stilla fabric • Ripple Leather Office Chair

Next: the Master Bedroom

Welcome Part 6: the Guest Room.

A big part of me cannot even believe that I’m showing you this room. Because right now it’s a junk room. And I didn’t even bother to clean up before taking these photos! But showing you my house is showing you my house. Flaws and all. And this is by far the biggest.

The only thing I’ve done since moving in is painted the walls. Since I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do as far as decorating this room I went with a neutral. Had it not been a glaringly bright harlot red when I moved in I would have held off, but it literally felt like walking into a red light district every time I opened the door! Yeah, it was that bad. I would normally leave the ceiling white, but the previous owners had done some bad touch-up paintwork with a matte on eggshell paint that stuck out like a sore thumb. It went all the way around the border of the room and needed a fast fix. The thought of repainting once I know what I’m doing has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

For the time being a coffee table lives here. It’s the table I was using before I got my current one. I love it and have no plans of selling, just hanging onto it for whatever house comes my way later in life. There’s also a stack of boxes full of things I need to either keep or donate. Exciting stuff, right?

This is my dad’s secretary desk from when he was a kid. It sat in our living room for years while I was growing up and now it’s mine! I have nowhere else for it at the moment, so it’s bound to be a fixture in this room no matter how I decorate.

CUBIX bed • ENGAN bed • HEMNES nightstand in white and black •
IKEA 365+ BRASA Table Lamp • PICCOLA Gallery Lamp • KAJSA Panel Curtain •
KAJSA RAND Panel Curtain

Whatever bed I end up getting has to be simple and un-clunky because this room is fairly small. Same goes for the nightstands. I think something tall and narrow would do the trick nicely. Unless the room pulls some House of Leaves move and gets larger there really isn’t any space for a dresser. I’d like to keep the bedside lamps simple and am even considering something wall mounted to save on space. The one place I’d really like to add something special is the window treatment. I’m really digging these curtain panels for a pretty subtlety.

Next: the Studio