new office is a bit unexpected

I finally completed the new office makeover. 

Well, its not actually complete but probably as complete as it will get.

Is any room ever really complete?

Let's revisit the "before."  

It was dark; dark green walls with dark furniture.

My husband loves green and cycling 

and our alma mater, the University of North Texas.

I wanted bright, clean, vintage, industrial.

So, I needed to figure out how to get a 

bright, clean, vintage, industrial, green, cycling, UNT 

office on a shoestring budget.

ugh

 The "after"

Well, it's light, bright, clean but it didn't turn out as I planned.

There were a couple of unexpected turns that I think worked out

better than I could have planned.

We spent less than $400 to redo this office.

Many of the things in here were shopped from our own home.

We spent about $50 on this desk from Ikea. 

It's clean, white, I guess some type of melamine top

with simple legs.  It's a bit modern.  I'm not a modern decor kind of person

but I like the look of it in this otherwise not modern room.

It is a big workspace and very easy to clean.

I tried to incorporate little touches to please my husband.

He is a "Dr. Pepper"aholic.  

I found this old vintage Dr. Pepper bottle to hold 

whatever these things are I put in it.

Let me point out at this point that the floors are not dirty.

They are painted concrete and a little worn.

They chip a bit and wear in places and sort of look

like the floor you might see in an old industrial loft.

I'm saying I like that look for right now

because I'm just too lazy busy to repaint.

These chairs were free.  Yep free.

They are 1950s original iron butterfly chairs that belonged to my godparents.

They originally had late 1950's turquoisy-aqua covers and sat

on the back deck of my godparents' midcentury modern tri-level house

my godfather designed.  I remember how cool I thought it was 

to sit in these as a young child.

I spent about $100 on new duck cotton covers.

This lamp was free as well.

This work lamp was attached to my father's old jeweler's workbench.

I took it off and attached it to this little stool as a lamp for the office.

Its so cool and swivels and adjusts to almost any position.

I didn't plan to have vintage midcentury modern butterfly chairs

in the office but I like them. 

With the exception of appliances, cars and my iphone,  

I just don't like anything really that's modern but these work.

I may warm them up a bit with a neutral throw when I find the right one.

These reproduction french maps on linen paper are perfect for my husband.

As a cyclist, he is a huge fan of the Tour de France so these maps fit right in.

This bookcase was already in the office.  I just painted it and 

removed some of the shelves to make it more interesting.

I still have lots of blank shelf space to fill 

when I find just the right things to put there.

Besides neutral colors of cream, white and light brown, 

I decorated with mostly green items.

I ordered the organizer above and basket below online.

I think they were on sale for about $35 for both.

Inside the basket are several vintage green chalkboards.

I may hang those on the wall.  I'm not sure yet.

These cute little things are perfect card or note holders.

We also spent about $60 on the neutral shag rug from Ikea.

Shag? Yep, shag. Its really comfy.

The huge green windmill in the corner was reworked into a floor lamp.

This room isn't perfect yet.  

This corner drives me nuts.

I'm waiting for my husband to hide those TV cords.  

I'm sure he'll get around to it someday.

2013 goals update-the office

At the beginning of this year,

 I wrote a post documenting my home project goals for the year.

It's pretty clear that I won't be accomplishing very many of these projects 

but I have actually been working on a couple of them.

One of those goals was this:

#9 redo office: "We did the office about 3 years ago in the style my husband wanted.  

It had a lot of green and a lot of wood.  It was a bit manly let's say but nice.  

It was so nice that my son slowly started taking in his music equipment bit by bit and before we knew it, the office became his recording studio.  Do you know how neat and tidy and careful young teenage boys are?  Let's just say the office isn't so nice anymore.  My son has moved his equipment to his room upstairs now so the office is ready to become our home office again.  Yes, I have everything I need for this room too and I might have the will to do it.  I just need to pick a paint color." Jan. 2013

We cleared out the office and here's a bit of what we had left.

So, we have dark green walls which my husband loves

but I don't.  

We also have a dark green antique chair that's okay.  

Then we have an old, but not old in a good way, huge stained 

(supposed to be there wood stain and not supposed to be there soda stain) 

computer desk and shelves. 

The desk has a place for a computer CPU and a pull out keyboard

all of which was really nice 12 years ago.  

My mac laptop doesn't need that much space.

Oh and yep, that's an old Victrola in the corner.

I want this office to look completely different. 

I want it to look bright, fresh and clean 

with vintage and industrial touches I like

but also incorporating my husband's favorite green color

and love of cycling and our alma mater.

Luckily, we went to the University of North Texas 

and the university's color is green.  

So, this should be easy.

We've done quite a bit but the office isn't quite finished.

I thought I would give you a sneak peak anyway.

I've gathered things around the house that are green and 

bought a couple of inexpensive repro green metal things for storage.

A few years ago, I picked up these "look old but I don't think they really are"

french maps that are vintage looking paper on linen.  They are super cool

and remind my husband of the stages of the Tour de France.

A green metal locker basket on a white shelf will be great storage.

Picked this up for next to nothing at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.

Looks like a great little holder for notepads.

This vintage cycling poster is huge and was already in the office.

It will stay there.

Found this huge old green windmill base hiding in someone's garage.

Denis, who writes the blog, RubyGrace's and is a dealer at our antique mall

posted pictures on Facebook of his newly organized garage.  

I spied this windmill base in his pictures 

and he let me take it off his hands at a really reasonable price.

Thanks Denis!

I have big plans for it.

Remember this?

This is the old windmill base turned floor lamp in my dining room.

We're going to turn the green one into a slightly different

floor lamp for the office.

This is an old salvage piece of green metal that will be a magnet board.

We have a pair of authentic mid-century butterfly chair frames.

These were my godparents' patio chairs and I inherited them.

The covers were worn out but we will be getting new cream colored

replacement covers for them.  Love these!

This will be the office chair.  It's been in my living room just

sitting in a corner waiting for the perfect spot.

It's a little old wood, leather and burlap

and will bring a bit of warmth to the space.

We've also painted the walls a creamy white.

This office could be finished in a quick weekend if I could

just do one thing....

...finish painting that bookcase.  I started, stopped, started again, stopped

and just can't make myself finish it.  

Someday I'll get it done because I just can't wait for this office to be finished!

What do you think?

Do you like the direction this is going?

It's been happening to me...finally!

 I love reading blogs for ideas but I'm often frustrated because all of you seem to find these great pieces for nothing or next to nothing in thrift stores, yard sales, curbside, etc., and then you transform them into beautiful pieces that frankly leave my mouth hanging open.  I can't seem to find these things.  The only thing curbside in my neighborhood is trashcans.  Well, I guess my luck (or skill?) is changing.  I've found a few things lately that I'm kind of excited about.  I think I have about 5 projects in the works.

Last weekend, we went to the Bowie Trade Days in Bowie, Texas.  I found these mirrors below.  

There were two of them and they cost almost nothing.  My husband thought they were the ugliest things. He doesn't read blogs.  

I'm going to spare you a tutorial here.  You all have seen many a blogger, much better than me, paint and finish off furniture and write great tutorials about how to do it.  So, here's a bit of my process and the final result.

Looks better already painted in a light gray.  I found a gallon of oops paint at Home Depot for $5.  It's enough to last a really long time. Don't be surprised if all of my projects over the next few months are this same shade of gray.

ahhh, much better.

I'm taking most if not all of next week off.  I'll be out of town for most of it due to a business trip.  When I get back, I'll be posting more regularly.  I have a lot of projects going on, some other blogs to highlight, flea markets coming up as well as some ideas for spring.  My pal Jennie's been busy too and maybe I can convince her to let me post some things she's been doing.  It's really warming up here in Texas and it's been nice to get out and get some things done. 

 I'm linking up to some of my favorite blog parties listed in the link above or down below on the right.

  

     

odds and ends...wrapping up unfinished business

I've noticed that I have a few posts that sort of leave things hanging so I decided to update a few things. 

If you read in February about my rustic mattress springs heart, then you'll recall I wasn't sure what to do with it.  Well, I decided to paint it and hang it on my front porch.  So, the first piece of unfinished business is
showing you how that turned out.

The other loose end to tie up is that I mentioned Jennie and I went to the Red Shed and Canton First Monday Trade Days a little over a week ago and I mentioned I would post pictures of my finds.  Well, here  they are!

From Canton

That little red 3 is my favorite thing!

Little porcelain balls with letters and numbers

a cottage dog leash holder with zinc bone; you can write on it with chalk!

old garden hose holder; it rolls easily around the yard

that old galvanized metal will look so cool on the front porch or side of the house

actually holding our garden hose...so much better than any new one!

old vintage french cycling print for my husband

close up view

it goes well with this reproduction one that hangs in our office

Okay, that's it!  I'm all caught up!