room tour - my office

My office ends up in the background of a lot of pictures, so it's nothing really "new" to share, but it's almost a completely different room from the one I shared during my last room tour in 2014. I always feel more at home when I've completely filled up every inch of my space with things both functional and decorative (and oftentimes both.) This is way more cluttered than it was two years ago, but I've never felt more at home.



I live in a long open room that I divided into a work area and bedroom, but the defining lines are definitely blurred quite a bit. I keep most of my books in my studio (although because my bookcase is so deep [13"] I'm able to use every single shelf for craft supply storage behind my books!) and I keep a lot of work supplies tucked away under my bed or over my closet.

My workspace is also where I have most of my decorative trinkets. The purple display case pictured above contains my collection of The Office bobble head dolls (I have every one of them!), my bookshelf is home to my collection of Funko Pop Vinyl dolls and I use the top of my shelving unit to display things like snow globes, travel souvenirs and action figures.



I actually can't remember when I decided to switch from a regular desk to a floor desk, but it might be my favorite decision I've ever made for my workspace. I used to get horrible back-aches from sitting in my chair all day, and this has made all the difference. I never get back-aches anymore, my legs fall asleep less often and I'm much more flexible than I used to be. I can spring up and down from my sitting position way easier than when I first transitioned to this desk. I feel like I get more exercise here, too, since I'm constantly getting up and down to work on orders.

And obviously a huge perk of this setup is that Arrietty usually curls herself up next to me on the floor while I'm working. That's reason enough to love my desk, haha!



I recently handed-down my old imac to my brother, who is helping me with my business now (I'll be sharing more details about that on my art blog very soon!) so I set up my laptop to watch movies or tv shows while I'm working.

This table is actually a tv bench from Ikea! The little shelf in the middle is absolutely perfect for keeping my tablet away from curious furry paws. The shelf behind the table is an Ikea Kallax that I painted to match my table so that they look like one single unit.



Whenever I post photos of my office on instagram my number one question is "what's in all those tiny drawers?" I use these little drawers to store brooches, patches, button-making supplies and earrings. They're almost all filled up again, so I might need to invest in one more unit! Now I just have to decide what color to paint it! :)



Sources for some things:

Purple rug - Amazon
Little drawer units - Amazon
L'Avventura poster - Criterion
Blue filing cabinets - Ikea (came red, spray painted blue)
Bride of Frankenstein poster - Movie Poster Shop
Ice cream lamp - Perpetual Kid
Pizza slice wall hanging - Everyday is a Holiday
Blerg balloon letters - Urban Outfitters (old)
Giant black movie lamp - Ikea
Green vintage-looking fan - Amazon
Brain artwork - DIY tutorial
Green and wood console - Urban Outfitters (old)
Cat-shaped cat door - my shop
Green scalloped bowl - Target (old)

DIY (ish) record storage unit

If you're a very observant person you might have noticed that all of the records on my bookshelf magically disappeared about a month or so ago. I didn't get rid of them, I just decided to make a much more intuitive record storage unit. And it's located right next to my record player, which means I actually listen to and switch records way more often than I did when my records were all jam-packed into my bookcase.



I hesitate to even call this a DIY because honestly all I did was stack two pieces of furniture on top of each other. The bottom shelf is an old Expedit from IKEA with some table legs from Lowes attached to the bottom. The top piece is a modular storage piece from Amazon. After I painted the edges (I taped off a 2" border on the modular storage to match the width of the Expedit frame, and I used the color Poppy Petal from Valspar.) I added this self-adhesive towel bar on the front to create a little display spot for whichever record I'm currently listening to. (Or in this case, the cover that I think is really pretty and put on display whenever I'm not actually playing anything.)



I also bought LP dividers so I could sort my records by genre or person (although the only person whose presence in my collection is so enormous that they warrant their own divider is Frank Sinatra.) On the bottom shelf I have the records that I don't listen to as often, and then on top are my most-played albums.



Think about it -- when you go to a record store, the albums are always displayed in a way that makes it easy to browse. They're facing forward so you can thumb through them, not crammed into bookcases where their little tiny spines make it almost impossible to figure out which record is which. Especially when you collect older records where the spine has seen better days, finding an album based on the side text is virtually impossible.

I've been listening to my records so much more often since I switched over to this way of storing them. It's so easy to flip through and find what you're looking for, or browse until something just strikes your fancy. And the little ledge in the front means I don't have to worry about where to keep my cover while the record is playing. I have a few collectible albums that my dad handed down to me and I've always felt so anxious just laying the cover on a table or resting it on the floor while I'm playing the LP! EEEK! Now I don't have to worry about that anymore :)

I know IKEA doesn't make Expedit anymore (and I'm not sure if its replacement, Kallax, has the same outside dimensions? Or does it even have a 2 cubby option?) but if you could find a similar base this really is a fantastic (and super easy!!) project. As long as the base unit is slightly deeper than the one on top it should work. Or if the ledge isn't that important to you, you can just stack two modular units on top of each other.

Happy listening! :)

room tour: my movie theater

I was promising a room tour back when I quit blogging in 2014 and I still haven't gotten around to it since I un-quit last summer. Sorry about that!

I thought I would start out with my favorite feature in my room. It's a new addition, and I'm so in love with it I could burst! I installed a 120" roll-up projection screen over my closet. The closet wall faces my bed, so I can sit in bed at night and watch my favorite movies on a giant movie screen! And in the morning, I just roll up the screen and it essentially disappears.



I don't even have words to describe how much I love this! I've had a projector for a few years, but until last month I was projecting onto the ceiling. I know, that sounds really cool actually -- and it was at first! But after a while it's not actually that comfortable and not at all conducive to eating popcorn, haha!

If you are someone who really loves movies, I think this is a really worthwhile investment. It was so much cheaper than buying a tv (the screen and projector combined cost less than the 42" tv I owned before this) it's not as much of an eye-sore as a tv usually is, and the experience is basically like being in a movie theater but also being in your own bed at the same time. It's obviously not the same picture quality as a plasma hdtv whatever, but considering the fact that I mainly watch older films that weren't produced with that kind of technology to begin with, it doesn't make a difference to me.



This is my little projector that I have installed above my headboard. My projector isn't available anymore (which is really sad because it's tiny, quiet, and came with roku built in!) but I think most mini projectors would work the same. I'm obviously not a fan of the black cords, but I think it's a fair trade considering I don't have a giant ugly black tv in my room, right? lol

And that's it for my little mini-movie-theater tour! I also posted a photo of the projector in use (with Arrietty in the foreground, naturally) right here :) And it probably goes without saying, but if you get/have a projection screen I'd recommend watching Purple Noon on it. Watch it, and then you can thank me later ;)

Now I just need to find some good black-out curtains so I can watch movies before 8pm!

Sources for everything: projector / screen / most of my shoes / projector mount / cat bag/ my dress is vintage / bedding is vintage / scalloped rug was from UO aaaages ago