A Thing of Beauty

After anxiously waiting for the paint to finish curing, I rushed home after work yesterday to load up my new office shelves with pretty and functional necessities. Let me just tell you, it’s everything I’d hoped and dreamed it would be.

The top shelf is all shop inventory, including some new stuff I got this weekend and haven’t even listed yet. On the middle shelf I’ve got more stuff for the shop plus my fabric stash (I’m still using this method to neatly fold and stack my fabric). And the bottom shelf, which is admittedly more about function than form, houses everything I need close at hand when I’m working at my desk, plus a couple of vessels full of corks divided up into ready-to-ship quantities and maybe a pretty thing or two to keep my spirits up. Beneath that are the rolls of brown and white paper I use for wrapping gifts. I don’t really need them so close at hand, but this is a much better storage solution than standing them up in a corner like I always have. Plus I like the looks of ‘em.

Because I wanted to get everything up on the shelves in time to snap a few pictures before the sun went down, I obviously didn’t spend days or even hours tweaking the arrangement to be just right. I just sorta threw it all up there and tried to make it look pretty as I went, and I’m pretty happy with the result. Most of what you see on the shelves is shop inventory so it will likely get constantly rearranged anyway as items sell and new stuff comes in. I’m kind of excited about the idea of a perpetually changing display.

This is the best my desk has looked, like, ever. On the left, my trusty printer (I dare not brag of its age lest I jinx it) and a vintage clock I got from the thrift store. On the right, a thrifted wooden tray used to corral necessities (notepad, tape measure, camera and cord, etc.), plus an ink pen, mouse (with a sheet of paper as a mousepad), and a thrift store lamp. I thought it was so cheesy that my mom insisted on getting an extra special fancy pen for the guest book at our wedding (I thought the guest book was also unnecessary, actually), but it is so handy right there next to the computer. I always know I can reach over and grab it to jot down a quick note and it doesn’t seem to walk off on its own the way regular pens do. I keep the extra cord for the mouse just kind of tucked behind the computer, which is where the USB cable for the printer also hangs out when not in use.

Here’s a view of the whole operation from a little further back.

Can you believe how different it looks from this pic I snapped of the same corner back in January?

It seemed like it took forever to get this whole office area organized, but it was so worth it. The new setup makes it so easy to do everything from shop-tending to blogging to bill paying to actual work for my real job all in one spot. Everything is here and it makes me happy.

To see how I tackled this project from the beginning, take a look back at my previous posts to read all about painting the room, hanging the pegboard (oy), painting the pegboard a deep peacock green, debating about the slight slope to the shelves, and finally painting them a crisp white this weekend.

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