Creating Space :: Another 8 days of office reorganisation. [And a herd of zebras takes up residence]

Hey you. It's me.

Here's a second look inside my Creating Space office redecoration project. Fortunately for you, you get to look from a distance; any closer and I'd have dragged you in here to sort through a box or hold a tape measure for me.

[The first instalment was here ... in case you missed the part that made me cry!]

So here are days 8 - 15. Not that the days are necessarily consecutive ... I'm afraid I'm not dedicated enough to tackle it day in day out;  more like 'as and when'. But I am chipping away at it!

Day 8: How has it taken so long for me to do this?

A good proportion of my work for crafting magazines involves card making and yet ... until now I'd been storing my card blanks in a box [albeit a nice box!] on the floor, beneath another [nice] box. Let's just say reaching for one wasn't exactly ergonomic.

And now? Now they're all on a shelf in the cupboard directly behind me when I'm sitting at the desk making it so easy to swivel around in my chair, open the door and grab what I need. Makes perfect sense!

It also proves to me exactly why - as stressful and as messy as it's been - it really was necessary for me to have reconsidered where every single thing in the room was best suited.  

Day 9: Feeling a little exposed...

After re-painting I didn't put my old curtains back up straight away as I thought it would spur me on to get the new ones made.

In reality it just led to the bin men, road cleaners, neighbours directly opposite plus any one passing by having a really good view of me sitting at my desk adding kits to my shop and die-cutting!

I put the old curtains back up the following day.

Day 10: Organisational advice Coldplay*-style

I used to have all these rolls of wrapping paper, speciality papers, tubes etc standing in a basket on the floor. But in this tiny space floor space is at a premium and, once I'd moved everything out ... I liked the feeling of space it created. So I looked for an alternative storage spot:

Then ... in the opposite direction ... I swapped out the 5 green plastic boxes beneath the cupboards for these cream 'Curver 'My Style' storage baskets which I found at The Range: 

[*'High up above or down below' is a line from Coldplay's Fix You.]

Day 11: Beginning to see some progress [and some flooring]!

My poor spare room has been awfully put upon lately. But I'm finally making a dent in all the rubbish!

Day 12: Adding a personal touch

The sorting process unearthed an old box frame that I'd always planned to do 'something' with and, as I wanted to bring some personal touches into what was so far a pretty efficient/mundane redecoration I had an idea of what that 'something' could be!

So, I sanded it, painted it white, distressed it and hung it on the wall ...

Day 13: Filling the frame 

The frame came with a card tray insert and I thought that, with the addition of a few new cardboard shelves, it would make the perfect home for my collection of zebras.

[Yes, I have a collection of zebras, if this is news to you, you might need to read this.]

I have a few more photos of this upcycling-in-progress which I think I'll share in a post of their own soon, so you can see how you too could turn a boring old frame into your own printer-tray type display.

And the fact that I do indeed own a zebra collection might just help explain my choice of curtain fabric ...

 Day 14: There in black & white

I finally felt motivated enough to make the curtains which, I now realise, are not the first pair I've made but the first pair I've made to hang in my own house ! Well, it's only taken me 10 years to get round to it!

Day 15: Curtains!

In curtaining, as in cups of tea first thing on a morning and TV adaptations of Sherlock Holmes ... 2 are so much more welcome than 1.

So I finished up my curtain making on Day 15 and I now have a matching pair:

My window was small enough, and my fabric wide enough, that I could've made the stripes run either way. But horizontal won out in the end.

And I'm very happy to report that, the stripes have not dazzled my eyes into a migraine as I had once feared they might!

Oh and on the subject of messing with your eyes ...

How's this for camouflage?

Clearly I'm naturalising into my new environment rather nicely!

Julie x