Office Glitz

IKEA's pretty devious if you ask me.  Every time I end up there to buy a flip house kitchen or such, I end up spending money on my own house as well. After drooling over this lamp for 6 months,

my resistance wore down.

It fit's perfectly in my office.  Not too big, not too small, and just enough glitz.  Check out that cord and gold accents!  Well done, IKEA!  (it's also available in silver, but the white just called to me)

I also purchased drawer inserts for my office's expedit cubbies.  I've tried to keep flip reciepts and paperwork organized with just open shelving, but it hasn't been pretty (read: looks like a bomb went off).  Once I got 4 sets of drawers home and assembled one set, I noticed an issue...

As you may know, IKEA's expedit line has now been replaced with Kallax.  Same product, but a little sleeker.  And, apparently, slightly whiter.

Not kosher.  It wasn't close enough to be the same and not different enough to be different, if you know what I mean.  The way I saw it, I had 2 options.  Go back to IKEA and pick up the drawers in the wood tone...

... and IKEA's 35 minutes away and at this point was a weekend.  I don't do IKEA on weekends...... I like myself too much to do that to me....  so where does that leave me?

Paint them, naturally.

I went with a light gray- just gray enough to add a bit of contrast to the white and get away from the clashing white tones.

Some fancier brass pulls are in these drawers future, but until then, I also sprayed the knobs gold.  Can you tell how excited I am for the weather finally to be nice enough to start painting outside again?

Once I get the office organized once again and tweak a few more small things, I'll give you a full office update.  Until then, I'm totally excited to have a little bit more style in this tiny room.

Well, I'm off to meet the contractor at Grover!  Happy Monday!!

Cubbie Chic

I've been having a bit of fun playing with the styling of my new office bookshelves.

Had to make sure you were still paying attention.

This pretty vase is one of my Black Friday Anthropologie deals!  I've been eyeing this vase for ages, but couldn't bring myself to buy it at full price.  It's originally $28 (which isn't a lot for Anthro), but I think $11 sound better, don't you?  As you may have noticed, there is one broken petal, but with matching paint dabbed on the broken edge, no one will even notice.  Anthro sale rack FTW*!

*FTW= "For the win"  I blame Hubby for this being in my vocabulary.

Jewelry Hook-up

I've been talking about how to organize my hoard of jewelry for what seems like forever and a day.  I had been thinking about using frames to display it all, and I even tried a version here.  HOWEVER, I've realized, when I drag my feet on a project, it usually means that something just doesn't feel right.  So I finally scrapped that plan and went a new direction: hooks. The idea for a collection of vintage-style hooks hit me when Zara Home went live in the US a little over a month ago.  They have so many beautiful options!

1/2/3/4/5

After waiting so long for inspiration to hit, I was in the mood to git-r-done.  Waiting for a shipment from Zara Home, no matter how pretty it may be, wasn't what I wanted (sorry Zara!).  Glutton for punishment, I headed over to my go-to place for vintage style hardware: Anthropologie.  That place is dangerous.  As in walk-through-the-doors-and-surrender-your-wallet dangerous.  Per usual, I left spending more than planned, but I scored a pretty awesome collection of vintage inspired hooks to showcase my necklaces.

I went rogue and started hanging them without planning it out first.  Thank goodness it worked out- plaster walls aren't very forgiving.

I just love the textural interest all the different hooks add.

The frame was actually an unplanned last minute addition, but it's one of my favorite parts.  It's currently showcasing 2 beautiful necklaces from Hubby.

Not the biggest transformation, but it's just a breath of fresh air.  Certainly makes my 6am wardrobe accessorizing a bit easier.