HOME TOUR // THE OFFICE

Guess who only has one final to go before she's DONE WITH LAW SCHOOL (caps necessary) !?!? THIS GIRL! The only relevance to that statement now is it means I have a smidge more free time tonight between finishing my ADR final, and starting to outline for Family Law. Hence, 3 days in a row of posting. Lookout! 

I realize it's been a while since I've done any "home" posts, so I figure I'd start assembling some home tour posts, highlighting one room a post. Deal? Deal. SO, you may remember back from this post what the office looked like when we moved in. Granted there was no baby furniture, but the room was lemon yellow, the desk was in the middle of the room, and the only art we had was the gallery wall you'll see below. Hated it. 

One weekend when M was in NYC with his mom and sisters (a Christmas gift from her to them) I redid the office by myself. Yep, everything you see below I did myself. :) 

[warning: if it looks like this room is straight from a Pinterest board, that's because it is. I got the paint idea, all the art ideas, and the paper flower ideas all from Pinterest. You may continue]

Let's begin the tour! Here's a shot looking into the office from the hallway/guest room doorway: 

 That's a Pier 1 desk and chair (no idea how much they cost, M's mom got them for us as housewarming gifts). The couch was a hand-me-down from M's mom's friend (an assistant U.S. Attorney) so it was worth a ton and looked brand new. We really didn't have anywhere to put it but there was no way I was convincing M to turn down a pristine expensive couch. Those 3 mirrors are from IKEA.. maybe $3 a pop. Pillow with a map design was also IKEA, under $10 for sure. I started with the base color and then measured all around the room and taped off to paint the stripe. Before the paint dried, I removed the tape and ta-da: clean lines!

This is inside the room, looking against the opposite wall. You can get a sense of orientation from the couch in the corner there. Bookshelf with books and photos, a cigar box (wedding party gift for M), etc. You can see our 2 extra dining room chairs as well. This is the "cat's wall"- the cat bed he HATES for whatever reason, water dish and food bowl. Had to put food and water separate because he'd constantly flip his food dish looking for more food. water. EVERYWHERE. Last, is my "Minnesota String Art. "

 Here's a close up of the art. Definitely Pinterest inspired! I bought a cork board from IKEA, and sketched out in pencil very lightly the outline of the state. From there, I used finishing nails and gently hammered them in about a half inch apart, including a heart shape near the Twin Cities (aka home). I bought string at Michael's, tied off one end, and started weaving it around all the nails. Turned out fantastic! I had the nails, so with the string and board this was a $15 project max.

 Above the couch is our gallery wall. The bottom 4, and the 2 middle, are all maps. Maps of places we've lived or visited. Top left is my grandpa's law degree I got after he passed away in February of 2011. Top right, second from the end, is the certificate my great grandpa got when he was sworn in to argue before the United States Supreme Court. For those who may not know, this is a HUGE, HUGE honor. A VERY small fraction of attorneys ever get to do that. Far right is a giraffe I drew onto the page of a novel I tore out. Saw it on Pinterest, loved the way it looked. Looks way better up close and not blurry..haha.

 Here's the desk area. That stack of books are my bar exam review materials. (yes, barf). Calendar, BarBri schedule pinned to the cork board, and you can't really see but I made paper flowers out of novel pages and pinned them on that last cork board (which were actually hot pads I got at IKEA, haha). Shelves ($20) and the fake little potted plants ($15) are from Target.  photo on the bottom shelf is grandma and grandpa at my parent's wedding. Top shelf is a photo of my grandpa from his days in the legislature in a shadowbox with flowers from his funeral. To say my grandpa was influential in getting me where I am today is an understatement. I'll have to post on that soon..

Straight on shot of the shelves. You can kinda see the paper flowers better here. 

 And lastly, TJ's corner of shame. The old setup had the litterbox out in the open and I hated it. This way unless you come all the way into the room you can't really see it.

aannnddd that's our office! We're getting new granite installed tomorrow (!!!) so stay tuned for a kitchen tour in the near future!

-Kelly