A brief office tour

I don't think I've shown pictures of my office yet, so here's a quick look. It's on the second floor above the parlor, so it's much brighter than the downstairs rooms. Thank goodness— if I had to work in the gloom of the living room or dining room, I'd probably design nothing but gray logos in my state of depression.

The floor is a lighter finish than downstairs and the whole space is sunnier. The fireplace behind our desks was removed at some point, which makes it much easier to put tables there (though the chimney juts out, which is a bit challenging).

It's filled with the same stuff we had in our Chicago place. Spray painted file cabinet, the boxes we made to put our monitors on, the Steelcase chairs I reupholstered, and various orange stuff I either painted, purchased, or was given.


Here's a new addition: Vara orange doors for the IKEA Besta cabinet we've owned for years. I bought the doors yesterday and put them on, and they hide all the ugly clutter that used to be visible under the window. Fantastic!


I've got a bunch of job files I need to access easily, so I figure if they have to show, they should be my favorite color. (Boxes of 100 colored file folders are available at Amazon.)

You'll notice there's a tiny room adjoining the office, accessed by double pocket doors on the office side and another door heading out into the hallway to the right of the couch. (The office also connects to our bedroom with double pocket doors, so I can roll out of bed in my PJs and plop down at my computer after a very short commute.)


Alex has dubbed this room the "Designer Lounge," which sounds very glamorous. It's like I'm Don Draper, and perhaps I need to have a glass of whiskey and lie down for a moment to mull over a particularly snarly creative problem. Like what to put on the walls, for example.

I'm sure what caught your eye and made you gasp with delight, however, were the two 70's table lamps. Are they not awesome? A recent find.


If it's round and lights up, I automatically love it, and here are not one but TWELVE total orbs of glowing beauty. Don't let the high ceilings fool you. Each lamp is over three feet tall, so they are not petite. There is no overhead light socket in this room, so whatever lamps we add have to work hard at dispelling the gloom. Twelve bulbs will do it!