Writing on a Wall.

I am a total sucker for a cool wall treatment.  You name it, I've tried it.  Stencil, stucco, whitewash, sponge.  I've done them all.  Chalkboard paint?  Tried it, love it.  Magnetic paint?  Pretty cool, too.  

So when I heard about Rust-Oleum's newest addition to the line of awesome paint products I totally need in my life,  I immediately started racking my brain to find a place for it in my home. 

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Rust-Oleum Dry Erase Paint.

My official review?

If you read my previous blog post, you'll see that I've painted an entire wall of my home office with dry erase paint.  And I couldn't be happier with the results.  Here's what I've learned through my experience:

• There are two parts to the paint, Part A and Part B.  The box containing both cans cost me around $22.oo at Lowe's.  
  
• The box says it will cover a 7x7 area.  I didn't measure my wall before I started painting, but I ended up having to run out and buy a second box.  
  
• My green wall required a coat of primer and 3 coats of dry erase paint.  If I were to do it again, I would have used 2 coats of primer.
  

• Part A and Part B need to be mixed together in order to activate the paint.

• Once mixed together, the mixture must be used within 2 hours.  So once you've mixed it, there's no storing and hoping to use it later.
• The paint was easy to use, but much thinner and much more runny than ordinary interior wall paint.  I wish I had kept a better eye on it as it was drying, I noticed quite a bit of drips that I could have fixed had I been looking for them.
• It has a unique odor.  My husband nailed it when he noted it smelled like masking tape.
• A craft foam brush worked best for trim work.  Also tried a pad and a brush. The pad created runs, the paint brush left obvious brush marks. 
• After painting, the wall needed 2 days of drying time before I could write on it. 
• The marker erases with a dry eraser but leaves a very slight shadow.  A damp paper towel completely removes all marks.  I may purchase a new eraser and see if that makes a difference.

The box came with very easy, yet thorough directions.  The product was simple to use and my wall was finished quickly.  I am using dry erase markers from an office supply store to write on the wall and they are working great.

I can imagine so many cool uses for this paint other than a wall.  The box has quite a few suggestions but I'd love to see what great ideas you come up with!  I highly recommend you give it a try.  

Happy painting!

Still Not Done.

And with that, you're pretty much caught up on the status of my office makeover.  At this point I am beginning to think I may be blogging about the room makeover for the rest of my life.

So let me get you up to speed with what has happened since my last update (don't worry, it won't take long).

After laboring over paint color for about 2 weeks, I finally decide on an awesome Benjamin Moore gray "Pilgrim Haze".  Here's a screenshot of what it will look like in the room:

Great, right?  Not so fast.  Because the morning before I plan to buy the paint, I'm flipping through Southern Living magazine and I see this photo:

I love, love, love this room.  I love the fresh green walls with the clean white chairs and the sharp black table and the silver appliances and the sun streaming through the window and HELLO...this is my room.  I already have the white chairs and the green walls and I can have a black table and I have sun streaming through the windows (once I take down the hideous drapes, anyways).  So the green walls stay.  Decision made.

Which leads me to this:

Now before you wonder why on earth I would paint one wall blinding bright white, let me explain.  Dry erase paint (A.K.A. coolest paint treatment ever).  A whole wall of dry erase board.  I intend to write an entire blog post just on this paint-- I am that thrilled with it.

And lastly, this one is for my husband.  I am sure he will be thrilled to know I plan to move this into the office.  I'll keep you up to date on that conversation as well.

And there you have it.  You are officially caught up on the office makeover.  Told you it wouldn't take long.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

That pretty much sums up the progress of my office makeover (bet you were thinking I had given up on the project due to my lack of updates).   

Here's how the week has gone:

1. I attempt to paint an accent wall.  Need to remove all contents of newly organized bookcase in order to do this.  Thus messing up the entire neatly reorganized office.  The place looks messier than it did before the makeover.
   
2. Run out of paint for the accent wall.  Paint store is closed.  Cannot buy paint.
3. Decide to work on drapes for office instead.  Cut fabric.  Realize I have enough drapery lining for one window.  Office has two windows.  Fabric store is closed.

So here is my office progress:  I cannot walk in the office due to the contents of the bookcase and the miscellaneous paint supplies all over the floor.  My entire home smells like paint.  I have drapery fabric arranged in various spots throughout the living and dining room so it doesn't get wrinkled before I can make the trip to the store to buy more lining.

Am I frustrated?  

Let's just say I really need this office redo to be done.

A Plan for the Office

This week has been crazy busy for me.  I hit the Etsy gift guide for the first time, celebrated my 100th sale on Etsy and I am enjoying spending time with the boys who are now home for summer vacation.  All good things, but the office makeover was momentarily put on hold.  Life has settled down again and I am happy to have a second to update my progress. 

Our home office is truly the grand central station of our house.  The boys use the computer and do their homework there.  My husband frequently brings work home which he completes in this space.  Oh, yeah, and then there's me with all of my supplies, printer, etc.  So it's a large room, but much is required of it.

To deal with the challenge of this space, I created a computerized floor plan with the exact room dimensions.  I also measured the larger objects currently in the room (desk, table, filing cabinets) and printed those out as well. 

The photo above is the layout of the room before the makeover (that back right corner wasn't empty, picture it piled with envelopes, paper and a printer to get a more accurate image).  As you can see, every piece of furniture is pushed up against a wall creating a huge area of wasted space in the center of the room.  Odd way to arrange the room.

Playing around with furniture placement.  Unfortunately, my husband's favorite chair is going to have to be relocated.

The final floor plan.  Bringing the desk into the center of the room actually makes the room appear much larger.  This placement also creates more wall space for much needed storage.  The empty wall to the right of the door will be my area.  I'm drawing up plans for a workspace here.

And a photo of the rearranged room.  There are still clutter issues, but the new layout is working great for everyone.

Next up: paint.  Be sure to check back for a cool technique I have decided on.  Can't wait to try it out.

Progress on a Rainy Day

It rained here yesterday.  And I'm not talking a little sprinkle here and there.  I'm talking total downpour,  thunderstorm rain.  That's pretty much the way it went all day long.  Rain, rain, rain.  So our morning plans were cancelled.  And then our afternoon plans were cancelled.  And then our evening plans were cancelled.  Suddenly I had a whole day to get work done.  One son in camp, one exhausted from the sleepover he had the night before, and one son happy to help me out.  It was like the stars had all aligned at our home and I could actually get something accomplished.  Knowing this is an extremely rare event, I took total advantage of the time.  I got caught up on all of my work (yes, ALL of it).  I finished the laundry, I did the dishes.   And I finally had the opportunity to begin cleaning out the disaster area I call my office.  At the end of the day I had made serious progress.

In case you have forgotten what the room looked like--here's a before shot:

And a recent picture showing a definite improvement:

As I was clearing the space, I made mental notes that I thought would be helpful to me later.  I've listed some of the most useful observations below.

1. Everything I don't use regularly was cleared from the room.  That included the huge planter holding all my large rolls of fabric.  The fabric has been moved to the basement, the planter to the garden.
2. Most of the mess in the office is due to paper and envelopes.  I need a way to store these items where they can be easily accessible, but I would love to not have to look at them all of the time.  I think I have an interesting solution for this.
3. I love the color of this room, but I can't concentrate in it for more than 5 minutes.  So I have made the decision to repaint it.  Originally I had planned on a pale butter yellow, but after reviewing the contents of the room I may change my mind.  The computers and printers are all black.  The existing table, desk and bookcase are all white.  I think that a pale gray might tie everything together nicely.  There is a lot going on in this room, I am not sure it can handle more color. 
4. The window treatments have got to go.  This has been on my list for a very long time.  I hate them and have always hated them.  My plan is to make simple crisp white, soft roman shades with decorative black trim.  I am imagining the sun softly coming in through the shades and warming the gray walls up.
5. The style of the room will be an industrial country kind of vibe.  The farmhouse table we use for a computer desk has a a gray veined marble top.  I will recover the seats of the matching white chairs with black vinyl (which I already own) to match the black leather office chair in the room.
6. I would love a long area to put my printer and vinyl cutter on.  It would also be nice to have space to spread things out to dry.  This area could be used for shipping purposes as well.  I would love to be able to use the wall space above for notes, etc.  I have a plan for this that I can't wait to try.
7. Sad note of the day.  While son was helping me clean, he sliced open the palm of his hand with a rotary cutter.  Sitting right next to me, playing with my paper hole punchers, he grabbed what he thought was a new puncher and really hurt himself.  Terrible.  He is okay now, but it stressed to me the importance of having everything put in a proper location. Sharp things completely inaccessible in this case. 
   
8. Surprisingly, I have only one half filled bag of garbage so far.  This tells me I really do need almost everything in this room.  I just need a better storage system.

Lastly, I was able to open the shades today.  I have been so discouraged by the mess of the room, that I have kept the shades drawn for a very long time.  When I opened them, I was greeted with the sight below.  Beautiful stargazer lilies in bloom, my grandmother's favorite flower.  I planted them in this space of the garden specifically so I could see them from the office.  Until today, I had forgotten how pretty they looked from this view.

The Monica Room

True confession time.  I am a Monica.  

You remember the T.V. show "Friends"?   Well, if I had to best describe myself as any sitcom character, it would probably be Monica (played by Courtney Cox).  Don't look anything like her, mind you, but personality wise, pretty good match.  Monica was a little intense, a little uptight, liked order and needed to have everything around her organized and in its place.  For the most part, that's me.  I have 3 sons and a husband, so there is a little more room for error around our house.  But the take out menus are bound in a 3 ring binder and marked "take out menus" (with a label maker, of course. I own two).  The junk drawer is neatly organized in compartments and all compartments are labeled.  Christmas decorations are placed in, you guessed it, labeled plastic containers.  Clothes hangers in our home are color coded, sock drawers have dividers, video games are separated by system.  Order is good.

Now if you were a fan of "Friends", you may remember the episode where the secret room in Monica's tidy apartment was discovered.  The very disorganized, junk drawer of a room that know one knew about much less was allowed to set foot in it.  It was called "the Monica room".  Do you see where I am going with this?

I have a "Monica room".   

You would think saying it out loud would be bad enough, but no, I am going to actually post a photo.  A carefully selected photo and not the worst one in the bunch.  This corner of the room is the "neat" area.  And look quickly, because at any moment I may lose my nerve and delete this from my blog.

Why would I do this, you ask?  Because I have accepted a challenge.  A group of us on the Etsy Greetings team are taking on the task of reorganizing our workspaces together.  We'll be posting regularly during the process and linking to each other's blogs.  At the end of 4 weeks, we are hopeful that we will be creating up a storm in our new and improved rooms (pardon me, I just laughed when I typed 4 weeks).  But anyways, I'll do my best and I'll be posting pictures of my progress (or lack thereof).  Be sure to check back, it should be interesting.