guest room turned dual office space

You now those activities that make you feel alive? That make you excited, and want to share in your joy? Think about it… and bonus points if you can think about something you can do from home because you know, quarantine 2020. A big part of my joy list, at all times, is renovating and updating our home.

Patrick and I remodeled a home back in 2009-2010 up in the Florida Panhandle and it was what started this entire blog. Actually, if you scroll way on back, you can find some of the posts about it. I knew at that time that we were meant to be living life out loud - although I wasn’t sure how just yet so it was kinda half-effort when it came to the blog.

Then enter essential oils - and I was semi-forced to give myself a platform. I had to get louder, to get bolder, to break down so many of the walls and barriers I was so used to having up to “protect” myself. So this blog continued to be built on the basis of health + wellness from the perspective of this ex-engineer and homebody.

Alas, my heart and current to do list is all at home, and I just freaking love house projects so I’m talking about them today! Also, I thought that with all/most of us now working from home, could use some inspiration to just create yourself a workspace. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to buy anything, but I find it so important to have a space to dream + work + write + connect + tune out the noise of the world… especially right now.

Now we’re at this point in our home where after a year, our master bathroom is finally done, and we’ve started a few projects that will help our home until we decide to fully renovate (like re-sealing and painting over our chattahoochee rock on the back porch, you know, that typical Florida patio with the brown rocks that fall apart?) and we had to cut out some wet drywall from the kids bathroom that we’ve yet to put back in place. Baby steps, y’all.

With the beginning of this pandemic, my brain immediately started solving problems that weren’t quite a problem yet, but I knew we’d get that message that school would be closed until fall and that my hubby would get the notice to work from home indefinitely. Which, of course, we did. And me! Poor me ;) An introvert who adores her alone time while the kids are at school and the house is silent.

I knew that we had to create spaces for each of us to have our own work areas. And what a dilemma this is! In a 1600 square foot home, our children already share a room (honestly, that was for sanity purposes because I was so tired of picking up two rooms multiple times a day and it’s worked out beautifully so far).

I debated on adding a desk to our bedroom (not ideal since sometimes I have late calls, or early ideas), or putting a desk in one of our living rooms (which we tried with a folding table with the kids and it was the same problem as with the dining table - stuff ended up ALL OVER THE HOUSE from the kids, and it was stressful).

So while we’re currently working with my daughter Harlee’s desk in her bedroom for her school work, it’s a temporary solution. I have some ideas and will likely have them end up taking over a hall closet, which makes more sense in person since the closet is perfectly setup to turn into a desk. I definitely need a spot where the kids can sit next to each other to help them simultaneously. They’re almost 5 and just barely 6, and this virtual schooling is a challenge. It’s really a whole other topic, but basically my four year old plays legos and magnatiles while I spend 3-4 hours on a COMPUTER with my 6 YEAR OLD. I’m praying week 2 brings more clarity on how to help both of them.

So back to the adult office.

And a side note that I believe is super important: Honestly, start with YOU, mama. Get the spaces settled for you and your husband who are working from home now and bringing in income, one way or another. Don’t feel guilty about making the kids schooling second. Our children need stability, guidance, and love way more than they need to spend four hours on a computer everyday, and this stability starts with you.

I created a design for the office that involves a desk for my husband and I, out of things we already had in our home. The room already had a cute rug and some art I printed from Etsy, and I knew I had a pile of art in the hall closet I was about to clean out to add some more. I have this ability to rearrange or use what we already have in our home to make a big impact and make the space what we need it to grow into, which is great, except sometimes it takes over my brain until I can act on it (focus strength, hah).

I ultimately decided on changing up our guest room and sacrificing my solo office space in there. Out went our guest bed to give us the extra space. I was really sad to have it go, but really we use it like 5x a year, if that, so it was officially the most unused piece of furniture in our home. (Sorry, sis… but we’ll get you a nice air mattress for when you visit!) This is what it looked like before, with curtains from when this room was Declan’s nursery and a small desk that Patrick built me a few years ago.

We’d had a table top sitting in our garage to a table that I literally grew up with. My Dad had it built for us out of some of the wood we used in a home he built for us up in Vermont when I was probably 7. My idea? Cut it in half and make two desks out of it, which we did. My husband is pretty handy like that so he sawed it in half, sanded it, and clear coated it and instead of legs, we wanted to hang it from the wall so he used some scrap wood to create some trusses underneath.

After a few days of that sanding and painting process, it was time to hang! (And yep, I still need to fix the curtains. Actually, Patrick will fix them, because he’s the one who knows how to operate the sewing machine. If I’m left to it, I’ll just cut them, which is a high possibility as well….)

I collected some pictures, oils, plants, and artwork from around the house and they now have a new home in the office. While this is a lot brighter and lighter than my current Pinterest vision boards of simple neutrals with small pops of color, this room makes me so happy to walk in to each morning!

The purple chairs and pillows were leftover from a Create & Cultivate event, the rug a Facebook marketplace find, curtains from Ikea years ago, art on the left wall was from Harlee’s nursery, Guatemala, and a yard sale. Sailor man my Mamaw painted. The floor lamp was purchased from a friend’s garage sale. Black cart is ikea. Desk lamp was probably Homegoods.

Creating a space that works for us to work from home wasn’t an easy process. It took some thought, a lot of rearranging, and more rearranging, which is still ongoing as we create a space for the kids. For example - cleaning out one console to use as a space for kids crafts, and now needing a bookshelf for all the books I cleaned out of it (or going through them to donate), or me cleaning out the huge hall closet we may put the kids desk in and now needing to figure out where to put all the things in it.

It’s a domino effect, but the important thing is to keep it simple and create a space for YOU, mama. You’ve got this. Throw a bunch of stuff in bags to deal with later, if you have to.

I created you a checklist to create your very own workspace… you can grab that at the button below. Maybe share the link with a friend who is struggling as well? I list 3 questions to ask yourself before you get started on creating your space to help with logistics, and 7 things a visionary leader keeps in her workspace.

I can’t WAIT to see what your workspaces look like! Share them with me over in my Insta DMs, ok?