I've written for Creating Keepsakes for a few years now. I'm not even sure how many articles I've had published and I have no knowledge of which ones helped people most or if people really enjoyed them or not but I can clearly state that I have gotten more emails by far about my "objects in my office" article than in any other! I like to think it's because I explained myself so well in the other photography articles so people don't need to ask questions...right? That's the line my sister tried to comfort me with anyway.
I know exactly how many words I get for my photography articles and so I work very carefully to craft the most efficient use of them as I'm writing. But I wrote the office article without having asked how many words I could use and I way overwrote! Thus they had to edit quite a bit from it and in that editing a lot of the product sources were removed. So, I thought that I would post all the photographs and sources here so that anyone interested would be able to find what they are looking for! Plus, a lot of the photographs were cropped so it will be fun to show you the whole thing!
So here is a photograph of the boys in my office. Mark likes to call it my art supply closet because it's so small. It's literally 6x8 feet. It was listed as a third bedroom, because well... this is New York and a 6x8 bedroom is normal. If you missed the article, it was on how to transform a small space on a very small budget.
Looking at this room from the outside, you can see that it has a normal sized glass door that was cut in half to look like French doors. I think it's funny but I like them because I can see what is going on with the boys. As you can see, on the right hand side is the back of the couch in our main living area.
This is the view of my office from the doorway with my wide-angle lens. You can see the wood from the door frame on the sides of the photo. It's small but I love it!
The stars hanging from the light are from Candice Carpenter's online shop:
http://www.peacoatsandpartyhats.com/
She has some really cute items in her shop and at really great prices.
If you turn to the left this is what you see.
It's the main wall. I love, love how it turned out! The wall is painted with black chalk board paint, which they assured me I would be able to paint white again when we move. I'll let you know if that is true when and if we move. The desk was a birthday gift from my husband a few years ago. He picked it out himself! I know, amazing. He also got a great deal on it, he bought it at what was called T.J. Max home but I think it's now called Home Goods? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. The white magazine holder on top of the desk as well as the white library catalog looking drawers in another photo are from there too!
Starting from the top right:
The first box holding the rub-ons is a Chinese antique that I purchased years ago on a trip in California with my Grandmother. Next to those are some glass apothecary jars I got for a great price (12 dollars, I think) from a store in here in Brooklyn. The Simplify sign was from the mill at Garner Village in Utah. The star was a birthday gift from my sister.
The shelves are from Ikea. They're made to hang on their own, but I added cheap black brackets from Home Depot so that they could hold more weight.
The red bins with the black chalk board on the front are from the children's storage section at Target. I got them on clearance but I think they still carry them.
The red wood magazine holders are also from Ikea. They come in a plain Birch color but I taped off the labels and painted them red.
Here is another view.
The jars with the chalk board on them are from Costco. They actually come with Biscotti in them.
The jar below is from Taipan Trading Company, one of those stores that has great deals if you are good at looking through the bad stuff. It's based in Utah.
These suitcases are all over now, you can get them from a few places I got these from Paper Source. And the polka dot take-out box is from American Crafts.
This is one of my favorite things in the room:
The letters are vintage letter press letters that I collected in Ohio. The Frog Prince was from Mark on my birthday and it's from Sundance. One of my favorite things in the office is the letter press frame from Sycamore Street Press. My sister designed them for Eva. I had a lot of questions about these so if you want to order them you can go here:
http://shop.sycamorestreetpress.com/
Scroll down a bit, and yay! They have two new colors too!
Next up, If you turn right when you enter the room you see this:
The calendar is from Pottery Barn Outlet. My sister bought it for me when she saw it on clearance because she knew how much I wanted it and she is super awesome like that. The table is from Ikea. It is actually a kitchen island. You buy the shelves below separate from the top. It was perfect for me because I could get a really narrow top which I needed for my little room. As it is right now I can put one hand on this table and one hand on my desk in the last photo if I'm standing in the center of the room. You can also get different types table tops. I chose stainless steel, but you can get white, black,or wood instead.
Be forewarned - I'm sure you know Ikea and how great trying to put furniture together is! Here is the bag that came with all the boxes!
And I put it together all by myself! I don't recommend that though because some of the pieces were really heavy and I had a hard time positioning things while bolting them down and holding them all alone!
On the shelves are my paper storage trays from Display Dynamics. They are great! I'm not a fan of vertical storage for paper because I feel like the corners always get bent on the corners so I avoid it if I can. These trays are stackable and perfect!
On top of the table is the Making Memories desktop Carousel. I use it to store all my basic tools so they are right at hand. This would be great for quilters and other crafters too.
If you enter the room and turn around to face the door you will see this:
I knew that I wanted a lot of space to use as a inspiration board so I put up chicken wire across the whole wall. You can buy it at home depot and then just use wire clippers to cut it to size. With just a few strategically placed nails you have a perfect place to clip up photo's.
The Brooklyn Poster is from:
http://orkposters.com/brooklyn.html
They have a bunch of different cities.
And now we come to the most requested item in the room. The fruit and vegetable bin that I keep all my supplies in. It's from an independently owned furniture store called Red Tree, in Louisville, KY. I believe you can order a catalog from them on their site. I loved that store when I lived in Louisville and would visit often.
The best thing about it is that the tin bins inside the shelf come out so you can bring items with you to the work space.
This is the wall you see as you enter:
I have to give kudos to Cosmo Cricket for the top print with the camera that says It's Picture Time! I love it so much that I emailed them and they made a larger print for me but it is a tag in one of their recent lines. Love them!
http://cosmocricket.blogspot.com/
The letter basket below that is from Home Peddlers Design! I love that company!
Below that are these:
I bought these from Ikea in the kitchen section. They are plain white and then I asked my friend Emily of Emilykate designs to cut some vinyl for them. I've gotten a lot of questions about the fonts and I'm sorry I can't remember which ones that I used! I know that there were two, one for the letters and one for the numbers. If you order them from Emily I know that she kept a record of what they are. I need to ask her again because don't you think they would make for really cute house numbers?
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5231204
The black frames in the next row were just a few dollars from Robert's on sale. They were unfinished but I painted them black and then added metal to the inside. The square in the middle is from Making Memories.
I think that is it! If you have any questions about anything else leave them in the comments and I'll watch for them!