Rethinking my Office

I have had a home office for almost all my homeowner years...an office where the computer was stashed and so was most of our books, but I have never had a working home office, until last year when I retired from school.  I have been working in my home office for six months and I really disliked the space.  The furniture was lined up against the walls and a futon was placed in the room to make a second guest room.  After a year of living here, I realized I didn't need the futon and my husband and son-in-law moved it downstairs to the basement to our storm area.  That definitely helped the office's over all look, but still it needed work.

Our home was slated to be on our neighborhood Christmas homes tour.  The office was not ready!  In a panic I started researching bookshelves and I found some I loved, but it was the Monday before the tour, could I get them on time?

I placed the call to the shop and they assured me that they would go out the next day and be delivered by Wednesday.  You can probably guess what happened, Wednesday came and went, no shelves.  I called the shop, the shelves were in town, they'd be delivered the next day.  When I told my husband about it, he had serious doubts about whether he could get them set in place in time. I contacted one of his buddies to see if he could do it, but he was busy, too.  I cancelled the order.

Thursday while I was at work, I got a notification on my phone that my order had been delivered.  What??  Good grief, now I was going to have to try to get them returned before the open house as I didn't have a place to store them.  I called my husband who simply said, don't worry about it.  So I didn't.

Thursday night he stayed up to the wee hours of the morning and installed the shelving. 

I woke up as he was coming to bed, around 4 a.m.  I asked him what he had been doing and he said, installing your shelves! I ran upstairs to see them and they were awesome!  He had also carted up several boxes of books from the basement.  I had the books on the shelves and the mess cleaned up by the end of the day on Thursday, just in time for the housecleaner to come on Friday!  Whew!

Thursday night we faced the desk toward the door of the room and and instantly felt how "right" it was.  Feng shui, I believe that is called!  The tree was moved to the window and the room felt ready for the tour.

 

While my daughter was in town for the holidays, inbetween movies, road trips to the city, and mani/pedis/massages, we went downstairs to weed through boxes that hadn't yet been opened since the move in October 2013.  A couple of boxes have made their way to the office, and now I am looking at how I can incorporate those items into the office.

And now that the Christmas decor is gone...

 

The tweaking continues... I am looking for a rug, and a larger picture for behind my desk. I plan to move the printer to the corner table so it isn't the first thing you see when you come into the office. Truman loves his bed by my feet. I'd like to figure out a different way to plug in my computers. I love the overhead lighting by my desk but I am open to any ideas for improving the overall look and function of the office. I do not pretend to be even a novice at decorating, but it is something I really enjoy! Also, I've been exploring environmentally friendly practices, like recycling cash for toner cartridges.