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The Vision for My Office ~ Creating A Mood Board

A mood board is a great way to visualize the way you want a room to look.Everyone wants a “room of her own”, right? That little space for reading or relaxing or working. If you have followed Bluesky Kitchen during the past year, you might have heard me complain comment that I don’t have a designated office space. I’ve had a vision how I wanted my dream office to look and function. I made a Pinterest board just for my office fantasies.  Here I could create the vision for my office ~ creating a mood board just like a decorator does for a design project.

he Vision for My Office ~ Creating a Mood Board; assembling mood boards is so helpful for planning the functionality and decor of an office.

For the past 3 1/2 years, I’ve used the end of one of our kitchen counters. My printer and office supplies are in the laundry room, my craft supplies are in the garage, and when I have a cooking class, I have to clear off everything but the computer.

The Vision for My Office ~ Creating a Mood Board; assembling mood boards is so helpful for planning the functionality and decor of an office.

As I shared back in October and November here and here, Sweet Shark finally decided an office space for me was a smart thing (1. make wife happy and 2. add usable square footage = increase home value). I knew exactly where the office would have to go and my Pinterest mood board provided the inspiration. My office would be built from 2 existing closets, one that opened into the butler’s pantry and one in the garage that we used for Christmas decorations. Because our garage is extra wide, we had plenty of space to expand into it.  I shared the office layout here. (This diagram isn’t exactly to scale.)

See How Our Office Construction Is Progressing. After one week of demo and building, the office is taking shape and a real room is emerging.

We brought in our contractor who did the remodel on our house 4 years ago. Construction started the first of November and at the end of 2 weeks the shell of the office was complete: new walls, drywall, window cutout, framed opening. I could actually walk in and feel the space. It’s not big ~ about 59 square feet, but I knew with thoughtful organization, I could make it functional and fit my needs. During the next 2 weeks (one of them being Thanksgiving when we were in Atlanta) no work as done, but those 2 weeks gave me time to research, shop (and start buying) and make design decisions. I spent time with the folks at Container Store who designed a craft wall organizer for me and I made several trips to Ikea, found the perfect chandelier and fine~tuned the basics and the organization needs.

Every office has the basics: flooring, lighting, paint color, storage.

The Vision for My Office ~ Creating a Mood Board; assembling mood boards is so helpful for planning the functionality and decor of an office.

Lighting ~ I wasn’t sure if I wanted a chandelier or something modern for the office, but when I spied this vintage light at a flea market in East Texas, I grabbed it and I couldn’t be happier. I shared the transformation here.

Flooring ~ when I saw this flooring at the Shaw booth at Haven Conference, I knew it would be perfect for an office (this was before I knew I was going to get an office). It’s a vinyl floating floor that locks together, requiring no glue. This weathered grey style was exactly the look I wanted for the office.

Bookcases ~ I have a ton of food and travel memoirs and cook books so I needed a place for them. I’ve had the Billy Bookcases from Ikea for several years (they were previously in the butler’s pantry closet) and I knew that they would definitely be in the office.

Shelving ~ originally I was going to use lucite shelves from Container Store that I bought on sale. When we were in Atlanta, my daughter was installing these floating shelves from Lowe’s in her new basement and I loved the look. Much sturdier than the lucite ones. They also come in 3~foot length, but I thought the 24~inch was a better look.

Paint Color ~ I knew that I wanted my office to be pink and white. Pink is the happiest, freshest color ever. I even created Pretty in Pink and Paint It Pretty boards on Pinterest.  I wanted a clean, fresh pink, no yellow, grey or blue undertones. I made several trips to the Benjamin Moore store for paint swatches and brought home 3 sample pots of paint. Sweet Taffy was the first color I put on the wall. I thought Sweet Shark was going to throw up when he saw the color; I think he said something about being inside a Pepto Bismol bottle. So I kept going lighter and lighter. Then my decorator friend Pam looked at the colors and gave me a great piece of advice. She said that by the time we added white countertops, bookshelves, and wall storage and the window was installed, bringing in southern light, the pale pinks would get washed out and look white. So we stuck with Sweet Taffy and I absolutely love it. On the ceiling we did a 50% tint.

Countertops ~ our contractor originally put custom~built laminate countertops in his bid. Friends, they are not cheap. On a trip to Ikea, I checked out their countertop options in the kitchen department. The Saljan solid core laminate countertops seemed to be the perfect solution. At 25 5/8~inch deep, they come in 78~inch and 98~inch lengths and 1 1/2-inch thick. Because they are solid core, you can drill holes in them for electrical cords (computer, printer). My contractor thought they were a great idea and he picked them up for me.

Cost of Office Basics:

Chandelier ~ $60 plus *white spray paint; new socket covers 2 packages @ $2.98 each plus *gold spray paint; *already had

Flooring ~ our contractor purchased the  Shaw flooring and did the installation $400. As a side note: yes, could you install the floor yourself, but neither Sweet Shark nor I had the time or the inclination to do it. Some skimming of the floor had to be done prior to installation and a thresh hold had to be installed from the office to the butler’s pantry. We were saving so much on other elements of the office that we were happy to let our contractor handle it. And, the installation took about 1 hour.

Bookcases ~ Ikea, already owned, but the 15~inch X 11~inch size are $49.99 each

Shelving ~ Lowe’s 3 @ $19.98 each

Countetops ~ Ikea Saljan 2 @ $69.00 each (98~inch)

That’s the first mood board of office basics. Next week I’ll show you the office organization choices I made. This has been such a fun project and I know the payoff will be big.

Before I say happy weekend, I’m excited to share with you a new feature that starts next week. On the 10th of each month, 10 bloggers will share a variety of projects under $10. This was the brain child of Stacey at Poofing the Pillows. I’m excited to be a part of this monthly challenge and I think it will be fun for you DIYers and crafters. So look for my next post on Tuesday, January 10th. I can tell you that my little project is something for my office.

The Vision for My Office ~ Creating a Mood Board; assembling mood boards is so helpful for planning the functionality and decor of an office.

Thanks to Chloe and Sandra for featuring my 5 Champagne Cocktails post at Celebrate Your Story.

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Parties where I linked up this week (Friday ~ Thursday):

Celebrate Your Story    Happiness is Homemade       Make It Pretty Monday   Recipe Sharing Party    Share Your Style  The Creative Exchange  The Really Craft Link Party    This is How We Roll    Thursday Favorite Things   Vintage Charm Party    Wow Us Wednesdays    Your Inspired Design

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12 Comments

  1. It looks like it’s going to be beautiful and I’m anxious for you to share the photos. One of these days I would love to have a space of my own and I’ve started collecting the ideas now. One day…..

  2. You are so amazingly organized! I am blessed to have this room we were using for nothing that I decided to take over the past few months. I didn’t plan this out, so it is happening kind of organically if not in organized fashion. I look forward to seeing your finished office!

  3. Carol,
    Great ideas, great location! Your office is going to be a wonderful place to work easily accessed from your kitchen, but closed off. Win-win. Looking forward to the final reveal.

    Judith

  4. Your office is going to be amazing! Can’t wait to see it all completed. I may just call and invite myself over for lunch to see it in person. 🙂