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)

sneak peek

I'm not quite ready to do a full room tour yet but here are some sneak peeks at my favorite little areas of my room! I'm really happy with how everything is coming along. Honestly I was pretty underwhelmed by how I decorated my apartment (except the kitchen, I loved that room) and every once in a while I'd stare longingly at photos of my old bedroom. But this feels perfect. It's weird how much your surroundings can influence your mood, but I'm just so much happier in this space.

my mobile office!

Last week I took my mobile office on the road and finally managed to snap some pictures of it in action! I'm very lucky to be currently making my living selling my artwork online. It's the reason I'm able to take trips -- and it's also the reason I need a mobile office. I can't afford to put my business on hold while I'm on vacation, so I simply bring it with me!



My little workspace is fully functional -- I have all of the supplies that I need to make, pack and ship all of my products. I have a mobile printer so I can print art prints and shipping labels at my hotel or a rest stop and then I put it all together in the trunk.

The main components are two white organizational cubes from Michaels, which house my envelopes, note cards, business cards and stamps. I added polka dots and spray painted the handles green because, well, I just can't leave anything alone. The floral board sitting on top of them is used to cover the front of the shelves while we're driving (held in place by a bungee cord!)

The heart garland is simply for decoration and only goes up when I'm parked and working.. just to make me feel more at home (at work?)



On my first test run I realized it was pretty easy to make a mess of the carpet in the trunk and not so easy to clean it up on the go. So I cut out foam board to fit in my trunk and then covered it with faux wood laminate flooring. It's SO easy to clean and it has the added benefit of actually looking more like a desk ;)

A lot of my ideas end up falling totally flat, but this one worked and I'm so glad it did! I mean, the only thing better than laying on the beach is working on the beach.. right? ;)

here's an idea: TTFN sign

We're big Winnie the Pooh fans in my family and we each have a character to represent us -- mine is Tigger! I decided to pay homage to my favorite bouncy tiger with this sign above my front door :)

My apartment is on the second floor but you enter at ground level and go up a private staircase to get there, so I thought I'd put a hello sign at the top of the stairs to greet guests when they're arriving (I haven't decided what that one is going to say yet..) and a goodbye sign at the bottom for when they leave.

It was so simple it doesn't even require a DIY post -- I just bought wooden letters at the craft store (already painted white) and attached them with Command strips. The whole project cost like $12. I haven't been super cautious about being renter-friendly (I got a list of how much each thing will cost to replace when I moved in and I'm just planning on owing some money when I move out, lol) but this project is definitely renter-friendly and so fun! :)

room tour part 3: my studio

Well this part of my room probably looks pretty familiar lol ;) When I'm not standing awkwardly in front of this wall taking pictures of myself to post here, I use this space for drawing, painting, packing orders, sewing... basically everything that isn't sleeping or computer-related. I have oodles of storage behind the curtains so my table is completely freed up for work.



I got this at K-Mart earlier this year (it was like $7 I think, so worth it!!) but I had no idea what to do with it until I remembered my paint-storage issues. Before this I was keeping my paint under my bed and it was such a hassle to get it out, so I was painting a lot less. I've definitely picked up my brush a lot more often since I found an easily accessible (and cute!) storage option :)



The wall on the left is my Hypatia wall. I'm planning on adding more custom portraits of her over time. I fluctuate between smiling when I look at it and feeling like there is a giant pit in my stomach, but I'm so happy I made this little art grouping. In a way it makes me feel like she's still always in my room.



I love my little hanging pen cups! They're actually planters from IKEA, hanging from a metal bar from the kitchen organization section. One of my favorite things to do at IKEA is look for alternate uses for items. I get a lot of organizational things from the kitchen area, and under my table I have a cabinet from the kid's section (the perfect short height for under my table!)



A few weeks ago I realized I needed a little cart on wheels for the space next to my desk. I looked online for hours before I found a cart on etsy that looked really similar to this one -- and then I remembered that I already had it in the basement! Is there anything better than looking for something and then realizing you already have it?! :)

The shelving unit on my floor used to be on my wall but was re-redistricted when I got my new tv. I actually like it better here! That used to be completely unused space and now it's totally functional. Well, if you can call "displaying Office bobble head dolls" functional ;)

The carrot pillow (from Ikea) keeps my door from knocking into the shelf when it opens.



I use the extra purses hanging behind my door to store things when they aren't in use! The pretty floral bag was a handmade (HANDMADE!) present from Casey a few years ago.



I've had the wooden "Kate" in my room for as long as I can remember. I use floral glass cups (another Ikea purchase) to store my business cards for when I'm packing orders. They're the perfect size!



I got the Mary Poppins ornament in Disney World last year. We shipped all of our souvenirs home rather than take them on the plane and this one was broken when I opened the box :( Her head and umbrella and one hand had snapped off. I glued her back together though and you can barely tell there was any damage -- but I still think I might consider snatching up another one on my next trip, if it's still available.

I like having a color wheel around when I paint since I don't feel like I have a really good eye for matching colors and somehow that helps. The postcard is Pam's painting from The Office!! It came in this kit (which also includes the world's best boss mug!)



I had to squeeze Arrietty in here somewhere..

room tour part 1: my office

I've been talking about doing a room tour for so long I decided to make this one super duper jumbo-sized! I broke it up into a few posts, each focusing on one specific area. I thought that would be fun and also help the posts to load a little quicker :)

First up, my office! If you can call it that... it's actually a closet with a table in it. But it works perfectly and the size is just right for me. When I think about my ideal "forever home" I picture something pretty tiny. I've just become so accustomed to living and working in tight quarters that I can't even imagine living any other way. I like my cramped, cluttered space. It's so cozy!

The collage above my closet is by my friend Vivienne and the painting was a birthday gift from my  brother. I was upset that Turner Classic Movies was changing their nighttime intro so he painted me a stylized screenshot of the old one (you can watch it here at 0:31)



This screensaver is probably cliche now but I use it as my clock when I'm packing orders on the other side of my room (I'm always racing against time to finish & make it to the post office before they close!) I hate wearing my glasses so the huge text is perfect lol.

The die-cut jumbo ice cream print is one of my favorite things I own! I bought it from Everyday is a Holiday (Jenny and Aaron are also the super talented dynamic duo behind the cute apple pie print that's to my right in all of my outfit posts!) The cross-stitch of "That's What She Said" was a Christmas gift from my mom. I love having subtle Office references sprinkled around my room (...and not-so-subtle ones. The trophy on my desk is a Dundie award!)



To free-up desk space for my tablet and planner, I got a keyboard tray from Ikea. It came with a black foam insert which I promptly covered in vintage fabric. So much prettier - and equally functional :) My keyboard seems to be biting the dust now.. I'm having a heck of a time getting the letter "k" to show up on my screen without pounding the key as hard as possible. argh!



The clear plastic purse was from forever 21 (last year, I think) and I use it to hold extra notebooks. The Hibernate pennant is from Stay Home Club. The photo is a still of Dirk Bogarde and Julie Christie from one of my all-time favorite movies, Darling.  If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it! Mandi recently posted a nice review with some great screenshots ... you can take a peek here :)



Somehow I've been acquiring a little stuffed animal collection (and a stuffed person.. they had a Mary Poppins stuffed doll at the Disney Store in Times Square last year. It's pretty awesome!) so they all reside under my table at the moment. Even though he's much too small to actually be one of my cats, I always think the Tramp doll is Arrietty when I see him out of the corner of my eye.



I recently downloaded Danielle's happy face decals (available at Kitschy Digitals, here!) to cute-ify my printer! Isn't it just adorable?! The kit includes so many cute decals, I keep looking around my house trying to find more things to apply them to :)

Sidenote: This is my new printer (my old one broke about 2 weeks ago) It's a Canon Pixma MG6320 and so far I really love it. I think the print quality is top-notch and it has a smaller footprint than my old one. And of course I'm definitely smitten with the fact that it's white instead of black. My only complaint so far is that it doesn't always detect when I have paper in the tray, and sometimes the rollers leave marks so I've had to reprint. When I have some free time I'll call Canon to see if that can be fixed. I had so many issues with my old Lexmark though that so far this has really been a walk in the park :)



A little perspective so you can see where the closet/office is! And I had to sneak an Arrietty photo in here somewhere ;D

Part 2 will be up tomorrow! yay! :)

room tour

There's a tour of my room over at teenvogue.com if you'd like to take a peek! It also includes pictures of my walk-in closet that I've been meaning to share here for over a year.

I'm planning on taking my own photos and doing something of a director's cut here next week (providing the sun finally comes out and lets me take pictures soon!) I didn't get to pick which things were featured in the article so a lot of my favorite knick knacks and little corners of my room didn't make the cut and I want to share those with you!! :) I'm also working on a follow-up to my storage solutions for small spaces post! yay!

I haven't actually done a room tour here in about two years and so much has changed since then! Mostly little things, but to me they make a huge difference. I should actually do a whole room evolution post since my room has changed so much over the years. At one point my walls were dark purple, my ceiling was orange and I had all dark wood furniture and jewel tone bedding. Seriously! I think my heart died a little during that period of pastel deprivation ;)

a little bedroom update!

It's amazing what a few tiny changes can do to a room! My room feels so much more fresh and airy now, and all I did was paint my bed and add shelving storage underneath. I think the new color makes my room feel SO much bigger! I have a pretty tiny space and having a dark wood frame taking up about 1/3 of it definitely made it feel more cramped.



I pieced together three different sized ikea expedit bookshelves to fit around the perimeter of my bed. They fit so perfectly it's like it was meant to be! ;) I'm probably a total dork for saying this but I'm absolutely giddy about the storage. GIDDY I tell you! I have boxes and they're organized and nothing falls on the floor when I pull them out!! wheeee!! Also, my Dunder Mifflin boxes fit perfectly in the expedit. yay!



While at ikea I found these gorgeous glass cups, too. I got four to hold my various business cards for packing orders and another four that I stashed away for my future house :)  They also had matching bowls so I picked up four of those, too. I want to have mix-and-match dining things so I like the idea of slowly piecing together a collection over time.





At the foot of my bed I'm using the shelving for my records. There's a little space where the two shelving units meet so I'm using that for records I'm currently listening to, and rotating records with fantastic covers on the front for display. It's wonderful to be able to pull a record out to listen without all of the other records falling over lol :)





Lots of Hypatia in this post! Every time I wanted to take a picture she was there lol :)



I've wanted to organize under my bed for so long... I store a lot of stuff under there (I have a whopping 22" space between my mattress and the floor thanks to a tall bed and 6" risers!) but it was just kind of crammed in there all willy-nilly. Whenever I pulled stuff out a landslide of other stuff would cascade onto my floor. But not anymore! :)



It would have been a huge hassle to actually move my bed to paint it, so I painted all of the visible parts and then taped the paint chip to the inside of the frame. I do have some leftover paint, but this way if I ever use that up (or, knowing me, lose it) I can always finish up the job with the exact same color.