Journey to an Inspiring Work Studio (Part 2)

My home office is in full on, unpacking and organizing mode! A daunting task, as you'll see from the pictures, but we're making some sort of progress. Don't forget to check out Part 1 of my journey to an inspiring workspace, found here.

So far, things aren't very inspiring, but here's where we stand:

Still a complete wreck; but boxes are starting to be emptied, which is a good sign.


I've invested in a couple of new furniture pieces for the room.  I carefully selected these, after many *many* hours of shopping around, for their quality construction, price, and functionality.  It's always been difficult for me to buy new furniture, especially considering that most of my business is hunting down and refinishing older, vintage pieces, but these guys were perfect for what I need, and saved me a lot of work.  They are also quality pieces;  I can see myself holding on to them for years to come, so it made the purchasing of *new* furniture a little bit easier to swallow...

• The Desk:A new desk was the first thing I really needed; something that could be used to save space, if the situation warranted it, yet still had a large work area.  I already have a small, fold-down sewing/craft table; so I was looking for something more where I could work on painting my larger signs, stenciling pillow covers, and cutting larger pieces of fabric.

I opted for this drafting desk from World Market (which, by the way, is on sale right now for only $139!!! A steal for a desk of this quality and size!!):

What I really liked for my purposes was the fact that it can fold up flat like a table, open at an angle (perfect for painting signs and smaller items), or fold down flat for storage, if needed.  And it's completely gorgeous!

• The Bookshelf:  I also needed (and wanted) a really large bookshelf for storage.  In my old workspace, I had everything scattered between different areas, so I need something that will hold most of my paint, fabrics, and tools all in one place.  Since I'd already found the desk that I loved at World Market, I ended up going with the Emerson Bookshelf from there as well. 

It is also on sale right now, and though still expensive, much less than it's counterparts from other places I looked, and it's spacious.  At 44" width and 71" height, I'm hoping that it's going to hold most of my materials.

I've already unpacked my paints, which all fit perfectly on one shelf!

• The Rug: The last big purchase (which wasn't that big ) was an area rug.  I needed something that was around 8'x10' to cover most of the carpet in the room and help protect it from spills and splatters (remember, we're in a rental condo, and I need my deposit back!).  Turns out, I have really expensive taste in area rugs :-/   Even my "go-to" store, Home Goods, ran at least $300 for rugs of that size.  Waaaay to expensive for me to justify all of the paint that it's bound to get on it.  So, I ended up ordering this rug from Walmart:

I love the colors and bold pattern, and at only $90 for an 8'x10', I figure I'll be okay if it gets a few stains.  Since I have so many darker wood grain furniture pieces in the room, I'm hoping that this will brighten things up a bit and start to bring the room together from a design aspect. Lately, I've been really feelin' yellow, which is odd because it used to be one of my least favorite colors...but I've decided that little pops of it around can really add a fresh and cheerful touch to a room! 

 By the time I check in next week, hopefully we'll be starting to see the "organization" part of my studio come together a little bit better!