Giving My Office a Facelift

Somehow, in the Christmas excitement, my office exploded. Crazy thing is I wasn’t even using it that much. As I was cleaning my office, it became super clear that I would be giving my office a facelift!

My office has multiple personalities. It works hard, just like I do, so it gets a lot of wear and tear. I would love to say that it was “shabby chic” but let’s face it, it is a lot more shabby than chic.

Its a craft room, as well as an art room.

Some days it is a sewing room.

I house my office inside of an old armoire that I gave a makeover to awhile back.

As you can see this side of the room is a reading area and more craft storage.

Admittedly, there is a ton going on in this small room.  I don’t plan on changing anything major, I just want to find solutions for a few areas that just aren’t working and slap a little lipstick on the rest of it.

Paint storage is a huge problem for me. I’ve tried plastic bins with drawers. The paint was too heavy for the drawers. I have tried multiple plastic bins and as you can see it just isn’t working for me either.

I hit Pinterest to see what others had done with their paints. My criteria was simple. The storage I needed had to be big enough to hold all of my paint, it needed to be super sturdy and I wanted it to be cute and stationary.

Lots of lovely custom built ins that look professionally done were everywhere on Pinterest. Well, that is so not happening here, it is just not in my budget.

I did see a few things that were doable. Large PVC pipes cut up and glued together and Coke crates as paint storage. The PVC was really a neat idea, I just wasn’t sure how much I needed and it seemed to take up a lot of space. The Coke crate would be simple and sturdy, however, I would have to hunt a few of them down to purchase them and I wanted an easy solution now.

My solution?

Old drawers. The coke crate got me thinking. Those crates were nothing but a wooden box with dividers. I had a ton of wooden drawers in the garage and The Hubs could make dividers for me to go inside of the drawers. Problem solved!

I cleaned the drawers really well. The Hubs made a divider for the larger of the two drawers.  The fewer dividers I used, the more paint I could store. Each drawer then received a couple of coats of paint.

While the paint was drying I tackled a few other much needed and overdue projects.

I took everything off of my craft workspace and cleaned it. After giving the top a new coat of paint, I was feeling pretty good about the office facelift. There is nothing like seeing my space looking so clean and new.  I crave a clean and organized work space.

I removed the sconces and the candles from the wall to make room for the painted drawers, but the bulletin board looked a little lonely. So I made a fabric bunting, which you will see in upcoming photos!

I hung a new clock and metal storage container that I have had for a few months now.  Procrastination much? Better late than never.

By this time the paint on the drawers had finished drying and it was time to load them up with my bottles of paint.

The paint fits perfectly, the drawers are sturdy without being super heavy. In fact, it was easy to hang the small drawer on the wall to help save valuable space. And the best part? They hold all of my paint and there is plenty of room to add more.

I love being able to see the color of the paint. No more digging and looking for paint. So many pretty colors! It just makes me happy.

I could kind of kick myself for not thinking of this paint storage solution sooner!

I still need to weed out and clean up the bulletin board and find some solutions for other problem areas, but I cannot tell you how much I love the newer, cleaner and super functional changes that were made today. I’d say that giving my office a facelift was the perfect way to spend my morning.

I work so much better in an organized space. Who needs a perfect room with built-ins and a ton of room? Well, I do, some day! But today, this space is perfect for my needs and I’m excited about getting out  and completing a few new projects.

Have a great day!

                                Tammy

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