Organized Pink and Gold Home Office Refresh + Tour

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Early last year, I decided a refresh was in order for my home office.  I spend a lot of time in there now that I’m blogging full-time and I wanted the space to be light, bright, airy, and inspiring.  Prior to this, my office was too dark and cluttered (even though I loved that hot pink paint!!), my desk was too small, and my desk chair was so uncomfortable.  Therefore, there were several items on my wish list – new paint on the walls to brighten the space, a new desk, a new desk chair, a chair and small table to create a quiet time space, a new light fixture, and a few other accessories to transform the room. 

The end result is absolute perfection and this room is by far my favorite room in the whole house.  It has become my very own little sanctuary and I’m so grateful to have it, especially now that the four of us are spending every waking second together in quarantine.  It’s nice to have an escape!  Haha.

Before I share the finished space, you can see a tour of the original space here…

See how dark it was?!  And actually, if you want to see a super dark space, I dug up some pictures from when we first moved into our house ten years ago and I had black bookcases... my goodness, it looked like a dungeon in there!  When we moved in, I basically shoved all of my old decorations from my college bedroom into that office, so there were lots and lots of movie posters.  Haha!  I cringe when I look back at that space.  

I also wrote this post at the beginning of last year to share my office refresh to-do list as well as my vision for the refresh... I’d say it turned out pretty close to what I posted on my vision board! 

Ready to see it?  Come on in!

I’ve wanted floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall bookshelves for as long as I can remember!  I tore out a two-page spread from an old Pottery Barn magazine back in the late 90’s and I put it in my hope chest to save for one day when I had my own home.  Fast forward almost 20 years later, and here it is!!

While I would absolutely love to have actual built-ins, the Billy bookcases from Ikea are pretty awesome.  To achieve this look, I bought four of the Billy bookcases plus four Billy bookcase extenders (to make them taller) and then I had someone come in and do some light woodwork around the edges to make them look like built-ins.  Waaaay cheaper than installing actual built-ins, and also nice because they’re not permanent.  If we ever decide to move (although we have no plans to!), we can easily disassemble them to turn the space back into a bedroom as it’s intended.

Having these bookshelves is better than I could have ever imagined and they are, hands-down, my favorite thing in the room!  I’m a collector of many things and I’m also a very sentimental person, so the shelving allows me to display a lot of my collectibles as well as my sentimental items so I can enjoy them instead of having them packed away in boxes.

The first bookcase holds all my books (I love actual books and don’t even own a Kindle) and collectors magazines.  As you can see, I went against my typical OCD nature to organize them in ROYGBIV order instead, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back!  They’re so much more fun this way!

The second bookcase holds some sentimental items like old school yearbooks (in a bin), a few CDs that I couldn’t part with for sentimental reasons (hidden behind that black and white trellis fabric), old diaries (in another bin), and old photo albums.  Most of our photos are digital (thank goodness) but I do have several albums of originals that took place before the digital age.  Even though I’ve scanned those to make them digital, I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the originals.  Also, storing all of the old diaries, yearbooks, and CD’s in bins gives the shelves a more polished look so that’s why I did that. 

The third bookcase holds some items that I use occasionally (notebooks, coloring books, etc.) as well as more sentimental items like old scrapbooks, and the kids’ baby books.  I still add their school pictures to them every year so it’s just easier to keep them in my office for easy access right now.  Eventually those will be moved to their keepsake boxes in their closets. 

The fourth bookcase holds a lot of decorative stuff, some boxes of items that I use (washi tape, planner accessories, etc.), some keepsake items that the kids have made for me throughout the years, as well as my college diploma and a couple of awards that I won when I had my corporate sales and marketing job. 

There are many other decorative items sprinkled throughout the shelves to add interest, including a pink letter board, a UGA football that I got from my favorite Georgia football game ever (UGA vs. Auburn Blackout Game 2007 – the best!), bouquets from friends’ weddings that I’ve been in over the years, my favorite teddy bear that I slept with every night until I got married, and lots of my favorite pictures of Brian, the kids, and my friends and me. 

I love being able to see a bunch of my favorite things through the years displayed in one place.  And the shelves are as functional as they are beautiful!  I love having all of my old diaries, scrapbooks, yearbooks, and photos at my fingertips… I refer to them more than you’d think! 

Moving on to the large desk in the center of the room… that’s the desk I use for crafting, working on projects, photographing things for the blog, addressing Christmas cards, working in my planner, and any other activities that I do that don’t require a computer.  Each of the four corners consists of drawers and shelves where all of my craft supplies are stored for easy access.  You can see more about the organization for those items in this original post.  Everything there is pretty much the same because it’s still working just as well as it was when I implemented the system almost four years ago!  Everything has a place and everything in its place.  :o)

Near the window is the space that I created to do my daily quiet time.  I went on and on about my love for that space in this post last month, so you can see the details here if you didn’t see them already.    

To the right of the window is the nook where I spend the majority of my time.  My main desk is there and that’s my space to do all of my computer work.  That’s where I blog, respond to emails, pay bills, and do anything else that requires a computer.  My computer is a laptop, but I haaaate typing on a laptop, so I created a functional workspace complete with a giant monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and a stand-up work station.  I’m so much more productive with a keyboard and a mouse and I am obsessed with my stand-up work station! 

I also have a printer and speakers hooked up to my computer… I know most blog-worthy offices always show a desk with a single laptop with no wires and no accessories, but that’s just not realistic for me!  As a matter of fact, I even added a tiny TV to my desk.  It’s small, but it nestles perfectly in that corner to the left of my computer, and it’s just the perfect spot for it to satisfy my Friends, Gilmore Girls, and Gossip Girl cravings while I work.  ;o)

When settling on a desk, I chose one with open shelving.  The two shelves on the left (mostly hidden) hold my laptop and my printer.  That way both items can stay hidden – and not on the desktop! – but I can easily reach both when I need them.  The two shelves on the right hold baskets.  The top one is for office supplies like pens, highlighters, paper clips, rulers, a three-hole punch, extra inks for my printer, etc.  And the bottom basket holds other random odds and ends that I use in my office – chapstick, a nail file, wet wipes (I’m a germaphobe), gum, and my secret stash of candy and snacks… shh, don’t tell the kids!  ;o)

The small piece of furniture to the left of my desk holds all of my paper office supplies – file folders, computer paper, cardstock, post-its, stationary, notepads, and folders.

The bulletin board over my desk is another one of my favorite things in the room!  It’s huge, I made it for less than $30, and it’s filled with all of the things that make me happy and inspire me.  I dedicated an entire post to it last week and you can see it here if you missed it.

To the right of my desk is a two-drawer file cabinet that holds the few important papers that we still keep (most stuff gets shredded), tax documents from prior years, and user manuals.  The file cabinet is an old one that Brian has had for years.  I painted it white to match my office!

I created a collage wall behind my door, and I have my Friends frame on the back of my door as well.  I’m probably going to move that to the front of the door so I can see it more often, though.  :o)

My office closet holds all of my keepsake boxes, photography equipment that I use for the blog, and a few other odds and ends.  It was packed floor-to-ceiling a couple of years ago but now there’s hardly anything in there since I cleaned it out back in 2018!  It’s so nice!

And there you have it!  A perfectly sweet space that I love and adore.  I’ll list as many sources as I can below in case you see something that you’d like to find.

Sources

Billy Bookcases

Billy Bookcase Height Extenders

Pink Letter Board

White Fabric Bins with Gold Dots

Curtains (much cheaper if you just go to IKEA!) 

Gold Curtain Rod

Stay Awhile Wall Art

Chair by Window (similar)

Small Side Table (similar)

Lamp (similar)

Golden Pothos Plant

Gold Picture Frame (similar)

Jesus Calling

Jesus Always

Jesus Calling for Christmas

100 Days to Brave

When Less Becomes More

Grace, Not Perfection

Everybody Always

It’s Not Supposed to be This Way

How to Win Friends and Influence People

You are a Badass

Big Magic

A Standard of Grace

10% Happier (not pictured)

Round Basket (Target) (similar here)

Throw blanket (Pottery Barn)

Floral Print (left of desk)

Computer Desk

Desk Chair

Baskets for Desk (similar)

Stand-Up Work Station (similar)

TV (similar)

Echo Dot

Bulletin Board

Friends Peephole Frame

Chandelier

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