The Office.

Didn't you just love that Kerry authored a few blog posts this past week?  It made me pretty giddy myself.  Yesterday he spilled all of the beans on our big office redo that we did over Christmas break.  I am here with the little details incase you were wondering.  If not, here's the final project photo and you can send the rest of the post packing.So for the three of you still reading, here is a breakdown of the project.  On December 23rd, Kerry, Ona, and I set out on an shopping adventure.  Our goal was to come home with everything we needed to create our office, hit up as many Home Goods as possible, and end the day with a delicious dinner at Cheddars (our fav).  It started off with an early stop at Cabinets-To-Go.  We were hoping we would stumble on some dirt cheap cabinets in a scratch and dent section, but no go.  We did find out that Cabinets-To-Go is owned by the same company as Lumber Liquidators and that a large portion of HGTV cabinets are supplied by them.  So, not a total failure.  The rest of the day was sort of a blur.  Next stop was Ikea in Schaumburg, IL.Then on to Crate & Barrel and Carson Pirie Scott outlets and a few four Home Goods.Yes, we did take photos outside of every Home Goods.  Did you happen to catch the daylight progression?  It was pitch black by the time we left the last Home Goods.  Oh, and that rug?  First. Purchase. Of. The. Day.  Thank goodness for those impulse chocolates at Home Goods checkouts to get us through.  Then we were off to Ikea numero dos for the day.  We finally made purchases and lots of them.  The key ingredients were three Akurum base kitchen cabinets with Stat doors, a rug, a cubby shelving unit, and two pieces of countertop that we picked up in the scratch and dent section for $10 each.  On a side note, wouldn't life be so much easier if Ikea could come up with U.S. names for products?  I always feel like a helpless fool and resort to pointing when trying to ask where to find something.  Needless to say, we left with a Bill full.If you doubted, we did make it to Cheddars by 8:15PM.
That was a long day.  Even Ona said so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-JsAen1po

The rest of the office purchases were a lot less time consuming.  We color matched Benjamin Moore's Anjou Pear to Pittsburgh Paint's Ultra in eggshell for the walls and Pittsburgh Paint's Ultra in Cape Honey Flower semi-gloss for the trim.  We snagged the knobs (here and here) for the cabinets at Hobby Lobby.  We have a third knob on the center cabinet, but I couldn't find the link.  The curtain is from Target and the rod and blinds are from JcPenny.  We placed these lamps atop some so us books.The artwork is a combination of sentimental things framed and this I picked up at Home Goods (on a different trip).Joe Cocker's You are so Beautiful was the song we danced to at our wedding.  Cue the collective aww.  We reused the chair that was originally in the office for Kerry and I am still hunting down the perfect one for me.  I am thinking some subtle floral fabric pattern, but we'll see.  All in all, we are pretty nuts about our new space.  Ona seems to love it too.So, our space went from this crazy, cluttered, mildly embarrassing sightTo this much more functional and funky space.Thank you for tagging along!