My Study - The Whole Story

I have put together this page so that you can see our Study Make-Over from start to finish.  The photos are all linked to the corresponding blog posts, so just click on the picture to see that part of the story :)

My Study - The Big Reveal

After an epic twelve month journey of pulling apart my old study and then designing and putting together my new study, I am pleased to announce that we are ready for lift-off!

If you have been following along with my Finishing Off Friday posts, you will have seen the recent progress that we made on the room, in order to get it completed.  If not, I have plenty of pictures to share with you today!

My Study - The Workbench

As you know, making over my study has been on my project list for some time now.  One of the features that I wanted in my study was a big workbench for the centre of the room.  I decided that I didn't need a desk in here, and that I would get much more use out of a bench-height table, so I invested a lot of time into researching the best design I could find.

My Study - The Expedit Wall Unit

One of the main features in my new study is my 5x5 Expedit wall unit from Ikea.

It was really hard to get a good photo of the entire unit, due to the workbench being in the middle of the room.  I hope that you can piece together the big picture ;)

Finishing Off Friday - 29th March 2013

We have had another big week around here!  The topic of 'Finishing Off' certainly rings true with two of my room make-overs finally being moved to the 'finished' pile!

The Study

- Mick finished putting the workbench together on Sunday night, so on Monday morning I was up at the crack of dawn putting all of my goodies into it!  (In this photo, it is pushed right up against the Expedit, ready for the electrician to install the fan - normally it is right in the centre of the room.)

A New Look & A Weekend Update

I guess you have noticed that things are looking a little different around here!  I am so excited with my new blog template, made by the very lovely Sharnee at Suck My Lolly Blogger Templates.  I love everything about it - the pink and brown (my two favourite colours), the layout, the fonts, but most of all I LOVE the little bows!  Aren't they just adorable?!

I went with one of Sharnee's Premium Templates - Pinkaholic.  She was kind enough to customise it for me, making a few slight changes that I requested for a small additional fee, and I am so happy with it!  And I have to say that she is just the sweetest lady to deal with - loved her customer service :)

Other than a new look for the blog, this weekend was heaps of fun around here...

We celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday on Saturday.  How cute are these cakes that my sister bought from Woolworths?  They were so yummy too!

Finishing Off Friday - 22nd March 2013

Another week has zoomed by, and I can not believe all of the jobs that I have achieved in this short time!  I apologise for the long post ahead, but I have LOTS to report.

Let's get to it...

The Study

- I feel like we need a drumroll here.....  The study is painted!!  Yippee!! It looks like a brand new room, thanks to my amazing Dad!  It will take me a few weeks to get everything organised in there, but knowing that I can now start working on everything that I have been planning since completing my online 'Organise Your Creative Workspace' course with Simplify 101 last year is super exciting.  It seems to be just perfect timing, now that the nursery is pretty much finished, that I can spend my time and energy getting my new 'Creative Studio' ready for hours of crafting and scrapbooking fun!!

- The first thing we did after the painting was done, was assemble the 5x5 Expedit cube unit for the back wall of the room.  Poor Mick has had to put together so many flat packs this year - I think he was glad to know that will be the last one for a little while!

My Study - New Folder Labels

I just love holidays!  I have made so much progress on my study make-over in just a week, compared to the last 11 weeks of the school term!  Just look at how 'refreshed' my old folders look with their new labels:

My Study - The Colour Scheme

It has been quite a while since I wrote about my study make-over....  I guess I kind of lost momentum with it, partly due to lots else happening in my life recently, but also because of my indecisiveness.  I am notorious for not being a confident decision-maker, so I procrastinate making a choice, for fear of it not being 'perfect'.  This is something that I have been working on getting over in recent years, but my study is the prime example of this side of my perfectionist personality rearing its ugly head! 

A big part of my reluctance to proceed with the study make-over has been the fact that I couldn't decide on a colour theme.  I knew I wanted white furniture, but the colours of everything else in there has been playing on my mind.

You have probably noticed that I have lots of red in my house.  I love the colour red!  It was the colour of my year 12 formal dress, I had a red car for 4 years, it was the colour of my bridesmaids dresses and roses at my wedding, and it also happens to be the main color of the Danish flag - which I am proud to have as my heritage.  Red is such a powerful colour, I know when I wear red I am going to have a great day!

Given that most of my house already has red accents, and the fact that I have so many red storage boxes and accessories already in red, I was pretty keen to stay with red as the key colour of my study, but I knew I wanted another colour to compliment it.  Sometimes red can be quite bold, and I wanted a pastel colour to help calm the 'boldness' down.

The answer to my dilemma came when my sister recently was travelling to America and offered to bring home some goodies.  To my delight, I came across these divine file folders by Martha Stewart, and knew that my problem had been solved!

Planner Pages Organisation

I feel like I haven't been making much progress with my study makeover, so this week I decided to do a couple of little projects that have helped me feel like I am getting somewhere...  Today I will share how I store my used planner pages, prior to archiving them.

I found this gorgous napkin stand at Ikea recently, and knew that I just had to have it.  What for?  I did not know, but I bought it anyway.  I thought it was just perfect for vertical paper storage (my newest organising passion), so I brought it home and stood it on my desk empty for a few weeks.  At only $3.99 I think it was a bargain, and I knew I would find a use for it sooner or later!

Organising Sprapbooking Paper and Photo Pockets

My next instalment of my series on my 'in progress' Creative Studio is my storage solution for scrapbooking paper, cardstock and plastic photo pocket pages.

Over the past tweleve months, I have decided that vertical paper storage really works for me.  Last year I organised my Recipes using a suspension file system, and I haven't looked back!  At work, I have my Black and White folders on a vertical stand, which has helped me to avoid a piled high in-tray.

Organising Scrapbooking Embellishments

As I continue on my quest for a delightful 'Creative Studio' for my crafting and home office work, I will be sharing little snippets of what I am doing - as it is going to be a little while yet before I have a big reveal to show off!

Today I thought I would share with you how I have begun to organise my embellishments.  Previously, I had things sorted into boxes and tubs, according to the type of item it was - such as all the stickers together, all the rub ons together, etcetera.

I recently came across the ScrapRack organisation system during my online travels.  If you haven't heard of this system, there is a great video on their website that you can check out.  I loved the concept of organising supplies in colour blocks, as opposed to in categories like flowers, stickers, rub ons, etc.  This notion really struck a cord with me, as usually when I am scrapbooking or crafting, I always have a particular colour theme in mind and then I spend ages sifting through my different boxes of goodies to see what I can find that might match.

And although I loved this idea of categorising by colour, I didn't think that the actual ScrapRack itself would be for me.  Having that huge binder out on display is not something that appeals to me.  So, I decided to modify the idea to suit me, and I pulled out some of my Project Life divided photo pockets (in Design B) and a spare 3 ring binder, and off I went...

My Wrapping Station

I started to make-over my home office a few months back.  I showed you the before pictures quite a while ago, but progress has been slow, due to my indecisiveness, so I don't have much to report back sorry!  I am currently doing an online course with the amazing Aby Garvey from Simplify 101, called Organise your Creative Workspace.  I am now slowly unpacking my creative process and my style, in order to design the perfect home office/creative studio for me!  So, it is going to be a little while before you see any 'after' pictures!

A little side project however, has been my wrapping station.  I had found my inspiration and pinned it to my Pinterest board, and hunted local shops for the bits and pieces that I needed to make it a reality.   One might say I am 'wrapped' with the outcome!  Let's take a closer look...

My Study - Tub Labels

Step One in my study makeover (which you can read more about here) was to reorganise the built-in cupboard.  I am lucky to have a really deep cupboard built into this room...  When we first moved in, I had my father-in-law build me these two great bookshelves, which turned the cupboard into a walk-in for my schoolwork and folders.

Unfortunately, as you can see by the pictures, my resources soon outgrew these shelves, which resulted in everything overflowing onto the floor!  I have seriously tidied up this cupboard dozens of times over the years... but I just never found a system that I could maintain.

Look at this mess!  It hurts my head!

My Study - The 'Before' Pictures

This Easter break, I decided that I would tackle my study... I just love a new organising project!  This post will show you the 'before photos', and I will post the 'after' shots, as I work my way through the room.

Photo #1 - this is looking in from the doorway - it doesn't look so bad, huh?