Office Chaos

We knew from the beginning of planning this house that we wanted a designated office space. It was particularly important that it be close to the entryway so if any of Andy's seed clients had to come over it would be convenient to meet with them without trapesing through the whole house.

I'm just going to bite the bullet and show you this space now rather than after projects are completed, because in all honesty it will be years. We have always had a vision of what we've wanted to do, but when you have a whole house to tackle, you have to prioritize and some things just get shoved lower on your list. Right now this room is downright dreadful looking.

Here is our office space.. with no staging.. (I also really need a camera because these photos are pathetic)

Try not to look at all the crap. Office storage is clearly an issue, and this room has become a dumping ground of sorts. Every piece of furniture in this space is old and only about 5% functional. They are all fine for now but hopefully in a few years, none of this is here.

Let's start with the filing issue. Andy and I are both really into maintaining organization. It's really hard to do that when you don't have a good system. The filing cabinets that we do have are already full of random things, so they don't really get used. Not to mention they are just plain ugly. We will need a LOT of filing cabinets to satisfy our filing/organizing needs, and I want them to be pretty. This is why this project will have to wait. Even the ugly and junky filing cabinets are an investment, and I don't want to spend the money when I know we want to replace them before we even bring them home.

Let's move onto the desks..

I like the desk that I use because it's so large. It was perfect in college because I had other storage solutions and my desktop was always clean. However, it doesn't have any drawers, so all of the papers and junk are visible and create so much eye clutter. It looks like a paper shredder threw up in here. Everything is just sitting on top of the desk taunting me.. I get so frustrated while I'm in here.

Andy's desk is I guess a little functional. He uses this computer for gaming and also has our financial software on here. I like the slots at the top because we can easily store stamps, envelopes, paper, etc. But again, this is a cheap laminate desk that is old and ugly. Since we each have desktop computers, two desks have been necessary. I'd really like to ditch one in the future, but for now two will have to do.

As far as the design of the room, there is none. I bought the cheap red curtains at Target, because Andy is in the office mostly at night. It's creepy to not have curtains when it's dark outside, so we totally settled for these as a temporary solution. (I really hate doing that, but again we probably won't get to this room for a while). I have an obsession with office organizing products, so as soon as we get the big things complete I will be going to town on that stuff.

For now here is our to-do list:

1. Built in wall of file cabinets and bookshelves opposite of doorway.
2. New desk(s)
3. Create reading nook in front window with chaise lounge or comfy chair (prob can't be done until we ditch the second desk)
4. New, colorful window curtains
5. Wall decor
6. New desk chair(s)