It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been able to share a truly “finished” space with you guys. And that’s why I’m so excited about today’s official “After” post for my office!

Let’s take a little tour to wrap all these projects up.

The white door below is the entrance from the hall.   

Then, of course, we have my desk, which I built myself from scratch.  The art hanging over the desk is thrifted and handed down.

The curtains are from Ikea, and the dresser is a family heirloom.  I’m hoping to find beautiful glass knobs to dress it up when I am in Italy on my honeymoon/anniversary trip.

On the wall over the dresser is a mirror that I had to fight for in the clearance section of Pier One (years ago) and then of course my window frame jewelry display, which continues to be one of the most useful items I ever made.

On the next wall is my mid-century modern secretary, which folds out into a desk.  I use it when I work from home for my day job, since I have a separate laptop for that job.  My closet, with the Container Store shelving I installed, is still going strong.  I considered hanging curtains over it, but they would just get in the way.

Oh! And under the desk I have my personal laptop and a power strip on a tray.  I actually use this to also charge things like phones, camera batteries, etc.  The tray makes it feel a little less messy and a little more like a charging station.

To the right of the closet is the exit from the office.  On that wall I hung my Neu Year planning calendar. Above the door I have my hats on plastic-containers-turned-hooks, and these little plastic things continue to be the best hat hooks I’ve ever used.

All in all, I love the office and love even more that it is FINISHED!  It’s a huge improvement from a year ago when I was working with an Ikea desk and some mismatched old furniture.

The office: BEFORE.

I’m not even sure I can call this a true “before and after” post because I didn’t want to waste a lot of space on the before. This room has gone through many stages, but three years into the process I finally feel that I’ve gotten it put together in a solid way.

Sometimes I am super silly about how I blog.  Take, for example, the fact that I went silent on you while I was trying to finish my farmhouse desk DIY tutorial.  I got this idea in my head that I shouldn’t blog about ANYTHING else until that post was completed. 

Sorry about that.  Now that I’m done with the tutorial, I can finish up with the office makeover – Finally!

On a quest to finish the office before tackling the next room that I’m working on, I hung some art that I already owned.   Since the art wasn’t symmetrical, I hung it in a way that I hoped would complement the highs and lows of the items on my desk. 

Those, combined with the warm wood tones that my farmhouse desk contributes, have this office feeling so much classier than ever before with the white Ikea desk:

 It’s like a grownup room now:

I love how the paintings look over the desk! The one with the white frame was painted by my grandmother’s friend years go.  Unfortunately, in my early blogging days, I painted the gorgeous frame white.  Oops.    The other painting was a $10 flea market find!

Sidenote:  Photos of the office never do the wall color justice.  In real life there is less of a yellow hue to the green.  I have tried adjusting them in the photo editor, but even with my adjustments I can’t get them quite right.   In real life the green tones shine more.