Since in haven’t ordered the curtains I wanted for the art room yet, I have enjoyed daydreaming about other rug and curtain options. Especially when my mom, sister and I spend the better part of an afternoon emailing about inexpensive rug options for my sister’s 500sqft apartment that she’s moving into in April (design board of that coming soon). I like to imagine that my art room is the fair-haired cousin to Sara @ Russet Street Reno’s art room (because her art room is dead sexy and I like thinking of myself in the same sentence as her since her house is amazing. Have you seen her woman cave? Love!) Truthfully though, our art room is a messy mish-mash of styles and no where near as awesome as Sara’s turned out.
Since I am already in love with Urban Outfitter’s Woodland Garden curtains and I know I like natural fiber rugs I am considering this sisal rug from Overstock. Initially I thought that a 5×8 rug would fit, and was going to go with the Ikea Tarnby that y’all know I love so much, but then I did a test fit with the 4’4 x 6’5 Ikea Gislev we have on my side of our bed (because the measuring tape is in the shed and I am lazy) and realize that a 5×8 would be WAY too big.
Then I realized that the vision I had for the art room is a bit girly, and since Robert uses the computer in art room’s closet for watching YouTube and looking up parts for the CJ-7 homework I should probably make the space gender neutral. Plus, I would need to shorten my beloved Woodland Garden curtains from the top (since they don’t come in a 63″ length) or the patterned part would hang behind the Ikea Jonas desk (although ours is white) we use as a project table. Though Robert liked the idea of the Woodland Garden curtains too and shortening them is not a big deal, I figured we should probably take the opportunity to make the art room/office a shared space, rather than just my taste. I considered wussing out using the same curtains from the library, but I didn’t want to use the same statement-making curtains in more than one area (which is why we’re going to stencil curtains rather than use those for the living room, too, actually). I figured picking a color to paint the closet would be a good starting place. Since the room is already a bit of a bold color (Valspar’s Reflection Pond) we knew it needed to be bold so that it stood out. Robert’s favorite color is red, but since I didn’t want to paint any part of our house fire engine red we decided a slightly more muted color might work best. I was thinking something coral-y without too much pink and Robert agreed.
I looked through my old Pottery Barn Colors paint decks and found a color called Morrocan Spice by Benjamin Moore in the Spring 2010 one. We will probably match it to Valspar, since we love their paint (and it’s cheaper). Then I found fabric that was similar to the curtains we both love in the library and took advantage of a sale that made it $5.58 a yard (with a 15% off coupon code from Retail Me Not on top of that). Buying fabric sight unseen is probably a bad idea, but I ordered online-only curtains and they were awesome, so much finger-crossing is going on about the fabric. I’m thinking that a natural weave rug is still the way to go (especially with the busy curtains).
The closet office is currently rocking this bungee chair I’ve had since high school, and a shower curtain (image from Urban Outfitters, ours is from Target and came with hooks) that we bought to use for something on the back porch but are making due with since we took the bifold doors down. After the fabric I ordered arrives we’ll pick out something to make a closet curtain. The desk surface is an Ikea Vika table top and L-brackets (which was about $15 total), but it doesn’t span the entire closet (we were going to put shelves on one side), we made it a little too high to work comfortably and we feel like it’s going to come crashing down when we lean our arms on it (although the L-brakcets will hold up just fine). The closet is just over 8 feet long (97 inches) and 24 5/8 inches deep, but the longest Vika surface is only about 80 inches long, so we’ll need to DIY a work surface with something from Lowe’s or Home Depot that coordinates with the Jonas desk.
Swivel chair image from here, basket image from here
To go with the paint colors, fabric and rug mentioned above we are thinking about:
- Swivel Chair – We have a chair in the shed that I rescued from the side of the road that I’m hoping to refinish and use in place of the bungee chair.
- Other Chairs – I think that the Crate&Barrel Delta could be a good option for two other chairs; they are certainly easier on the wallet than trying to find two Emeco Heritage chairs, but a bit more than we want to spend. We may just end up redoing the fabric and/or color on the existing chairs.
- Desk – As I mentioned, we have to DIY a desktop and in looking for legs for the closet desk I found the Vika Moliden legs that would coordinate with the Delta/Emeco chairs.
- Shelving & Storage – Over the desk I’d like to put a shelf similar to Ikea’s Lack shelves with storage boxes or baskets.
Is anyone else thinking about how to organize their home office space?
Hernando House 