MY NEW OFFICE REVEAL! EEEEEEEK!

OOOOOOH my goodness. It's finally done. I did it I did it! I finished my office and I am completely obsessed with it. I am not even kidding, I sat in there for like hours yesterday for no apparent reason. I didn't even have any "officey" things to do, but I just love being in that space. It makes me feel creative and happy. Are you ready to see it? I mean reeeeaaaallllyyyy ready?! Ok, here's the big reveal (resisting the urge to scream "move that bus!")

The view from the door:

My favorite part of the entire room is the chalkboard wall. I am soooo happy with how it turned out. Here's a little play by play of how it was created. I bought three 30 oz containers of Rust-Oleum Flat Black Chalkboard Paint. I ended up only using 2 for the entire wall, but am glad I have the extra for other details around the room. I poured the paint in a paint tray and then just rolled it on like regular paint. It is thicker than regular paint so be sure to stir it reeeeeeally well before pouring it into the tray. The paint can get a bit splashy when rolling (I ended up with little black dots all over me) so I suggest using a paint roller that is thicker and more dense instead of the cheapy kind. I painted one coat completely and let it dry for only about 30 minutes. The container says to wait 24 hours between coats, but I am super impatient and was like nooooo thanks, so I waited 30 minutes. It was dry to the touch at that point so I figured it would be fine anyway. I painted another complete coat and let it dry for another 30 minutes. At that point it was looking pretty solid but I decided to give it one more coat, making it 3 total (in a span of like 2 hours). After painting, I let it dry completely for a few days.

After it was completely dry, I was ready to write. When you first paint a chalkboard wall you have to do something called "priming". If you skip this step, then basically everything you write on your board will be permanent.  To prime, you just lay a piece of chalk on it's side and cover the entire wall with chalk. Rub it in pretty good and then erase it with a rag or eraser. I used a car wash mitt that looks like this:

It worked really well surprisingly. I also used a swiffer sweeper pad to collect all the extra dustiness.

Finally, I was ready to write and OMG I was so excited. I mapped everything out first. I found some of my favorite quotes and inspirational thoughts to keep my space creative. I made a powerpoint document with each of the quotes on a black background and played around with what I would want them all to look like. For example:

I'm actually pretty sad because I ran out of room and couldn't fit that one up there so I figured I would share it here. Once I had my little mock ups of what I wanted to do, I just chose spots for things and free-hand wrote each quote. I was careful to be sure the quotes didn't run into one another. I was quite surprised with how well it went, considering it was all free-hand. I was sure it would be horrible hahaha

Here's how it looks from a few different angles:

 

The view from my desk:

Some of my favorite parts of the wall:

Let's talk about the rest of the room! I worked long and hard to find the perfect pieces for every nook and cranny. Found some pretty fab bargains along the way too!

This chair is from Ikea and is called "Muren". This chair has a very funny story. So I was at Ikea with my family. My dad and my sister were pretty sick of shopping since we had been there all day, but me and my mom were still trucking along. They took a little resty on some chairs while we hit up the clearance "as-is" section. I was in the market for an awesome chair but had no luck so far. As we're walking through the clearance, I see these two women looking at this chair. They were sitting in it, looking it over, reclining it (yes, it reclines! score!). They asked 3 employees questions about it. I was staring at that beauty from across the room and just knew it had to be mine. I whisper to my mom and we pretty much hawk them for like 20 minutes. We pretended to be looking at this beautiful cabinet (cough, piece of junk, cough) next to the char and contemplating whether we should get it. Heh heh. So finally the women said, "Well I'm not sure if we can get it today, we didn't bring the right vehicle. Let's walk around and think about it and come back in a bit." AAAAH! The second they walked away we picked that guy up and put it on a cart. Rolled it away right and it was mine. Mwa ha ha! Maybe I should feel bad about that, but I don't. I'm sorry, but they left it there and it was free for the picking. So we picked, and it was amazing. It was 50% off just because it had been a floor model and was in perfect condition. I just Febreezed the **** out of that guy when we got home. Yes please :) 

So I knew I had to have a pop of color to break up the black, gray, and white. I thought teal would be perfect! I looked allll over for pillows and finally found the perfect ones at Tuesday Morning. That little place is adorable and full of unique things at great prices. I also snagged the little basket in the picture below. The white table is one of my favorite things. It was from HomeGoods. It is actually an umbrella holder, but I loved the look of it so I flipped it upside down and am using it as as table. Cool right?! My kindle case just happened to be teal so it matches perfectly :)

These cute letters are actually stamps that I bought from Hobby Lobby. I love the look of them. The sand timer and candle holder are both from HomeGoods and the tiny clock is from Pier 1.

I am OBSESSED with my printer stand. It is from Ikea and is called "Alex". It was super reasonably priced and easy to assemble. The quality is fantastic. I have all of my colored paper sorted in each drawer. Drawer 1: regular white paper, Drawer 2: white cardstock, Drawer 3: colored cardstock, Drawer 4 & 5: assorted colored paper, Drawer 6: printer cartridges and assorted printer things.

Of course there had to be a special spot for the babies:

This adorable galvanized mail holder is from Target. It makes me so happy :) I also painted the light switch plate with chalkboard paint. I'm planning to write something on there at some point.

CHECK OUT this addddddorable trash can. Is it not the cutest little thing?? It is from HomeGoods also. I love how oscar-the-grounchy it is.

Cute little industrial fan and "bee boxes" are from HomeGoods!

My sweet little chair :) Adorbs. Snagged this guy at ikea also. It is the Skruvsta!

My sparkly lamp is the perfect girly touch to balance the industrial pieces throughout the room. Found it at Tuesday Morning!

MY HEADQUARTERS:

This is where the magic happens people.

Isn't that the cutest?

And my final touch is the smell. Literally my FAVORITE smell in the entire world is the Mahogany Teakwood candle from Bath and Body Works. Oh my word, it smells amazing. This candle will make the entire room smell good.

VOILA! I did it! This is my new happy place. I want to live in this room. It makes me feel inspired, creative, and relaxed so mission accomplished!

I want to see your happy place too! Where is your favorite place to be?!

Love you all!

XO Khrys