Home Office, Now With Furniture

Last weekend's project was moving all the furniture and other misc. stuff back into the tiny bedroom, turning it into a useable home office.





We are going to try sharing a desk since we both have laptops which mostly living on the dining room table anyway. This final phase of Project Office would not have been complete without a trip to Ikea (for the unfortunately named Kolon toothless chair mat and the helpfully named Andy rolling drawing cart). We made the mistake of thinking it would be un-busy on a rainy Saturday afternoon. How wrong we were...oh well, let the work commence.

Office Details 2

After letting the wall paint dry and removing the painter's tape, I set to work on some small wall drawings/murals of me and Mr. MJ. For this project, I used my overhead projector, a couple of transparencies.....



some acrylic paints, small brushes, and some little paint dish/jar lid things to hold a small amount of paint while I was working.



To get the image onto the transparency, I taped it to my computer screen and traced a digital photo onto it using a permanent marker. This has often been my quick-and-dirty method for enlarging drawings or photos in art making, and it works well here too.



The biggest problem I faced was getting the image projected onto the wall like I wanted it. This arrangement is probably not one the overhead project or ladder folks would recommend...but here I am using it anyway.



My mom thought that I had portrayed us doing some yoga asanas to create a sense of calm in the room. Even though that's not at all what we were doing in my source photos, it's still a nice thought. Namaste!

Office Details 1

Here's a few more details about the paint job I recently completed in the tiny back bedroom. The whole thing came together with the magic of painter's tape and an overhead projector.

I was inspired to do a two-tone paint job by a recent post on Apartment Therapy. We knew we wanted a bright, energizing color in this room so that we will look forward to hanging out in here, paying bills and burning the midnight oil if necessary; however, because of the room's small size I felt like I needed a way to leaven the impact of the color so it didn't feel overwhelming. I decided to paint the ceiling and top part of the walls in a light color, and go for a bright coral underneath.

First, of course, we taped off the trim and put down a coat of primer (I should probably buy stock in the Kilz company). Next, I painted the ceiling and a few feet down the wall with Behr's Linen White (two coats!). I didn't measure, but I had an approximate idea of where the wall would transition from white to coral.



Next, I went around the room with a long tape measure, pencil, and level, marking out a line for the border between white and coral. I realized it was really important to take my time with this step: I measured from the floor up the wall to a given point (I think it was around 80 inches), making a mark with my pencil about every 10-12 inches. I then used my level to realign these marks into a horizonatal line, since the floor in our old old house is not perfectly even (shocking!). Next, I connected the spaces between each mark with blue painter's tape, being careful to let the pieces overlap and to firmly press them down to the wall. I was also careful to place the tape so that its bottom edge would form the top line of the coral paint.



Then I painted, this time with Behr's Cool Lava. Then I painted again.



Check out how the Cool Lava makes the room glow in the afternoons. Fancy!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

So here's a mini post with an office reveal...

Tah Dah!





We chose two colors, both by Behr: Linen White on the ceiling and top, with Cool Lava on the bottom. Also a little mural action with acrylic paint by Liquitex. I'll post more later about the processes I used here.

Progress Report

Last week I showed you a photo of the Hellhole. That's the tiny half-bedroom that we're going to turn into a little office. Well, now it's all cleaned out and drop clothed.



Let the Great Wallpaper Scrape continue!