All of the details!



This past spring we moved into a new house.  With our new house came a new studio space for me....yippee!   In our old house, my desk was next to the kitchen and I painted my signs on card tables.  While it worked, it did not work well.

When choosing a home, we knew that we wanted to find a house that had the possibility of a great studio space.  I wanted a place on the main level because that is where our kids spend most of their time.  Are my kids the only kids that rarely go into the basement?  

Once we had that all figured out, we needed to buy some new pieces to help the space function. I had my desk from our last house (it was an awesome Craigslist find).  It was a lovely sturdy oak and I loved that it had a ton of drawers to hide keep all of my work supplies.   The top had some major blemishes, as well as some cosmetic damage to the legs.  I knew when I saw it that I wanted to re-do it.

I painted the desk with Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white and used General Finishes java gel stain for the top.  Even though it was a pain to paint (there were so many crevices), I loved the way it turned out!

Before the painting began!

I put the first coat on and thought, what have I done?

After the second coat, I began to breathe a sigh of relief! 

Annie Sloan chalk paint has amazing coverage!  I rarely use more than two coats.  This project, however, took 4 coats...yikes!

I don't have any other pictures of the top.  Basically, I sanded it down and applied the gel stain.  I know that it sounds like a lot but it was super easy because gel stain rocks!

Ta-da!!

In our old house, we had a great butler's pantry and cabinets where I stored all of my paint and supplies.  The problem with my new studio space was that it was majorly lacking in the storage department.  Since this room is the first room that you see when you walk in the door, I wanted to make sure that it looked nice, could hide all of my crap, but also function in the way that I needed it to.

I felt a little bit like Goldilocks as my husband went from furniture store to furniture store looking for the perfect piece.  We didn't want to spend a ton but at the same time, I also didn't want to impulsively purchase something that wouldn't work.  


I decided to look online and came across these Sauder bookshelves with and without doors (which can be found on a number of different websites).  My husband and I contemplated putting my desk against the wall with a bookshelf on either side, but I really needed to use my desktop as a workspace.  In the end, we decided to do 4 bookshelves across the back wall.   

The shelves are VERY heavy and take a little bit of time to assemble.  Are they the best quality?  No, the faux finish is a bit chintzey and they are a bit shorter than we had originally envisioned.  In the end, we decided to leave off a little moulding piece that came for the bottom and we changed the chunky wood knobs out for rubbed bronze ones.

Our decision to float my desk meant that we now had to do something to the back of it.  I wish, wish I had a better before picture, but I don't.  I have a picture of the original Craigslist post and I zoomed in to give you a very rough idea of what the before looked like.  The back of the desk wasn't terrible, but it had two really big holes for wires to go through and while that works for a typical desk configuration, it wouldn't work for us.

Super blurry, but you get the idea of what the back looked like...well, maybe!

We picked up some wood from Home Depot and made Shaker style panel moulding to go with the moulding on the sides of the desk.  I also color matched the Sauder shelves, repainted the desk, and finished it off with Annie Sloan dark wax.  In person the Sauder shelves have a very fake faux finish and I needed the dark wax to add in a little dimension.



In our old house, we had really, really tall windows and curtains were nearly impossible to find.  I fell in love with these table cloths from World Market and figured out that they were the perfect length! Well, guess what?  They were perfect for the new house too!  I used the cream and turquoise from the tablecloths curtains to develop the color palette for my studio.



For the finishing touches, I added some odds and ends that I had and a few new containers that I picked up at Home Goods.  I also wanted to add a little chair so that either I or a friend could sit while we were in the studio.  It wanted something that had a print, but that would also go with the curtains. Target.com came through with this cute, simple, chair.  Since it isn't the most comfy chair, I added a little pillow that I found at Kirklands to the back.



I also decided against a traditional desk chair and instead opted for a stool.  The open space in my desk is off-center so when floating it, a chair looked odd.  I also like sitting in a stool when I paint.  Once again, Target to the rescue because I love this wood/metal rustic stool.  I sometimes also carry it into my kitchen and use it at our island so I love the many different ways that it functions!



I also had a little black table that we had gotten years ago and painted it to match the desk/shelves (plus I added a little fun on the inside and painted it aqua).  I contemplated painting it with a pop of color, but since the room is not very large, I wanted to keep it light and bright and painted it to match the desk and shelves.  The icing on the cake, was an Ana White inspired family tree sign that I painted for our old house.  I placed it over the little table and it looks great!







I really, really love how this space turned out!  From time-to-time, I will tweak little things here and there but overall, I love how everything turned out.  Did you catch little sneak peeks of some of our fall signs on the shelves?

All of the products and links that I listed above are because I love them!  I am not affiliated with any brand but wanted to be able to share where I bought things in case you see something that you like for your space.

Thanks for coming along for my office tour!






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