French Country Home Office

This last week, I finally had the time to update my home office. If you have visited the blog lately, we have been doing a lot of office projects, including our latest feature on a home office for our daughter, who is currently working online for her Architecture degree, and needed a better space to work from home. You can check the link here to visit that blog post and see how we utilized a bonus room space to create a design studio for her.

Today I will be showing you my home office that I was able to rearrange to create a better work space for me. I feel like I'm like some evil genius in a squeaky menacing voice that is saying, "Mine, all mine", while rubbing my hands together gleefully.

But the space is so me and it is such a joy to work in, that I can't help feel a little indulged and selfish in it. :)

This space used to function as a multipurpose room that I shared with my daughter and her art supplies as well as her music space. It was organized fairly well, but crowded in an 11 x 10 space. I moved the music and art areas out since she has her own space now. Here is what my office looked like before:

I love the chalk board feature wall with the clock and had no desire to change that but I did repaint it just to fix any nicks over the years and make it fresh. I added a fab ticking stripe and ivory curtain from Hearth and Hand by Magnolia from Target. This is not a sponsored post but it is a brand I really love and I do share most of the products I buy for my home. Here is a look at the updated space:

I moved the farmhouse barn door cabinet by Better Homes and Gardens brand to the center wall in front of my desk and hung an adorable Rae & Dunn "Dream" sign I bought for my daughter's dorm room this last fall that she no longer used. I have a few art pieces I made on the wall that are botanical prints, one is of butterflies and the other is lavender in a vintage print. If you want to learn more about the DIY project for vintage prints, you can access that blog post with the tutorial here.

You may have noticed in the before picture that the desk had a hutch that was useful but always looked cluttered no matter what I did, so I removed it and flipped the desk around to face the entrance of the room.

I also purchased a new office chair. I absolutely love this chair because it matches my style, it is gray (those that know and follow me know how much I love gray), and it has an adjustable height, swivels and rocks. It also has an aged wood like finish on the legs and arms that matches the other furniture in my home and office. I had an ivory tufted chair that I was using for my office chair, but it was too low so I placed it on the other side (as if I have important meetings). My family gets a kick out of coming in while I'm working and we have pretend meeting just to be funny! I also created the metal "Maison Designs" home sign that is on the wall using metal letters and I faux painted cardboard letters for the name. It really looks like metal even up close.

My desk is wide enough that I placed this large wooden tray I made a few years ago to hold one of my favorite books and flowers from my garden. The title of the book, as you can see, is "Home Sweet Maison" (which means "home" in French). It was a gift from one of my best friends and it was so thoughtful, as she said it reminded her of me and the blog. She is the best and a big shout out to Beth here for being awesome and always supporting me!

Girlfriends are like sisters from another mother, am I right? I don't know what I would do without mine!

I also purchased a new mouse pad that I had personalized with the business name at Zazzle. Isn't it cute?

This office is definitely more fun to work in now and I even have a window that has a beautiful tree with a very sweet view of a robin's nest. On the day I was shooting these photos, I happen to see baby birds hatch and watch momma bird feeding them. I didn't want to disturb them at the time other than a fascinated observer, but came back later to get a closer view of the babies when momma had left to get more food and got this picture with my iphone. You can see one of the sweet little birdie faces over the nest!

We are still working on our patio, flower beds and updating the shed in the backyard. I'm excited to show you the progress soon. We are due some rain this week, so hopefully we can get it all done in between. In our last post, we also shared the unfortunate events of our POA approving a half court basketball court to be installed by the neighbors behind us. We are working on some solutions as the neighbors, due to the height of the basketball court, can now look into our backyard when they are playing. The noise level hasn't been as bad as I thought, but I do really enjoy my privacy so it has to be fixed somehow. I don't think they realized that they were going to be able to see us when they planned it, but they are 6 inches taller now due to the concrete court. However, as much as I care about my neighbors, I don't want to see their basketball goal or their heads over my fence. Since the court is up against our shared fence line, it feels intrusive and I honestly don't think they feel comfortable either, so we are working out cost and solutions, which we will share later. As I have been researching fencing, trees for privacy and noise solutions, etc, I realized that this is a common problem in a neighborhood setting and it's been fun to see more DIY & Design blogger friends come up with their own solutions. I will share a few of them that I've enjoyed along the way.

Hope you are all staying safe and navigating this pandemic well! And to all who are fighting for equality in the "Black Lives Matter" movement, I stand with you, I hear you and I'm praying progress and change happens swiftly. When we share our love and stories, we grow together and create a better world!

I want to leave you with this quote that I love by MLK and please feel free to share this IG square that I made to show support!