Office Progress

In one year, we have turned this:

April 2012

Into this:

April 2013

Things move at warp speed around our house!

We still need to sand, paint and install hardware...

Amy

I ♥ comments...

Shelves, Shelves, Desk, Shelves

As I mentioned, we now have shelves in the hallway closet. They have been installed for quite sometime but I still can not quite motivate myself to cram myself into the closet to finish painting them.

In the office, Dave has reworked the floating shelves so that we are now confident they can support a full load of books without crashing down on his precious iMac.

Originally I had envisioned them white but the walnut veneer turned out so well on the fireplace mantel, we decided to try walnut veneer on the shelves as well.

It did not turn out well on the shelves.

Very purple and very cracked. We are going to give it one more shot before we give up and paint the shelves white.

Dave has also begun installing the custom desk base. The desk top is the only original six-panel door that was remaining in the house when we bought it. We restored it several years ago and had a custom glass top cut. 

Dave has now modified the door to fit around the chimney. We bought a glass cutter hoping to cut the glass top to match. After several failed practice cuts on old picture frame glass, we abandoned the idea and (very carefully) hauled the glass to a professsional glass cutter.

Since he was on a roll, Dave also tackled the floating shelves for the nook in the spare bedroom. These shelves will be painted white since it is a darker corner.

We have plans to build a desk in the nook as well. Sometime down the road.

A long time down the road.

Amy

Office Progress

Yes I said progress. I know things have been slow around here. Life and our real jobs have been getting in the way.

But we have made some progress on the office recently.

Dave was able to pick up the bases for the built in desk before he took off for a week of backcountry skiing. I got the pleasure of staying at home to start painting it.

Dave has also been plucking away at the custom floating shelves that go over the desk. There will eventually be three.

However I am not convinced that the current design will stand up to a full load of books.

Not like I know anything about structural load capacity or anything.

Just saying.

Amy

PS Just because it is impossible to take photos in our house with out someone getting in the way...

A Little Colour

I finally broke down and decided maybe I should paint at least one wall in the house something other than white... 

The Powderface colour still looked to brown against the grey and white tile in the bathroom so it became the obvious choice for introducing some "colour". I chose General Paint's "Monday Morning" CL3011W which prompted Dave to call me from the paint store in a rant... "you promised me that you had picked a colour for the bathroom, you must have wrote it down wrong because I am looking at the paint and it is white..."

In fact it was not white but a soft grey. Thankfully this time he had the patience to wait until the whole room was painted and was quick to admit that it was not white and was the perfect colour for the bathroom.

I managed to do a little better with the "colour" for the feature wall in the office... almost as far away from white as you can get! Trying to pick a colour to compliment the red brick that will go on the chimney, Dave and I both quickly gravitated to a deep blue-grey. We settled on "Joe Batts Arm" CH094 from General Paint's Historic Canadiana series (apparently Joe Batts Arm is a town in Newfoundland). 

That is as brave as I get with colour for awhile... the next task is picking the carpet "colour"... white of course!

 Amy

I ♥ Sarah

I am not the type of person who is into celebrities, I have never had a favorite musician or actor. But ever since Design Inc. I have been a HUGE fan of Sarah Richardson. Must have something to do with our common love of neutral colour palettes...

Sarah has recently released a line of paint in conjunction with Para Paints available at Lowes. The line features 75 colours which make me wish I had more rooms in my house to paint... and that I wasn't so adamant about having white walls!

Sarah Richardson Paint

Even with my white walls obsession, I could see one of these colours potentially finding a home on the inner front door.

Ocean Liner

Flame

Spring

Sapphire

Orchard

Escape

Or possibly as the accent colour behind the desk in the office...

Robin's Egg

Lichen

We are still along way from painting walls but in the mean time I will continue dreaming of making my home as "Sarah" as possible.

Amy

Office Inspiration

Dave has requested that the office be designated as his "mountain room" so that he has a place to display photographs of our hiking, skiing and climbing adventures. Looking for inspiration for a theme to tie the ever changing photo collection together, I started to search for vintage ski posters. So far these two are the leading contenders.

Ete Hiver Chamonix Mont-Blanc Print

Ski Canadian Rockies Print

Dave has also asked that at least one wall in the house be painted something other than white so my compromise will be the wall behind the built-in desk. Right now I am flipping between a light green or rich orange to compliment the posters or a deep gray or even black for a more dramatic look. The orange is my favorite but I am scared it will blend too much with the red brick veneer that will be on the chimney beside the desk.


    



Mountain Road, Supreme Green, Peppery from Sherwin Williams

 

IXL Durham Brick Veneer

DecorPad

I am still searching for inspiration for the photo wall but want to find a gallery system that will easily allow us to swap out photos and frames as the collection changes.



Gallery Frames, Pottery Barn

Studio Wall Easel, Pottery Barn

AS Hanging Systems



It will still be months before I can even start to decorate but in the meantime I can continue to dream!

Amy