Before And After Home Office Re-Design | New Year, New Space!

Have you ever walked in your office or a space in your house an thought, what has this space done to me to deserve such treatment? That was me every single time I walked in my office. I would think to myself, did this room do something personally to me? Did it hurt me in some way, stab me in the back, frown at me? I say this because this room was awful. Messy, cluttered, distracting and there was piles of stuff everywhere I turned. My desk was a stacking shelf rather than a clean space for me to think and write. The space became a place for books, magazines, the gazillion’s of KFBK post-it’s that I use to remind me of upcoming events, which blog posts I want to write, youtube video ideas and so on. Piles of stuff would appear on a Monday and by the end of the week you could barely see the wood material that my desk is built out of. After so many months of this, I decided I needed to make a change and the first month of 2017 was the time to do it. Unfortunately, I didn’t take very many “before” photos except this one on Snapchat, but I assure you the space was awful.

Clutter is toxic to the mind, heart, and brain. People do not realize just how negative clutter is in your life. It seeps into your mind, and some even say that the state of your home is the state of your mind. Have you ever heard that quote? It’s very true. Think about it, when you clean out your fridge, aren’t you actually cleaning out the stress in your head? Is there something in your life you are avoiding? I bet if you cleaned out your fridge, you would face the issue that’s taking up all of that brain space in your mind. And make your bed every day! Making your bed every day is life changing! I now cannot start my day until my bed is made. I’m naturally a pretty neat person, and my goal this year is to live the minimalistic lifestyle. It surprises me that I had a messy desk before all of this, because I do my dishes right after I eat. I saw a quote on a minimalist Pinterest page that said, “clean up after yourself, never leave a mess, you are what you surround yourself with.” And that quote stuck so I decided it was finally time to clean out my office and desk space and re-do it.

The office wall that sits atop my desk was filled with photographs I took in mismatched frames, old-momentos from years back, and many inspiring quotes, yet the wall was anything but inspiring. Looking at that wall actually gave me anxiety and made my mind race.

Step one: I removed all of the old frame, quotes, and anything else that stuck to that wall and wiped it down with a cloth.

Step two: I cleared my entire desk off (making sure my hard drives were properly dismantled before shutting down my computer) and started with a fresh slate. Then I went to home depot and got the brightest, whitest paint I could find for the wall which was called: Bright White, by Behr Paint. Fitting isn’t it? I painted the wall and began dreaming up what would go perfectly on it. While my paint dried, I perused Pinterest for inspiration and reached out to friends on snapchat who had a lot of ideas. After discovering boards that spoke to me, I went to Home Goods and Target and made my purchases.

My budget was $100 for everything and I was adament about not going over it. I did not want to shell out a bunch of money on new stuff, when the stuff that was on the wall before was mostly taken by me. I went into Cost Plus first and although everything there was fabulous, it was too pricey for the budget I wanted to stick to. Next, I hit up Target and found this adorable decorative, woven wall hanging by Threshold. You can find a similar one on Amazon here.