My Office/Guest Room

Ok, I’ve run out of excuses for tackling this room. When my daughter, Sarah, moved out into her own apartment in August, her room quickly became the junk room. She took most of the furniture, but left many boxes of miscellaneous items behind. Then, I began redoing my dining room, so it was very handy to stash unwanted dining room items in this junk room. I actually enjoyed being able to have a junk room, since my tiny 2 bedroom apartment never has enough space. Well, now with my dining room project pretty much done, with just the window treatments left to make and some chairs to buy, the junk room was getting on my nerves.

It was hard to navigate around the boxes and miscellaneous furniture and even harder to try to find reference materials and office supplies. (I had dumped all of that in this room when I did my bedroom project before the dining room project!)

I have been patching the holes in the walls over the past few weeks, so I did have a little head start. Yesterday I did a little more patching and sanding and prep work. I used to hate all the prep, and while I am still not enamored with this step, I know it is key to a nice outcome. 😉 The walls in this room previously had pearl glazed vertical stripes. I have chosen my new favorite paint line from Benjamin Moore, Aura… for my base coat. I rolled on the first coat, Lingerie #200, in an eggshell sheen. As it was drying, I could clearly see flashing from those pearl glazed stripes and was thinking I probably should have put a coat of primer on the walls first and was hoping I would not regret eliminating that step. But…. 😉 … once the first coat dried completely… no flashing!

Here’s my fireplace that used to be in my dining room. That’s the beauty of an electrical fireplace…you can just move it from room to room. Just have to plug it in! Two years ago, my friend MaryEllen and I each purchased one of these at Home Depot. MaryEllen always jokes that when she is invited to a party, she says she’ll bring the fireplace!

This is hard to see, but I did work up a rough floor plan, to scale, of where I will place the furniture. This little sketch keeps me motivated and helps me to see beyond the mess that now exists!

I will put the 2nd coat on today and report back in later tonight. Sarah has promised to stop by today and assess her box situation, determining what she will take and what she will store in the basement here. I’m bribing her with dinner and a chocolate cake that I will bake this morning.