Hey hey! Are you ready for this? I'm not, ...mainly cuz now you all get to see how my office has been off and on for ummm..about two and half years? But I figure, my cheeks won't stay so red for too long cuz I think the after is beautimus. But of course I'm a little biased :)
 So, as you all have probably figured out by now, my 'office' redo morphed into an office and guest room redo since I'll be redoing our current guest room for a nursery...No, I'm not announcing anything yet :) but a girls gotta get ready for things, right?

Anyway. I had to find a way for an office with a lot of stuff. And when I say 'a lot', I mean a TON of stuff to coexist in a room where guests will be laying their heads. So, as promised, here's the before shot of my office:
 I didn't even clean this room for ya'. haha. You couldn't tell? Just kidding. This is sadly a little bit better than its been but somewhat of its worse. I use to have a big desk in the middle taking up a whole lot of space. Not the best decision I made. Well, that desk was moved to the wall and then more crap was put on the ground in its place. Its called compromise. haha :)

You see the problem here is that I also used this for storage. Storage of anything from unused furniture to decorating accessories. And then I some how had my business and normal home office stuff jammed in there too. Anyway. It was bad. Obviously :)
 A few sweat and tears later, here's that corner after! I pretty much finished this all in a week. I knew once I got started, I could not stop. If I stopped, who knows when I would get back around to finishing it...I mean, remember the before??? Almost three years people, three years. Need I say more?
 And then here's the other corner. haha. whoa. So in my attempt to make this even more of an office, like two years ago, I bought a desk for $20. It was waaaay to small for what I needed it for-see, you can't even see it. But I still used it....like maybe a good two months straight....and then it became a surface to add more crap onto. See that little brownish fabric thing in front of the desk with the candle on top? Yeah. That was my chair. I know I know...way too posh, maybe a little excessive? I only give myself the best ;)
 After working around crap for years, I figured I would give myself a new chair and update my desk. A little cleaner, no? haha.I don't have to hop over stuff, and bust my leg against corners every two inches now to get to something.
 So, how does one keep all her crap hidden and still have a nice room for a guest? With curtains! I bought some bookshelves from Ikea -my biggest splurge- piled on the crap and then hid them with a curtain attached to the ceiling. I did this on both sides of the window.
 And then to connect the whole look, I bought another shelf from Ikea, put it on its side, topped it with some pillows, and voila! A makeshift window seat.
 This added the perfect amount of space for 'guest' necessities -towels, bath salts, soaps, books, etc.
Eventually I'll get around to adding a foam seat...but I'm in no hurry :)
 This is so sad, but before, I use to not be able to open these closet doors. It was THAT bad.
These pillows I made from scrap fabric. The headboard I made from cedar planks -tutorial here.
 The lamp was bought from Target for 75% off. Score! The frame and table are both from Ikea. The pitcher is from my kitchen. Instead of framing a picture, I opted to frame a passage out of Romeo and Juliet -I figured it added the perfect amount of romanticism in my romanticism-esque room -at least that's what my 'french' fabric says :) Actually. I think it says, 'abcd' 'jklmn' 'k' 'r' 'lmno'. Some French, huh?
 Here's the view when you first head into the room. Oh, and this rug I got from Ikea also...a long while back. Its migrated from two other rooms to find a home, for now, in this one :)
 And here's the 'office' area again. As you can see I 'lengthened' the desk. I also recovered this salvaged chair. Oh, and of course, the big white ball... I mean, hanging light :) The tutorial for this coffee filter light is found here.
Well. Lets see how long this actually stays like this, shall we? haha. I know myself and I know my habits. I figure, something drastic had to happen to break said habits.  I would clean and re-organize my office before, twice or so a year, and sure enough, the next week it would look like it threw-up on itself again.

When things aren't too organized, there's little in it for me to make it stay not too organized. I like to make it worse :) But the best things about these curtains? The stuff doesn't have to stay looking organized and pretty! None of my boxes and baskets match. Half my stuff isn't even in a box or basket. But you can't tell, now can you?

Eventually I'll go through the dreaded process of organizing all the stuff for reals. Maybe when I'm expecting more guests cuz if they are anything like me, I would totally open those curtains and go through stuff :) Its kinda like using someone else's bathroom and opening up their cupboards.... come on...you can't tell me that you have never done that??? haha. I SWEAR that I have never done that (wink wink).

So, the total cost of this $275. It would have been about $250, but I really wanted to replace the table I stole from my bedroom with another one, so I figured I should add this into the total cost. Here's the breakdown:
Headboard: $7
Ikea table: $20
Target lamp/shade: $30
Ikea Frame:$2
Bedding: $12
Bedskirt: $4 (those were Ikea mesh curtains btw)
Curtains -mesh and linen, Ikea: $24
Ikea bookshelves: $100
Ikea 'bench': $40
Hanging Light: $12
Desk upgrade: $5
Misc. Fabric for room: $20

Holy crap, I love Ikea -obviously, can't you tell??? Its either bought at Ikea or handmade, figures.

Now I would have made the bookshelves myself. In fact, the plan from day one was to make the bookshelves to save money. But then I remembered, that was the same plan as the plan from 1 year ago and 2 years ago. And look where that got me? I figure, if things are too daunting...and essentially make you not do what you need to do....then find an easier way to do it. Yes, it may have been cheaper in the long run to make the shelves. But my time and sanity is worth at least twice the cost of my purchased bookshelves ;)

If you have any questions on anything, let me know! I'll be posting about more projects and how-to's in upcoming posts.

Oh, and Happy Compliment Day! Yep. and it is also Beer Can Appreciation Day, just an FYI :)