Office |

Organizing Life {Gift Wrapping Station}

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Amy

I finally did it…I organized my gift wrap into one place. I pulled everything together in my office armoire.

I have used this armoire in my office for many years. I do graphic design and used to have a business designing wedding invitations {you can see my old office here} so I have paper, paper and more paper to store. Now that I focus more on blogging and less on weddings, I was able to free up this space to create an organized spot for all things “wrapping” related.

Through this process it made me think that it’s not just organizing what you have to stay sane, it’s making sure you have what you need. I am due for a stop at Hobby Lobby–hands down the best place to buy wrapping paper–but I pulled together all the other supplies like tape, scissors and ribbon into this space as well.

So much less anxiety at birthdays now!

I labeled the drawers and stored all my tissue paper, ribbons and cards.

I used this plastic set of drawers I have had forever in the other side. I covered the fronts with scrapbook paper and just mod-podged the paper on. I admit that the small floral print is making me crazy {it may get changed} but it’s what I had on hand. Yes, more chalkboard labels, they are changing my life! {I order them HERE}.

The extra drawer space that got filled with other crafty supplies like paint and glue.

I used a simple tension rod to hang some of the ribbon. In my old office I had hung gift bags off the built-in hooks but that never worked very well. If I needed one bag, I had to take them all down to get it, then tediously put them all back up. Now I store them in one of the boxes in the cubbies in my desk right next to this armoire.

It took me a bit of thinking to figure out how to store the rolls of wrapping paper. I remembered I had this tall, narrow box from IKEA and it fit perfectly. It contains the tall rolls and uses up the little bit of extra space along the side of the cabinet perfectly.

Years ago I painted the inside of the door with chalkboard paint, I used it to keep the wedding projects I was working on organized. Now it’s the perfect spot to keep up with all the coming birthdays and gifts I need to buy.

And, it’s so nice that I can just close it up when I don’t need to use any of it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Crafts, Office, Organization | Tagged craft closet, Craft Room, gift, Office, organization, organizing life, wrapping station | 9 Comments

A Tale of Two Chairs

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Amy

Hello! It’s finally feeling like summer vacation around here…my kids are out of school and we just finished two great (but tiring) weeks of VBS so I am finally, after a long break, getting back to some DIY projects around the house.

Today I am sharing two chair makeovers I recently completed. I say ‘completed’ because the first one was more then a year in the making and I finally finished. You can tell you aren’t loving a project when it takes that long to finish it– apparently upholstering just isn’t my thing. Though, it also might have had something to do with the hundreds and hundreds of staples that needed to be forcibly pulled out of the chair after I ripped the fabric off?

Regardless, its a huge improvement and had I known I would be so glad to have it finished, I would have done it sooner.

So, here is the before of this lovely golden beauty.

I had a set of these chairs, but the yellow colored fabric never went with my house. I had bought both chairs at a model home furniture sale for $50. You see, once upon a time I had a job selling new homes and we were able to buy the furniture from the old models at next to nothing, a nice perk! I had given my friend Tracey one of the two chairs, which she made work nicely in her office {You can see her home HERE}, but the yellow just never worked in my house.

So, here is the new and improved version…

Over the last year I bought 3 different fabrics (a beige linen, and a brown zebra, and then the black and white I finally used) as I could never settle on how I thought it should look. This chair is in my office, in front of my computer, so it gets quite a bit of use.

You also get a sneak peak at my office in these pictures, I am finishing the room up {I just need to get the fabric and make the curtains} and then it will be done. Its been fun to work with a pure black and white color scheme, its a little more interesting then the cream/beige/white elsewhere in my home.

The second chair is my daughter’s chair at her little “art” area in my office, right next to my desk.

The chairs to her table didn’t survive our last move, so I picked up this little chair for her on my last trip to IKEA.

Christy has been quoted saying “There isn’t much I won’t stick a monogram on!”, I took a page from her book and ordered a vinyl monogram to jazz up her chair HERE.

She loves her chair and her art table, and its nice to have our separate ‘work’ spaces so close to each other.

Have you redone any furniture lately? I have a HUGE project just sitting in my garage that is next on my list, and I can’t wait to start on it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Projects & Printables | Tagged black and white, Chair, children's chair, diy, Monogram, Office, upholstery | 4 Comments

Tracey’s Home Tour {part two}

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Amy

We are back, as promised, with more of our friend Tracey’s pretty home. If you missed part one, click HERE to see her recent kitchen renovation.

She has such great style we took some pictures in some of her other rooms while we were there photographing the kitchen. We thought we needed to share a few more of her inspiring rooms.

This is her Living Room. She actually recovered her former gray couch with a white Ikea slipcover, and no, her original couch wasn’t from Ikea…with just some minor modification to the hidden parts of the slipcover, she made it work perfectly with her existing furniture.

She has decorated much of her room from finds at Target (like the chair) or Homegoods (the barrel sidetable shown above).

Love the pop of pink from the flowers mixing with the metallic green pillow, and here is a peak at their cute canine, Dash.

She recently (after we were there) got this great ottoman from where else? Target! She emailed us a picture so we could see the update, and here it is.

Here is the view into her Dining Room from the attached Living Room…

This was your standard, brass, builder light fixture. She sprayed it black, added shades and a sparkly cord cover. Huge difference!

She has a talent for mixing the same color scheme throughout her rooms, there are pops of the green from the kitchen color scheme in her gray, white and black dining room. She has great styling and pretty vignettes throughout her entire home.

Moving across the home to their home office, I LOVE this gray and orange space. I have to say, reading back I thought to myself I would never expected to say that I am a fan of that color scheme, but it really works. She worked with a passed-down loveseat and integrated the orange/peach tones with dark gray walls, classic white shelving and colorful artwork.

I wonder if she has anymore rooms for us to show!? Maybe she will have us back again

Thanks Tracey for allowing us into your home and to share it here at Magnolia Lane.

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Posted in DIY, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged Black and White Decor, Dining Room, Gray with Orange, green, home office, Home Tour, living room, Office, Target Decor | 8 Comments

Kids’ Learning Center Reveal

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Terry

I am so excited to reveal our Kids’ Learning Center as “Part 1″ of my Basement Office/Kids’ Learning Center/Craft Station Makeover. As some of you may recall, the gals at 11 Magnolia Lane listed out our 2012 Home Goals earlier this year and I am thrilled to mark this off the list. I guess I cannot mark it completely off my list at I am still working through the details on My Office (Part 2) and the Craft Station (Part 3) but that just gives us something to look forward to . We really have come so far, check out what our basement used to look like (you can see more here).

Basement prior to installation

My husband and I couldn’t be happier with how the built-in desks and shelving turned out. Our contractor went above and beyond our expectations with the fancy sliding drawers that even close on their own. What a treat to have such quiet (and distraction-free) cabinetry.

Both our children have their own desk space for homework and projects. I personalized their space with their initials, photos and artwork. I love using their art to decorate my home. I think it is so important for kids to see their creative works on display, plus it adds some much needed color in this particular space.

I love the touch of green and the personalize art to add some color to our kids educational center

Pretty open shelving and I just love the work station sconces I found at Lowes.

We were on a serious budget with our remodel as we have two other expensive projects that we are trying to finalize prior to 2013 (check out our 2012 goals here). One of the main reasons we decided to do open shelving was to save money, with the hope of upgrading to cabinets next year. I have to say, I LOVE the open shelving and I cannot imagine changing them out now. These were custom-made by our contractor and I adore the style and design.

Pretty open shelving with work station sconces from Lowes.

I love the touch of green and how the personalized art adds some color to our kids educational center

My hubby’s main concern with open shelving was organization and clutter, which I can understand. It is hard to keep open shelving looking tidy without the proper storage containers and bins. I had to be very budget conscious with the project, so IKEA was my first stop, and I was lucky enough to have Amy shopping by my side for all my decorating dilemmas

The chairs and the storage boxes are all from IKEA. I am loving the chairs, even though it is not the dreamy designer chair I initially wanted. These are functional, adjustable, reasonably priced at $39 per chair, and simply perfect for our space. The storage boxes are also reasonable in cost, but they do take a bit of time to assemble. Once I figured out the instructions, it went pretty quickly. I love the black and white color scheme and IKEA really had lot of storage pieces to choose from. The black boxes are my favorite as they are heavy duty and have a fabric-like texture. I definitely feel so organized and tidy in our new space, which gives me such peace.

IKEA storage boxes, and tin containers for paint brushes and pencils

They jars were actually sprinkle containers that I repurposed for supplies

Kitchen utensil holders and jars are the perfet solution for color pencils and crayons, a must have in any kid space

I loved the idea of having a message board for each station so I found these great pieces of art from the local Salvation Army. I simply covered up the shoe & purse design with chalkboard paint and I love the final result–especially the green chalk initial. I ended up loving the black and white newspaper border and decided to keep as I thought it made the overall design more interesting.

Art I found at the local Salvation Army

Here is the final product…

Repurposed art turned into a chalkboard for our kids educational center

This is my favorite picture because my boys really love their new learning center. My youngest is heading to kindergarten next year which is breaking my heart but look at him work… I think he will be ready, don’t you?

Here is “L” hard at work writing his first and last name. Kindergarten here we come!!

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for your sweet comments about my son’s 7th camping themed birthday celebration. I am excited to announce the two winners for our Simone Made It Party Printables Giveway:

The winner is comment #4

Nicolle J. (who said)

“What a great party, Terry! Love all the details!
I would love some printables for my daughter’s November, election day, birthday. School is out that day and she has already decided that she’d like to have a Patriotic/Election themed party complete with a mock election.”

AND

The other winner is comment #8

Judiq (who said)

“I love that you even had logs around to have cut into cake stands.
Just celebrated my youngest son’s 18th birthday… no party…we treated him and a friend to a concert he really wanted to go that fell on his birthday. Now 18 is one that really takes your breath away and sets the waterworks flowing! Beautiful party..cupcakes look great!”

Thank you both for the kind words and I do hope you swing back and share how your next event(s) turn out.

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Best DIY Projects of 2012 Party at Southern Hospitality

Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Office, Organization | Tagged area, basement, homework, Ikea, Kids, Office, open shelving, redo, room, study, work | 18 Comments

My Master Bedroom & Sitting Room (aka the office!) Redo Reveal

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Christy

This has been a long time coming–I’ve actually had the room painted since January, as this was high on my list of home improvement goals for 2012, but I just didn’t have time to decorate the room because I kept getting derailed by, well, life!

We’re fortunate to have a really large master suite that includes a bedroom with vaulted ceiling, a sitting area, two walk-in closets, and an en suite bathroom. It’s almost 950 square feet, which is more than half the size of our first house, so I fully realize that we’re blessed with great space. I wasn’t convinced that we were using our space wisely, though, especially in the sitting area, which became more of a “treadmill room” and a catch-all for stuff that I was selling on Ebay and Craigslist.

When we bought the house, the whole area was painted a vivid shade of green apple. I loved this shade of green, but I loved it about ten years ago, and it was looking a little dated. Here are a few before pictures:

Check out that green!

I completely understood why the previous owners hadn’t repainted. The room is huge and the cathedral ceiling is about 16′ high, requiring an extension ladder (which I somehow have managed to survive without for all these years). What won out in the end is my feeling that I always neglect the master bedroom and it gets fixed up last when we move to a new house, and this time I wanted to make it nice and enjoy it for as long as we’re here.

I started with the bathroom, which I painted right before Christmas, because I didn’t have anything better to do (yeah, right). You can read all about that {here}. I love how it turned out, and I also love the color I chose for the walls, Benjamin Moore’s Pebble Beach. It looks gray on the paint chip, but it’s a blue gray on the walls. The cabinets in the bathroom are cherry, which I didn’t feel like painting after my kitchen redo {here}, and we also have a TON of cherry furniture in the bedroom that I also didn’t feel like painting, although it may happen one day if I can talk hubby into it. I’ve mentioned all that because, although I don’t really like dark wood anymore, I’m stuck with it in this space, so a pale blue is one of the best colors to set off the beauty of dark wood. You can see how it worked out in this picture of the bathroom:

Once I got all the Christmas stuff put away in January, I borrowed an extension ladder from our neighbor, bought two gallons of paint, and went for it. I covered everything but the closets (they are still on my to-do list and will be painted then). I also pulled down the flush mount ceiling light in the sitting room and replaced it with this chandelier I scored on Craigslist for $20. It was a rusty red when I bought it. I spray painted it white and added a ceiling medallion, a cord cover, and black shades that I found at Goodwill for $.99 apiece–can’t beat that!

After moving a few pieces of furniture around, I would up with half of the sitting room for my home office area and the other half for my treadmill and my husband’s armoire. The Barcelona chair in front of the window is the real deal–we have pictures of me when I was five years old sitting on this thing and there is also green shag carpet in the photos! It’s not my usual style, but it works in this room as a nice balance to the other furniture.

The white table and chairs were my mom and dad’s. I repainted them white about five years ago and recovered the chairs and enjoy them so much more now.

The little bookshelf below was a thrift store find. The tutorial on the chalkboard picture frame is {here}. The wire basket on the bottom shelf (from Target) holds my file folders, although I have fewer of them now that I have Pinterest! I love the polka dotted frame with the picture of me and my sweet goddaughter (Amy’s baby girl). When I see her picture, it reminds me to pray for her.

The infinity shelves were a freebie from a neighbor, but they sagged a bit when I hung them, so I bought corbels and hung them beneath. It was still less than buying or making shelves. The picture of me with my mom and son always takes the place of honor in every house. It’s been almost ten years since I lost my precious mother, and I love to look at her face and remember what an amazing gift she had for making others feel good about themselves.

I spent about $200 total on this room redo–mostly paint, curtain rods, and this black and white beauty. If you’re like my husband, you’re wondering WHY I needed a mannequin for my office? I’m not sure either, but I had to have her! She was $55 at Hobby Lobby.

Oh, of course, she can hold three necklaces to earn her keep! The cute white one is from Terry; she brought them to me and Amy when we had our fun girls’ weekend {here}.

I blog at the table, and find it very inspiring!

I was going to add black curtains with a white fretwork pattern, but even the ones at Target were $30 a panel. I had three pairs of gauzy white panels from Ikea (“Lill”) that I bought for $5 a pair and even though the color didn’t “pop” as much, I couldn’t justify the extra expense of the black panels. They do let in tons of light, though, and I love the way they puddle on the floor.

Since getting rid of the treadmill wasn’t an option because I actually use it I decided to do what I could to decorate the corner it takes up. I hung all my race medals from a hook and framed two Bible verses that are all about running (1 Cor. 9:24 and Hebrews 12:1-2). Hopefully they’ll give me inspiration as I knock out the miles!

**You can see the post and get your own free set of these printables HERE**

Moving into the bedroom, I have yet to add something above the bed; I am thinking about bringing down a tin-framed mirror from Pottery Barn that’s currently in the guest room, or something sparkly. Oh, and despite the fact that I have changed out several light fixtures for chandeliers in this room, please note that I left the ceiling fan above the bed in deference to my husband’s request!

The two sconces are from Ikea and I was so happy to hang them up and put away the lamps we had on our nightstands. They sell conduit at Lowe’s and Home Depot that can be painted to match your wall color, and then the cord just disappears.

Before conduit…

After conduit…

Here’s the view into the bathroom:

I’m so pleased with this room–it’s peaceful, calm, and soothing, just like a master “retreat” should be. And I’m even more pleased with the price, because for little more than the cost of paint (and my mannequin!), I managed to redo the room, proving that you don’t have to spend a fortune to update your space.

Happy Palm Sunday, and thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration, Master Bedroom, Office, Real Spaces | Tagged Bathroom, black and white, home, master bedroom, Office, redo, retreat, suite | 22 Comments

Thrift Store Letter Organizer and Mildred & Mable’s Giveaway Winner!

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Christy

Hey guys–sorry for the delay in posting the winner of the Mildred & Mable’s giveaway–Chris and I spent the weekend creating faux built in bookshelves in the master bathroom from an Ikea Billy bookcase (reveal coming soon, but of course I screwed up the coping on the crown molding and have to buy another piece before it’s all done and I can show the “after”).

Drumroll, please….Amy at A New Old House (comment #1), you are the winner of the Tokyo Milk hand cream and gorgeous ruby red ring! I sent you an email, so please reply with your address and I’ll ship that out to you ASAP. Can’t wait to hear what you think of it. And many thanks, once again, to Andrea at Mildred & Mable’s in Clarksville, TN, for providing the awesome goodies. We have another giveaway coming soon (enamel house numbers) so stay tuned!

And, because I don’t want to leave you without a little eye candy, here’s the cutest little letter organizer (or bill organizer, although that’s not as fun) that I found at Goodwill for $1.49. I added black vinyl numbers using my new Silhouette Cameo and I love how it turned out. It’s going to go in my master bedroom sitting area–I’m planning to carve out a tiny desk area.

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted in Before and After, DIY, giveaways, Organization | Tagged giveaway, Goodwill, Office, organization, thrift, vinyl | 8 Comments

Home Tour {Part 1}

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Amy

I have been working on photographing each room in my house for the purpose of providing photos to our real estate agent for when we put our house on the market in a few weeks, and more importantly, so we can remember this home by. {We are moving b/c of my husband’s job, and its a good thing, but we will miss where we currently live quite a bit, so its bittersweet}. I also want my children to have pictures to remember this house when they began to grow up. Two of them came home from the hospital here so its always going to have special memories for us.

So…here are some of the rooms. I have lots more work to do but here is a quick look at what is “ready” to grace Zillow, MRIS, Realtor.com etc. I know I only look at the houses for sale online with photos…so I figured this was a good way to record my home for posterity and give the Realtor some shots to use.

My two boys share a room, and its never this neat, so I quickly took pictures! (I am going to follow up with a post on this room in the near future.)

Shared Boys Room

Our Family Room…decorating a two story room has some challenges…

Our Two Story Family Room

Our Master Bath…

Master Bathroom

My Office…(you can see post on this space HERE)

My daughter’s Room…(you can see the post on this space HERE)

Sloane's Room

So, more pictures to come. And, we are hard at work on a Home Tour of Christy’s Historic Home…Stay Tuned!

(and if you know anyone looking to move to Virginia I know of a great home for sale…(LOL)…)

Posted in General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces, Uncategorized | Tagged Bathroom, boys room, Family Room, For Sale, Home Tour, Office, Sloane's Room | 1 Comment

A Space of my Own

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Amy

I have been hard at work polishing up several areas of my home, including my Office (or as some would say, my “Mom Cave”). We converted this space from a playroom (this would be a great before and after, you wouldn’t believe it! I will have to dig for a picture) into my home office two years ago as I have a graphic design business specializing in wedding and event invitations. I was SO happy when it was finally done, as I said this is the only space in the house that is ALL MINE! MINE! MINE!

The majority of my working, crafting and blogging is done here. I honestly spend most of my time in here. Almost everything is from IKEA. I really liked the similar craft desk from Pottery Barn, but didn’t have the budget for it so I made my own from IKEA with 3 Expedit shelves and 2 IKEA table tops–it was probably less then $250 when it was all said and done. I have a TON of work space on the top which comes in handy when I am cutting, taping and assembling invitations. I also have a ton of storage for all my papers and supplies below.

The armoire behind the desk came into our marriage with my husband (he used it to store his clothes in his closet-less city bachelor apartment), and I couldn’t wait to make it pretty with some new white paint. Its now my gift wrap (and business packaging) storage. My favorite part is the chalkboard door where I can keep a running list of what I need to work on so I don’t get too sidetracked reading blogs! (which happens all too regularly!)

I am in the process of redoing a chair for the space…right now I have a very large (very comfortable) chair from our living room but its not exactly the right scale, is it? I will post on my new desk chair as soon as I finish pulling out the 5000 staples from the old upholstery–it might be awhile. {I do know its going to have leopard fabric though, as I truly believe every room needs at least one touch of an animal print, and it works with the beige and black color scheme}

And, don’t you love the houndstooth curtains? (Sorry, I don’t have a great picture I just realized) but anyway, my girlfriend Tracey got them from a model home, and they were so wide we were able to cut them in half and each get a pair out of them. Nice friend!

I use these little buckets and towel bar (from the kitchen section in IKEA) to keep all sorts of things that pile up on the desk at arm’s reach.

As a Designer, I am BIG on words and letters…these letters are my favorite part of the room. I just some sprayed Hobby Lobby letters and I covered a cheap bulletin board with fabric for an inspiration board. I think the “word” makes the room a lot more interesting.

I am still tweaking this space, but its come a long way in a few weeks. I went ahead and shared it today to join Delightful Order’s Craft Room link up. I find DaNita’s organizational skills to be awe inspiring! Here is “my space” again…