There are a few reasons I needed to tackle my home office as a project early in the year.  The main reason is that I am taking over the kitchen.  My business has grown enough that I really can not keep working were we are supposed to be eating.  I desperately need the kitchen to be less cluttered and I need the kitchen table to be a place we actually eat at!

The thing is, I had an office space, but it left me completely un-inspired.  I would try to work in there and find myself leaving shortly after.  It was dark and dreary and I just don’t want to be in there.

So when I started to think about how I would redecorate the room I thought about what type of colors would leave me inspired and were I am most happy.  The only place I could think of was the beach.  So, I brought the beach to my work space!

First, I followed my rules and went through everything I had in there and asked myself “Do I used this?”  Do I love this?”  I ended up donating a bunch of toys that Alex had outgrown that were hiding in the corner of what was slowly turning into the catch all room.

Once the room was decluttered it was time to paint.

Covering deep red paint was a bigger job than I had imagined and what was supposed to be a weekend project turned into a week long task.  I was inspired by a beautiful wind chime that I purchase on our vacation and so I went with neutral walls (Behr Gravel Stone to be exact) and picked up on shades of blue in my decorations.  Before long (6 long days!) it turned into a room I look forward to going into each day!

One of the amazing benefits of having this room is that I feel I have a better work/life balance already.  Working from home is a wonderful gift, but it is hard to separate life and work, especially when you love your job as much as I do.  Having this room away from the hub of our lives allows me to shut the doors, leave work behind and be more present with the boys.  My goal is to keep 10-3 as my work hours.  All time before and after are for family.

This project did take longer than I had anticipated and put me a bit behind on my 52 week timeline, but I couldn’t be more happy with he results!

Here are the before and after pictures:  What do you think?

So far I have kept up with all my week 1-3 projects and I can feel the house slowly turning into the happy oasis I envision it to be!

Now to catch up with week 5  and 6!