Office Desk

I mentioned recently that Alan and I made a trip to IKEA. We came home with the MICKE desk that I had added to our office mood board. It barely fit into the car. I mean, the box started in the trunk and ended nearly in the front seats.

We made it home with it though and put it together. Surprise, surprise, it was easy to put together. We made sure to tighten everything really well, because no one likes a wobbly work space.

See the Singer sewing machine underneath it? Well, it is now unpacked and on top of it just waiting for some sewing projects to happen. It was one of my Christmas presents from my parents and I can't wait to use it. A chair for the desk might help though.

There was one more box that we squeezed into the car from IKEA. Let's call it a companion to the desk. Know what it might be? Well, you will just have to wait to see tomorrow!

Muddy Puppy

Someone had too much fun at my parent's house...

Bennett really made the most out of his afternoon at my parent's. He loves running around their big backyard and playing with their dogs, Zoe (a yorkie) and Cooper (a labradoodle, who you can see part of in the corner of the picture). Of course, he found the muddiest place to play. He got a bath right after this.

Hand Painted Sign

My Mom works at a garden center here in town and I created this sign for their shop! What a perfect sign for a gardener or even a little boy!

Now I am working on a sign for a special project. I can't wait to tell you all about it once it is ready!

New Living Room Arrangement

Cha-cha-cha-changes! The Christmas tree came down after Christmas and it just made me feel like the living room was lacking. That is nothing that a little rearranging can't solve.

It feels a lot more open and welcoming.

In case you don't remember, here is what the room layout use to look like.

Now, instead of the couch cutting the room off from the kitchen and dining room, it backs up to the bookcases.

Of course Bennett photobombs my pictures. He was just too happy chewing away on a toy.

I just noticed that the side console isn't centered with the picture above it. Don't worry, it is now! We pushed it over a little to better fit the Christmas tree in the corner and never slid it back. That's what happens when you look at something too often, sometimes you don't really see it. Also, looking at this picture, I think I might spruce up our couch legs just like Amanda did over at Love & Renovations. They could really benefit from some Minwax Dark Walnut stain. Then they would blend a little bit better with the legs of the chairs. I think I am going to add that to the list!

Lately Pinned

Of course I love Pinterest, because really, who doesn't? It could spend hours on there. I am just thankful that I didn't know about Pinterest while I was planning our wedding. It just would have been good idea overload! Now I love it for everything from decorating ideas to craft projects. So I thought it would be fun to share some of my latest pins from different boards.

From my Art board...

Originaly from the Little Green Notebook, I love the colors of the whole room, but it was the art above the couch that really caught my eye.

From Decor....

This office just feels so calm to me. I love the fabric with all the clippings. Originaly from Decorology.

From Crafts....

This pin cushion sewing kit is such a sweet craft/gift idea that came from iheartorganization. Everyone should have one of these handy.

From For the Home...

This is such a pretty bench with neat details, but I also love the ecelctic art in the different mattes and frames. Found from A Perfect Grey.

From Recipes...

Yum! Buffalo Chicken Dip is my favorite dip right now. In fact, I might have just eaten this dip for dinner recently. It might not have been a healthy dinner, but it sure was delicious! The recipe is from Just Call Me Maria.

There you have it, the latest and greatest from my Pinterest. If you aren't following me and would like to you can find me here. Happy Pinning!

Laundry Room Door

Alan and I took 5 minutes and were able to cross something off of our laundry room to do list! Even little steps toward the end goal make me feel more productive. We took the door off of the laundry room linen closet. The reason being is it stays open like this 24/7, because of Bennett's bed. 

You can see Bennett's bed below. It fits perfectly on the bottom and gives him a little cave to sleep in. Having it in the closet saves SO much floor space. That way we can still do laundry and not trip over it. 

At first we figured, it's nice that we still have the door because we could always close it if we wanted to. Well we haven't. We just shut the laundry room door if we want to hide the room.

If the door wasn't there then we could do something cute on that wall. I am picturing stripes and a mirror. We would like to take down the IKEA rack too. That way when you did look into the room you would see something cuter then an open door and a rack. 

Alan got out the power drill and a few minutes later we were doorless.

It is weird that without the door it seems so much bigger, even though the open door took up maybe two inches of floor space.

Next we plan to take down the rack and patch the holes in the wall.

The door frame is an eyesore now as well. A little paint would help, but still allow us to put the door back on in the future.

We can now cross off the first item on our list for the laundry room. One down! Here is what we still hope to accomplish. 


Laundry Room
- Take closet door off
- Paint door frame
- Remove IKEA rack
- Patch wall holes- New shelf over washer and dryer
- Paint stripes
- Baskets for storage in closet
- Mirror/art
- Rug

Storage Containers

Alan and I might have been able to sneak in an IKEA trip recently. And don't you know, we packed our little car as full as we could. Picture me measuring boxes in the store to make sure that they would fit in the car for the 3.5 hour drive back home.

One of the first things we grabbed were these awesome Kassatt boxes in white. Hello, office storage.

Packaged flat like almost everything at IKEA, they just took a few screws to put them together. Instant hidden storage.

We decided to get four of the medium and 4 of the large.

I can't wait to put them to work. I love it when everything has a place and these are really going to help. We also grabbed two other items for the office from IKEA. Sadly though you will just have to wait and see what they are!

An Old Frame Gets a New Life

We had this old frame laying around the house. 

It is very heavy and has great detailing, but it just wasn't our style.

So I picked up some white spray paint from Walmart to give this wood frame a new life.

After a few coats, it was glossy white. It went from a frame that I hated, to one that I loved!

I also picked up a cork board from Walmart that fit the dimensions.

It was a perfect fit. I wasn't digging the black from the cork board's frame. Luckily, I had a half a yard of fabric that had never been used.

I just pulled the fabric around the board and stapled it to the back of it.

So easy! We plan to hang it in the office, but for now it is just propped against the wall holding some of the cards we have gotten lately. Next to the chair, you really get an idea of just how huge the frame really is.

Although, I really like this fabric, I might replace it with something that will better match the office mood board later. But that is the nice thing about stapling the fabric to the cork board, you can take it off and replace it with another piece later.

I am tickled with how cute it turned out. 

Office Bookcases

I mentioned recently in our goals for the house, that the office was at the top of our list of projects to tackle. Since we moved the old desk to use as the dining room table and created a mood board for the office, it was now time to start working towards our end goal. 

So recently we picked up two of these $29.99 white, five-shelf bookcases from Target. Although we are in love with the Billy Bookcases from IKEA, grabbing these for $20 less each and not having to drive a trailer 4 hours to IKEA, made us think they were worth a try. We plan to eventually get two more.

We decided to put them on the far wall away from the door. That way you will seem them right when you walk in. 

It was too easy to put them together. We just followed the directions and they were up in no time. 

Which was nice because then we were able to put all of this stuff from the ground...

Up on the bookcases. It's not pretty or perfect yet, but it is a great beginning. 

I am just glad the piles are off the floor!

House Tour Tab

You might not have noticed, but I have been working on a House Tour tab. It is located up by the Home and About Me tabs. Tab over and check it out.

It is not perfect yet, but I think it is a great start. It will be a much easier way to see each room in the house. I plan to continue working on it until each room has up-to-date pictures. But for now, enjoy!

New Dining Room Table

We finally did it! We made the switch to our new dining room table. I gave you a little hint about it at the end of this post. Here is the new table in all its glory.

If you remember, this is what the old table looked like.

The best part about replacing the old table with this one is that it was FREE!! The reason is because it is actually a desk.

Crazy right? A desk that is bigger then our old table. It was Alan's Grandfather's desk and Alan used it all through college. It is a heavy, solid wood desk that we had planned on using in the office.

Alan even stripped it and sanded it to get it ready for whatever stain we decided to put on it once we figured out the office. After we lived with it in there for 6 months, I thought it was really too big for the space.

But because of it's size, I thought that it might work as the kitchen table. When I told Alan this genius idea he informed me that his parents had used it for a dining table when he was growing up. I wish he had mentioned that earlier!

So we took it apart and moved it into the dining room. It fits perfect on the rug, but because it is longer and thinner then our old one, it seats six people a lot more comfortably.

I love the character of it. It needs some sanding, stain, and a protective coating since we will be eating on it. I do love the ebony stain that we had on the old table, but we might go with the same stain we used on the dresser.

Also, if you notice on the table, I got a white poinsettia!! We found this little one at Fresh Market. It worked perfect on the table out of the reach of Bennett.

The four corner legs on this table have also made eating with people easier. The old table was on a pedestal. It wouldn't have been as much of a problem if we had a formal dining room, but because this is all we have for eating we needed to maximize the space and this table definitely does.

The change also made my vision for the office come to life. I wasn't trying to work the desk into it anymore and could just start from scratch. That's when I came up with the office mood board from a few days ago. Isn't it crazy how things just work out perfectly sometimes? All I had to do was think of another use for something we already had and BOOM, all of our issues are solved. Perfection.