Cheap Office Make-Over

So I really don't have any space in our house thats just mine. I mean, technically my bathroom (Jason uses the guest as his), but he's still in mine pretty frequently. I do have a vanity in our master bedroom, but it rarely gets used. Usually only if I'm curling my hair because that gets too hot in my tiny little bathroom.

We have a guest bedroom that is basically just a collection of all of the furniture that doesn't go anywhere else in the house. There's a bed, a nightstand, a crappy desk with a filing cabinet, a leather club chair, a fake leather storage ottoman, and one of those tacky wicker and iron corner shelves. On top of all of that, there's also a bunch of junk.

Our desk has been a catch all for quite a while now. I'd clean it off and we'd junk it back up again; wash, rinse, repeat. Lately I've been trying to take my blog more seriously and it occurred to me that I can't take it seriously when I'm sitting in front of the TV. It's too distracting.

First, I tried sitting at the dining table, facing away from the TV. This worked... kind of. I wrote 1 post, then proceeded to Pinterest for about an hour. So then I tried my bed. Hey, it was worth a shot, but I'm pretty sure you know how that one turned out. 

Finally, I decided to clean off the stupid desk and make that a place where blogging commences. Growing up, my homework was done at the kitchen counter, the computer, my bed, where ever I was comfortable, really. But in college, I was given a dorm room with a desk in it and no other counterspace (I lived with 4 girls in a 900sqft dorm- it literally was the ONLY counterspace) and I got really used to my desk being my "Serious Space".  If something needed to get done, I sat down at my desk.

I think that mentality still holds true in my brain, because after I cleaned this ugly desk off tonight and sat down at it with my laptop, this post starting pouring out of me and I started brain storming on ways to make this space better.

I'm a newly wed who contributed quite a bit of money to her wedding (Thank you mama and daddy, and mama-in law for the other parts!!! You guys are AMAZING!), and also recently bought a new car, so our "spending money" is pretty much drained. I basically have to work with what I got/thrifted pieces/dollar store/walmart stuff. Which is totally fine with me!

We have no idea how long we'll be in this apartment and so why should I buy a bunch of stuff that I'm not even sure we'll have space for in a new place? (We're looking at possibly moving next month)

Here's a picture of the awful space that I'm working with right now:

Who are those people with no printers in the photos of their office? How do you print stuff? YOU LIE AND HIDE YOUR PRINTER, YOU CHEATING CHEATERS!!

Cramped, surrounded by a shoe rack and bins full of junk, bare-bones, crappy Walmart $40 desk that's been used and abused, and no personality.

Like I said, it's been a catch-all for two years.

I was trying to think of things that I could do to make the actual desk itself prettier, but the more I looked at the photo, the more I realized that you can't even hardly see the desk. The filing cabinet to one side (which Jason will NOT let me move, hah) blocks the main side and the chair basically blocks the rest. That chair is actually a chair that Jason brought me home a week or so ago for my vanity to re-do. But we have no desk chair either so it's doubling as either/or right now.

Since I have to roll with the fact that my walls are white and my desk is dark, and since all of the other furniture in the room is dark as well, I don't get to have one of those gorgeous, light, bright offices that you other bloggers get to have. I also have to share this space with my husband, should he ever decide to come in and sit a spell at this thing.

Since the majority of the mess that accumulated on this desk was junk mail and receipts, I know that I need some baskets and shelves to house some things. I thought these baskets and shelves would work well together, and look cute on a white wall.

Here and here.

We have quite a few mason jars hanging around, so I thought I could turn them into organizers. I also have quite a bit of fabric scrap from my job, and I thought I could line the inside of the jars with fabric to give them some color. I tried to Google a photo of this for inspiration, but it appears that I can't find one. Could I really be the first person to propose doing this on the internet? No way, Jose. 

Source.

This is the closest I could find, though I have no intention of modge podging the fabric on. I want it to be removable and hang out the top all adorable like.

Lastly, I know there's another chair in storage that's the same as the one in the picture, so I may just grab that out, paint it, and recover it. Probably something like this:

Source.

It's a little small for my butt, though.

I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

But the size of my ass is a story for another day. Probably a Monday when I feel like I was terrible all weekend long and I suddenly have the motivation to do anything but it only lasts until I get into work and someone brought in donuts.

The end.