A $5 roll of contact paper
As the only female in a house full of men–and no the dog doesn’t count!–I often feel at a loss for things pretty. I can do without pink and lacy and frilly, but pretty, that I need. Especially in my work space.
There in lies the problem. I share an office with my husband. He arranged the room as only an engineer armed with graph paper and a tape measure could. I bet you wouldn’t have guessed two full sized desks, two industrial size file cabinets, four book cases, a large armoire and a love seat could fit in a 12×12 room, but rest assured, they do. The room is efficient, but not pretty.
I promised myself that after I finished Remember the Past, I would do a deep clean on the office and see what I could do to make it less of an eyesore, at least on my half. LOL! The disgorging of all the drawers, shelves and piles was the easy part.
Getting it all put back is a multilevel challenge. (1) I only want to put back what I actually need and get rid of the rest. (2) I want things put back right, so what I need most is at my finger tips. (3) I want it put away and PRETTY.
That last been has been the most difficult. Pretty office organizers, abound, but the right combination of look, size and price is pretty hard to come by. Nearly ready to concede defeat, I found the answer: a $5 roll of contact paper!
A bit on the battered desktop and the desk is actually inviting again. On the back of the book shelves and they are revived. A spot here and there on the old organizers and they look intentional and matching. One happy camper and a happier checkbook!
I’m not done yet, but here are a few pictures of the work in progress.
A fairly productive week, in spite of all the cleaning chaos and a disobedient muse who has twice more rewritten the plot of my current WIP.
Words of Fiction Written: 11,000 words on 2 different fiction projects
Words of Nonfiction written: 500 words
Blog Posts Prepared: 14 posts for 3 different sites
Emails written: 45 emails, about 1800 words
Social Media Interactions: 35, about 700 words
Articles Read (Research and writing craft/business): 10 research and 15 craft/business
Paper back formatting for Remember the Past–waiting for the proof in the mail!
This weeks total words: 14,000
I’ll leave you with a new entry from my Writer’s Sketchbook. This one could get interesting…
No! She had been here before him. And she knew exactly what she was doing.
He removed the kool-aid pitcher from the refrigerator, a quarter of an inch of bright red liquid sloshed in he bottom. He held it up in the sunlight. It glowed like a gem, a sadly insufficient gem. Not enough to fill a glass, not even on of the tiny ones they kept just for children’s visits.
His hand shook, just a little–what was he supposed to do with this? Dirty an entire glass for just more than a mouthful? Pour it out into the sink and…and…waste it?
If this was how she wanted to play, he knew how he should act…
I would love to hear what you think. Please have your share of the conversation in the comments!
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My husband and I find that we cannot work in a shared space. Our solution? My workshop is next to his studio. We keep the doors open so that we can talk if we need to but can’t actually see the other person’s mess.
I might try that if we had space for it, but we really can’t. Oddly enough, my husband actually likes sharing the office and set the desks up intentionally so that he could see me while we worked.A little sappy, I know, but it works for us. LOL! Thanks Evie!
Maybe he drinks straight from the pitcher and is caught…..I like what you’re doing to your office. Did similarly, with contact paper, to the overhead drawer in our 20 ft minicamper. Mine was blue/white. Yours seems crisp, yet calming….not distracting. I like what you’ve done. But, the most important aspect is that you are happy with it. 🙂
Oooo, that is an idea. It is actually a little fun torturing these nameless characters. I wonder how long it’ll keep going. LOL
I did a blue and white contact paper treatment in the laundry room of our old house and it really jazzed up the place. Wonderful stuff, isn’t it?
Yes, it is wonderful stuff. My mind is going…..All my kitchen cabinet shelves are also lined……white with small pastel tulips…..I look at it several times a day and it didn’t even register when I responded to your post earlier this week.(sigh)