Meet the Office

Well, I fiiiiinally put the finishing touches on my office the other day, so I thought it was high time to share the results. As you might know from my home tour post, this particular room has been a major work in progress for months. Partly because I had to paint almost every surface in it with multiple coats, partly because it was my bridal show booth construction zone for a long time, and partly because it doubles as the room where I store all my clothes and other junk and I’m really bad about leaving piles of pajama pants on the floor every day. But today, I actually cleaned it up, so I figured there was no better time to snap a photo or two and share with you what my work space looks like approximately 3% of the time.

If you’ve gotten to know my style at all from following this blog, the design should come as no surprise. One part modern, one part retro, one part crazy bright colors, one part sleek black and white accents… it’s totally me. As I’ve noted several times recently, I’ve undergone an evolution in figuring out what my aesthetic is. After looking at FAR too many other photographers’ blogs, I dabbled in some shabby chic, some sterile high-class neutrals, and everything in between. But ironically, once I realized that none of that was REALLY my style, I ended up with a room that looks almost identical to my bedroom in high school. Seriously. Same shade of aqua walls, green accents, magazine clippings and records plastered all over the walls, etc. So this? This is about as “me” as it gets. I guess some things never change. :)

Pretty much all the furniture is from IKEA. The shelving unit (which is actually three shelves stacked on top of each other) and the dresser were originally the same black-brown color as the desk top because they were part of our bedroom set, but when I decided to use them in the office, I found that they were much too dark and depressing. So I thought, hey, why not paint them white? Well, FOUR COATS OF WHITE PAINT later, they look exactly like the white versions that IKEA also sells. Le sigh. The sofa is from Urban Outfitters. It’s not the most well-constructed thing, but hey…. it was pretty inexpensive and it was exactly the style and color I wanted, so I went for it. I got the little shag rugs at Big Lots. I wanted a big rectangular one, but couldn’t find one ANYWHERE that wasn’t $800, so I’ll settle for these for now. :)

Chalkboard wall! Yay! When I first painted this, Jamie got home from work and was all, OHMYGOSH, are you trying to recreate Dwight’s office? (See the episode of The Office called “The Job.”)

A little collection of magazine inspiration. To remind me that wedding photographers’ blogs are not the end-all-be-all to the photography world. :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Let me know if you ever want to stop by. :)