Woman in Real Life

As back-to-school time approaches, I'm looking forward to returning to my regular work-from-home routine. I'll miss the easier days of summer and the warm weather outings with the kids, but I also crave the renewed sense of focus that fall brings. You might have noticed my reduced presence on the blog and in social media. That will change! In preparation for a productive fall of freelance writing and blogging, I gave my home office a lovely overhaul, with the help of Wayfair.ca.

The Before

My home office is located in the front of our house, within the living room space. Prior to this home office makeover, I was using my grandmother's antique gateleg table as a desk. Although I love that it's a piece of family history, it wasn't ideal as a desk. And it made the space too dark. Of course, the space was also cluttered and, let's face it, downright messy.


The great thing about a room makeover (besides the end results) is it gives you an opportunity (or forces you) to give the room a really good cleaning. As you can see, above, my home office was in dire need of a thorough cleaning. My husband and I did everything from dusting cobwebs off the ceiling to wiping the baseboards to washing the window (inside and out) to vacuuming and cleaning the hardwood flooring.

The First Rule of Organizing 

The first rule of organizing is that everything must have a place. Whenever organizing goes off the rails in this house (and it happens fairly frequently) it's because somebody doesn't know where to put something. Hence the regular pile-ups of miscellaneous items on the kitchen counter. In the past, there were times when the entire dining room table was covered with dishes and other assorted things that didn't have a home. Since our big dining room makeover, I try to make sure that doesn't happen. It's such a happy space for me. Glancing over there now though, I see a hammer and a box of various picture hanging nails on the dining room table. We need to get pictures hung and get those tools put away!

In the cluttered "Before" shot of my office, you can see I had stuff jammed between the wall and the filing cabinet. I gave some thought to where to relocate items in a way that makes sense. For example, I relocated my "happy lamp" and portable heater to the off-season coat closet in the basement. Of course, relocating one item often leads to more work. We decided to go through the coat closet to get rid of hats and gloves that the kids no longer wear. Organizing is a long and ongoing process, especially when you have kids. You can also see a jumble of cords in the "Before" photo. In addition to the visible jumble, we had boxes of computer disks and manuals. I enlisted my husband's help to identify cords and dispose of items we no longer need. I want everything in my office space to be either necessary or wanted. (Needed would be a bit too limiting for this girl.)

The first item I picked out for my refreshed home office space is this gorgeous Willowbrook Writing Desk. In the past, I often bought random furniture and decorative pieces just because I liked them. Over this last year, I've followed much more of a "bigger picture" approach. Overall, now that the kids are bigger, we're going for a more sophisticated yet still comfy space. We also like pops of vivid colour, a blend of old and new pieces and rustic accessories.

This desk suits my vision for our space in that it is sophisticated and has an antique look. I love the curved legs and the antique bronze drawer pulls and stretcher bar. The three drawers are great for providing storage space and helping me keep desktop clutter to a minimum. In that regard, we decided to relocate the desktop computer to the basement. I use my laptop more often anyway. And the desk has so much more usable space without a bulky desktop computer.


Choosing curtains was a bit of a challenge. We had white sheer drapery before and in the end we decided to replace the curtains with something similar. There's not a lot of light coming in the front of the house, so we wanted to make the best of what there is. Also, when the doorbell rings we tend to peek through the window to see who is there. I chose these inexpensive Lindsey Embroidered Nature/Floral Semi-Sheer Rod Pocket Curtain Panels. The curtains are white with embroidered ivory foliage, so they help tie together the white couch and the ivory desk and shag rug.


To accessorize, I used items we already had, such as the pink-framed photo of the kids, the white lamp with black and white floral shade, a teal desk fan and a crystal salt lamp (to generate negative ions).


I also picked out some dark pink gerbera daisies to add cheer to my desk space.




On the left side of my desk is this rustic table, which has a drawer to hold business cards and cords. I also stacked a few black boxes underneath to hold tape, labels, markers and computer cables.


Jolene likes my new office space too, although I have been discouraging her from obsessively licking my new pink area rug!


In keeping with my renewed autumn focus, I made up a quick adhesive gold foil "Write" decal on my Cricut for my black and white mug. It will (hopefully) inspire me in those moments (or days!) of procrastination.