10 Jul 2020

Home | Take A Look At My New Office

Creating an office space at home

The very first room we decorated when we moved into our house was one of the upstairs bedrooms. We created a home office for the both of us, with two desks, and it was all very pretty and cute.

Then lockdown happened. And we realised that both of us working from home five days a week in the same room wasn’t really sustainable. Between the other having meetings (or both of us having meetings at the same time), phone calls and the age old shall-we-have-the-radio-on-or-not argument, we realised it was probably better if we didn’t spend all our working hours together in one room.

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

So I’ve relocated to the box room. When we moved in, it was clear that the previous owners had used this room as a child’s nursery. It was painted yellow, with animal stickers on the wall. There was quite a lot of wall damage so Gary had to do a fair bit of filling and sanding before it was ready to be painted. At first, we created a bit of a ‘reading’ room; we had floor-to-ceiling curving book shelves for books and CDs plus Gary’s old lazy boy chair. It was a cute and cosy room and has been one of my favourites since we moved, but I actually love it even more now that’s it’s my own office space.

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

The shelves we bought from Ikea, specifically for this room as we wanted to create a curve-around-the-corner effect (this is probably the closest I will get to my dream of having a library). We filled it with our books (mostly mine) and CDs (mostly Gary’s) plus a few random photos and nick-nacks and it makes me very happy to look at.

We shifted the shelves round to the other corner when I decided this was going to be my office, to allow for space, and then slotted the desk right under the window which I love. It’s so nice to work in a space with so much daylight.

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

Creating an office space at home

The desk is from Ikea and the pink chair from John Lewis, both of which we bought soon after moving in (Gary has matching, only his chair is grey). The Norway print and world pin map are new but the New York prints we bought on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2017 and the rug used to be in our bedroom back in the flat. For the desk, the rose gold candle & tray I already had, but I added the rose gold photo frames to match, plus the Keep Writing print to fill that corner of the windowsill. My plant is slowly becoming a tree but he is very happy on a south-facing windowsill, so he will stay there until he starts blocking my view!

I love having a little bit of space in the house which is just mine, even if I do mostly spend my time in there working… 

Creating an office space at home


9 Jul 2020

Five Highlights From June

Five Highlights From June

Whilst I feel like I’ve been living in a weird limbo since March with life on standstill, we are actually half way through 2020. It continues to be a what the fuck year and I’m definitely having moments where I am monumentally fed up but it’s that time again where I pick out the positives from the last month. 

Anniversary – 1 June saw our one-year wedding anniversary arrive! Between our honeymoon, buying a house and Covid-19, it’s been quite the first year of marriage. Our anniversary wasn’t as snazzy as I’m sure we would have planned it (should we have had the chance) but still lovely nonetheless. We had a picnic in the park, a fancy (home-cooked) meal, champagne and accidentally bought each other the same present. 

Leek carbonaraobsessed with The Mother Cooker’s Leek Carbonara recipe. That garlic crumb topping is immense. 

Market trips – now that our local market has re-opened, we’ve been taking regular wanders for fresh fruit & veg, bread and flowers and I love that there’s a bit more life in the town again, and we can shop locally once more. 

Mini adventures - during the week we were supposed to be in Lisbon (but whatever, I’m not bitter), we took a couple of trips much closer to home, one to the seaside and one to Thetford forest and it was so good to have a change of scenery even if it wasn’t the week we’d had planned. 

*Squints* normality, is that you? We’ve had a cup of tea in a café and I’ve actually got a haircut in the diary… it’s small but there are signs of normal life again. There still feels like a lot we can’t do – obviously for good reasons but after over 3 months, it can drag a bit – but hopefully we shall keep moving in the right direction…