My Office, or How I'm incapable of remembering to take Before Photos.

Ok, so in my last post I talked about... well a lot of stuff.  Sorry it was so long!  But more specifically, my office where I set up my work desk and my craft table, but I also wanted to get a comfy chair in here somewhere.  Well, last night during one of my breaks at work, I was browsing Facebook, and in one of my groups, one of the ladies who's in her late 20s was showing off a corner of her office space where she had a big cushion or futon mattress and a bunch of pillows in a corner with curtains around it and Christmas lights along the top as well which made it looks like a sweet girl cave/fort space. I was instantly inspired!  And frustrated.

I knew what I wanted to do, but the way my office is configured was making it so difficult to figure out. Like I'd said before, my craft table is under my loft bed. What I didn't mention is that there's also a ton of other stuff in here, with not a lot of room to move anything to a different place.The struggle I was having was trying to figure out how to make it work at all.  Ideally I wanted to have the "fort" under the loft.  It seemed the most logical spot wince I could attach curtains and Christmas lights to it and not have to deal with attaching anything to the ceiling, and I just liked the idea. Alternatively, I could make it in the corner of my office to the right of my desk where the bookshelf is and the closet door is. That just seemed less than ideal.

Then I had this idea to take off the closet door!  That brought all these new ideas, but it was going to mean a lot of moving and finding a space for the stuff in the closet (all of Faelyn's storage stuff from her old room).  But I still wasn't sure about the placement of anything.

But then it hit me!  I measured, and lo and behold it was the exact size!  The craft table would fit IN the closet. I'd seen lots of little closets converted into cute little office spaces before and always wanted to do that, but never had a place to do it, and now I had my chance, AND it would free up the under-loft space!

There were SO MANY boxes to move!  All of Rhiannon's storage stuff was still in a pile toward the back of the top of the loft, so I had to shove that into a semi organized stack, and then start unloading the closet onto the top of the loft. I put a big "F" on each box so I'd know which ones were Faelyn's. I knew I wanted to keep spaces up there for the cats to hang out since they love it so much, and it was like playing Tetris, but I think it turned out ok, and cat-friendly. Porchie has already taken a nap on two of the boxes, and he can walk across the whole thing, so I think it's good.

Then I had to clear off the craft table and move it in there.  Thankfully it's a 2x4 ft folding table from Walmart, so pretty easy to put in there and then set it up inside the closet. Put my craft stuff back on it and even the lamp cord reached around the side of the closet to a plug, so there's a happy glow coming from my cute little closet craft corner. I have some little shelves I'm going to put on the wall over it which I couldn't really do when it was under the loft, so I like that.

After that I still had to measure and figure things out.  I could have sworn the mini fridge would fit perfectly under the loft desk, but I didn't notice the metal bar that ran along the bottom of it as a support.  It made it 1/4 inch too low for the fridge to go under! That was very aggravating, but I did have an AHA! moment when I realize the space under the window was the perfect fit for the rabbit cage.  That helped a LOT.

So, now I have space under the loft bed for a nice comfy chair that I don't yet have, and my craft table is in a closet, and the rabbit cage finally found a home.  Not bad for a few hours on my night off work.

But of course, I didn't take ANY before photos.  BUT  I do have some from when I first converted the room to my office the last week of August.

The dresser just inside the doorway.  Microwave isn't sitting there anymore.

The under-loft desk. Before Rhiannon moved out and took her chair and other stuff, it took up some space in here.  Where that chair is sitting is basically where the craft table used to be.  It was along that wall under the loft up against the loft desk.

Looking back at the doorway from the desk. Mattress standing up on the left

And looking at the desk from the doorway. I finally just put that mattress in the shed.  If we need it, we'll just get it out of there.

And now, the "During" pics.  It won't be "after" until I get my new-to-me chair and put up curtains (maybe) and Christmas lights.   Please note, I did not clean off my desk or anything to make these pretty.  This is real life.

Looking into the room from the doorway.

Looking into the closet now.

A little close up of the closet craft area.

The wall the closet and door are on.

Porch Cat!

This loft is out of control.  I do hope to get into the shed soon and see what kind of space is available and put stuff out there.

Under the loft now.  I REALLY wish the fridge would fit under that loft desk, but it's okay sitting there.  I'll be able to reach the fridge from my new chair when I get it, and I can put a lamp on it.

And this is where the chair will go. That filing cabinet (the one Porch Cat was sitting on) can move over next to my desk if I need to make more room for the chair, but I thought having two flat surfaces for journals and planners and drinks and stuff would be nice anyway.

So, that's where we are now. I'm hoping to go to some used furniture and thrift stores tomorrow to look around.  Maybe the antique store downtown too. I saw the PERFECT chair there once.  I wish I'd gotten it.  I regret it to this day.

Well, I am worn out from all this moving of boxes and furniture and cleaning up after the rabbit, so I'm gonna go ahead and post this even though I just posted one.  I'll be ahead! I think when I get the office all done (well the fort anyway - still have painting and flooring to finish later on,) I'm going to do a house tour.  For those of you who read this, would you prefer just a blog post with photos, or a video walking through the house, or both?  Leave me a comment and let me know!