An Updated Office & {so proud of my} New Shelf

Ugh... once again time escapes me.  It's just the craziest time for me... early spring till early summer.  Winding down the preschool year.  Graduation practice begins after Spring Break... let me tell you... there is nothing more adorable than 30 little four/five year olds in mortarboards singing "Kindergarten Here I Come"!!

  

And soccer season has begun!  Thus, as Murphy's Law dictates, we are about to encounter rainy Saturdays for the next 10 weeks.  (ba-dum-bump)  Four practices and two games a week (only two are playing a sport this spring)... I think we can make it... nothing against sports, but I am so glad that our family isn't REALLY into sports.  I like having a little bit of a life outside of folding chairs, water-bottles, snack-buddy-schedules, stadium blankets, and video cameras.  I suppose I should admit... I am not a sports-fanatic and far from being a good "soccer mom".  But my kids love it, and I love them!  (One of these days, I'll actually learn the rules to the game.  All I know is "no hands".  LOL)

A new adventure has begun as well.  My oldest daughter and myself are taking piano lessons!  I'm SUPER excited (it's been on my bucket list for years).  She was so excited after her first lesson today, she practiced for an hour plus as soon as she came home.  (Oh... did I mention the lessons are three houses away!  SCORE!)

Also, for anyone familiar with VBS... aha!  THAT has begun as well.  I help our church as the Preschool Director for VBS.  It's not nearly as crazy as the overall Director... but I do organize 150 kids and recruit about 40-50 workers.  

So, now do you forgive me for taking a little break?

 But alas, I have done a few things.

One being that I painted another room.  Well, er... a "nook"?

This is the little office nook that juts off the corner of my kitchen.  I was ree-eea-llly nervous about painting it a dark mushroom color.  After all, there is "gunstock oak" floors, and ... dang it... can't remember the color of our cabinets, but they are a medium-dark birch wood.  With no windows in this little corner, I was so afraid it would be a dark and dismal room.

Fortunately there are two lights in here, and the pantry door (to the right, if looking in) is off-white.  I hope to bring in a few more off-white accents on the walls (and that vase!) So, I don't think it's too dark.  Is it?  

Here is what it looks like while in the nook looking out:

Cute clipboards, eh?  I love those prints, but I must admit... I cheated.

Here's what they normally look like:

Yep, mostly covered up!

Imagine me sitting in the chair at the desk.  That's where I'm sitting right now.  It's one of my favorite places in my home.  I can stay tucked away, but still have a view of the kids in the main areas.  Ha... you probably can't tell from the photo, but do you see the "mousepad" in front of the vase?  Yeah... it's my Ballard Design Catalog.  How ironic that our "wireless, pad-unnecessary" mouse NEEDS a mousepad now.  Apparently granite is not a good surface for it.  Gotta think of a cute mousepad idea....

So... back to the wall color.  Why paint it dark if I was so nervous?

  

Remember this room?  

This is our little mini mud-hall off the kitchen.  I painted it with an "oops!" color from Home Depot last month.  $5... and I rather like it!  Stands out quite boldly with the off-white door and sign.

So, when I found ANOTHER "oops!" paint color that looked pretty darn similar, I snatched it up.  Sure enough, it's pretty close.  (not exact, but seriously close!)

Here's why they needed to look similar.... 

office---><--- mudhall

when you stare at the back wall of my kitchen, you see BOTH rooms on opposite sides of the stove.  Now, maybe if you weren't quite so OCD like me, it wouldn't bother you to have two different colors.  But that would've driven me CRRRRR-AZY!

So, now they're all matchy-matchy.  Next problem... ugh... what to paint the KITCHEN in between??

Oh, well I guess you can also see my newest in-progress project in that last photo.

The shelf.

We tossed around the idea of board-and-batten or wainscoting, but honestly, I liked seeing more of the mushroom color.  With two off-white doors and an open doorway, there wouldn't have been much color in there!  

I know the shelf won't win any awards, but I am dang-proud of that puppy.  I bought the wood myself, cut off the 2" extra on each piece by hand (yes, normal, ancient, rusty handsaw!), installed them to make the hook bar and the shelf.... and even used those extra little pieces as supports.  Fortunately in this photo, you can't see that it's not perfect.  The wall is bent!  There is a gap in the back of the wall where the shelf should line up with the wall... it's not the wood, either.  I turned both ways and still had that gap.  So, I need to fill it somehow.  The wood is cheap pine, too, so I will need to fill in a few little gaps in the wood.  Also, I'm hoping to install a cute little trim to the edge of the shelf.  

In the meantime, it looks cute from afar!

Hmmm.... you wouldn't know by the photo that I *ADORE* Thirty-One products, now would you?  Wonder why I have so many.....

One little caveat with this design.  That little "doorstop" is magnetic.  It *should* catch the little metal disc on the door to keep it open, but the shelf prevents the door from going any closer (our door has an automatic closing hinge that we love, but when hauling groceries in, you NEED to keep the door open.)  

{{{grumble grumble grumble}}}

I guess it's not a BIG deal, but we will have to now install it on the hardwood flooring AND move the little metal disc.   Oh the price we pay for wanting this shelf.