The School Room Progress Photos

Our home office has been a bit of a wreck since we moved back from Paris. A catch-all room. But then we started working from home in March and this room has been in a state of PROGRESS. David used it. Than, he moved to the basement, and I've been using it. We moved the chaise in here for the dogs to nap and watch the neighborhood -- it's everyone's room. 

Once the decision was made to distance learn, we had a family discussion on where the girls wanted to work. After last Spring's experience, the dining room or kitchen was out of the picture. Too messy. We quickly identified the office as the optimal place (the first of there several options) so they're close to me, for guidance and questions while I'm working from home, and they're away from distractions in their rooms. The desks in their rooms would play an alternate roll, once they got up and running successfully and needed a fresh location. Options are good. 

It was also the perfect opportunity to clear it out and clean it up. 

Here are the two areas where I planned to put their desks: 

The yellow cabinet is my lovely fabric cabinet, but it's been months since my last sewing project, so I'm OK with moving it down to the basement. (And actually, it's pretty cute down there.) The vintage desk is my Mom's and filled with her files and things. She's only here part-time, so we'll move this down to her bedroom in the basement, as well. 

The spaces were cleared out. I'll note that doggies' chaise lounge is staying, though I'd love to replace it some day with an upholstered bench or ottoman, but that's far in the future. 

One of the big creative ideas I had was the add a splash of color behind each desk. This will visually give more interest and separation to their work spaces. And, if I'm being honest, I've been shopping for a color for this room for a while, so it's a good test run. I took the girls to Ace Hardware to pick out some Magnolia Home colors, and I guided them towards corresponding colors. They made some pretty choices. 

I picked an arch for over Leah's desk (in "Texas Rain"), just for some extra personality. This photo is the first version, I ended up making it much taller.  And Alice's color (Rainy Days) went up to the wall to ceiling. Notice, I painted the baseboards too, for a bit of fun detail. 

I took two weeks to pick out the best desks. I wanted to stay around $100, have a little organization and a little style -- so if they did end up in a bedroom or elsewhere, they'd fit in. They couldn't be too basic. And I wanted to order two of the SAME desks to bypass the "her's is better than mine!" argument. I found these on Target.com. They came quickly, were fast to put together and fit all my criteria. For $110 desks they are pretty sturdy and should last as long as this distance learning, if not longer.  

The last step was to accessorize with some shelves and books. If they're going to be sitting in these chairs in front of laptops for half the day, I want it to feel like their own space. They picked office supplies and photos, too.

Here's how they turned out: 

The girls love their spaces and Alice actually said she was "excited to start school" which is a victory in my book. 

Plus, the office is a much more calm and less-cluttered space (for now). 

Next steps include cleaning off my desk, since it got a bunch of the clutter, and switching out the florescent light (which I can hear HUM all day long). 

Big changes and more to come!