Wednesday – Well just Wednesday: Budget Office Make Over Part I
I am so sorry that I posted about Tri Coast and then went MIA for a week or more! I still can not wait to get my hands on their book!
However, my absence was due to a major project that is still under way at my home. For most of the past three weeks my office has been torn apart and was under construction. It is still a work in progress, but I now have a desk, which means my computer now has a home.
This is not just an office renovation, it is creating a my creative workspace on a budget. I will first give you some history as to why I wanted to do this and why it had to be NOW!
The process started when I had to move everything out to clean the carpets, which seems simple enough. I could just move everything out and then back again, losing my office and sanity for about two days. However, I then realized I had the perfect chance to redefine my space. I could paint the walls and redo the workspace so it meet my current needs. I also realized that this was not something I could tackle on my own, so I hired my neighbor and friend who is an interior designer to help me create the perfect workspace, on a budget.
The first step was to pick the wall color as we could not move anything back into the office until the painting was done. We sat down one night and picked a lovely blue — Benjamen More Blue Gossamer to be exact. Then we decided on two accent colors (more on those later). After we picked the colors we discovered they were similar if not matches to the colors in my logo — something must be calling me to this color combination. The next day I bought two gallons of paint for the walls and two accent colors in a sample size, total cost $60.
Once the painting was underway we had to plan the desk, which was the biggest reason to redo the office. I had a small corner desk that had worked well for me for years, but it was no longer an efficient set up for my current work style. The desk area needed to provide a work space for not just my computer, but also a place to package up and prepare client orders and be the general “in” box for our busy family.
We considered several options, most of which either had my work area boxed in or were not feasible budget wise. The final plan we arrived at was to use solid core doors at right angles to each other to make an L shaped desk. I discovered a local lumbar yard that had scratch and dent doors for $25 each, making my desk roughly $75 once we purchased stain and legs and edging to trim the face of the doors once they were mounted.
Now the next step is to create storage and start to go through and organize the mess of papers, books and other things I have accumulated over the years. I have to figure out under desk storage for these items so that I use the available space wisely. Let me know if you have any suggestions for storage under the desk!
Here are images of the beginning of my new creative space, while the desk was being built. I will grab a photo this week of the computer in it’s new home. As I sit here there are a few things I know we need to do, move the printer below the desk (if we can), get a keyboard tray and maybe a better office chair, get my wacom tablet set up and ready to go. Next week I will update you any office progress – and the adventures we had in buying a new computer!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 7:23 am and is filed under General Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
