When You Don’t Have an Office

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always done all of my important work on this slat of wood we call our family table. It used to drive my mom crazy to find all of my books and art project spread out across the table. It used to drive my roommates crazy. And when we first got married it drove my husband crazy, he’s gotten use to it by now.

Yup, I’m currently typing from my dining room table.

Actually, our dining room serves many purposes, it’s a piano room, art room, exercise room and also a homeschool room for my little guy. This is what it looks like when it’s art time for him and my scripture art time for me.

This my friends is what I call my office–the end of my dining room table.

I like to dream about what my perfect office would look like. It will be not too big and not too small. The perfect cozy size with big windows so the fresh breeze can come in and happy sunshine can brighten my day. It probably won’t be a room with four walls, more like a breakfast nook in between my kitchen and dining room table. I don’t think I would want a typical desk in it but more of a rustic table. It will have lots of shelves for all my books and crafting baskets. It will definitely have the most cozy and comfortable chair ever created. Maybe a chalkboard or two to write quotes, I love quotes and scripture displayed in a pretty way around our home.

For now I’ll just suck it up and make the most of what I have.

The funny thing is I have pretty much have described my dining room but smaller.

This old cabinet door was turned into a wall hanging for my scripture art. I needed a clipboard because I like to change it up as I make new ones.  This hangs at the end of my “desk”.

Speaking of comfy chairs a few years ago my husband gave me a comfy office chair for Christmas.  Yes, I said an office chair as a Christmas present. I was so upset that I almost cried when I “opened” it up but my mom was visiting us for Christmas so I kept my feelings to myself. Eventually I got over myself. I did casually bring it up one day and he said he had thought long and hard about what to get me. What he kept thinking was that I always sit on the hard wooden chairs in the dining room table and he thought for sure I would love it. Well, after a reply like that I couldn’t be upset with him plus the reality is I use that gift every single day and sometimes for hours. It’s where I do my devotional time, it’s where I answer emails, it’s where I write…

Since January I’ve been wanting to organize my “office” space in the dining room a bit more. So, I asked my husband to help me fix my desk up. I wanted a shelf up and some baskets among other things.   This is what it looks like now and I absolutely love how it turned out!

I love it! Thanks hubby for doing all of these little things for me that speak “I love you!” in so many ways.

I especially love my wired baskets that I bought for $8 and decided they needed to be hanging. I also have a chalkboard frame made from a repurposed old cabinet.

 The desk is kind of old, we bought it second hand and it wasn’t it great shape when we first got it. I would love to paint it and give it a rustic Robin’s Egg blue look, but that may never happen. The picture above makes my desk look cluttered but this is actually the least cluttered it’s been in a while. Unfortunately, because it sits in the dining room I have to be very intentional about it not becoming a catch all area.

My sweet husband gave me this “just because” card last week. It totally made my day!

When You Don’t Have an Office

Here are my tips for all of us who don’t have money or time to invest in an official office area.

• Make the most of your space.  Find an area to place a small desk that may even serve two purposes. I saw at a hotel a decorative table and tucked under it was an office desk on wheels that you pulled out. Genius!
• Use the wall for shelves, and baskets.
• Use frames or like me, repurpose cabinets as chalkboards, calendars and cork boards. You can see here where I did that on our play room on a dime.
• Personalize it with pictures, your favorite books and small decorative items. When I added this diy terrarium to our dinner table I also had my office in mind. 🙂
• Don’t be afraid to use the dining room table. Keep a basket or two nearby where you can place all of your stuff before your meals are served.
• Stop waiting until you have a bigger house. Dreaming is fine but suck it up and use what you have.
• Look for used pieces of furniture and items on sale that you can change around. For example, during the holidays stores have baskets or other items on sale with maybe a small seasonal ornamental thing on it. See if it’s removable and buy it. Hobby Lobby has tons of these out of seasons items year round. I have managed to paint over it and change it around to fit my needs. I did this with these wall hooks.