Operation Office: The Full Story

You guys. We started #OperationOffice almost two years ago. How nuts is that?! It’s funny how your own projects always seem to get put on the backburner. But no more! Operation Office is finally complete! 

Check out a few of our recent upgrades:

Degrees! On the WALL. Like proper ADULTS. It’s amazing how satisfying it is to see these up instead of resting in a stack on the floor. And it took under 5 minutes to do.

A proper filing cabinet (which you can just barely see to the left of the photo)! We had been storing our files and papers on our bookshelf in clear acrylic boxes from Target (moment of silence for its Canadian demise) but we felt that space could be better used for other things and I have to admit, it’s nice to have all of our boring-looking papers tucked away, rather than out in the open.  We grabbed this one off Kijiji and it’s a little banged up… but we both kind of like that. It gives the room a slightly worn-in industrial feeling. We’re in talks regarding a plant to put on top. The main hold-up is that I’ve managed to kill everything but my fiddle-leaf fig (which is my BABY) and our snake plant (which is strangely durable given how much neglect it faces). But this space does get way more light than practically anywhere else in the house, so maybe I can branch out into something more advanced. (Probably not.)

I’ve been using the acrylic storage boxes that used to house our files to store fabric samples, which are WAY prettier than boring papers. And they’d just been sitting in piles on the floor or the desk, so this is also incredibly more functional!

Probably the most exciting development so far for me has been these chairs… THESE CHAIRS. I’ve been coveting them for ages – they’re the Spencer from Structube. I had intended to get them in white but we both wear dark denim a lot and I was worried about colour transfer. Rather than spend all of our time stressing about magic-erasering the material, I decided to go with black, which works just as well in the space (if not better).  They were shockingly easy to put together (I think we were both a little wary after our dining chair debacle) and so far seem to be a great quality match for our needs.

We organized the closet. We had done this once before but now we’ve had time to see how much stuff we actually never use. We donated and turfed a bunch of things and grabbed a few organizers and hooks to keep the contents nice and easy to find. And it no longer stresses us out to open it… I'm planning to replace or spray-paint the door knob, but I haven't got to that project yet.

We switched out the light fixture. It was a generic traditional fixture before, and we found this awesome globe light at Home Depot for 14.99. Yes, you read that right. Insane. It’s fun and modern and I love how chrome base picks up on the chrome in the office chairs, and…

Our new curtains! It took me forever to decide on a curtain fabric but I finally chose this simple acid yellow linen. I like how it picks up on the Apple print (from PopChart Labs) but doesn’t compete with the pattern in the rug. One of our windows presses right against the wall, which made for a slight challenge in figuring out how to configure our curtains. This is the brightest room in our dark house and we didn’t want to risk blocking any of that light, so instead of having two panels made (one of which would sit in front of the left window and block light, even when open), we opted for one wide panel that can be pulled all the way to the right and out of the way of the window. We also chose grommets over pinch pleats to ensure that the panel could be completely pulled away from the window (pinch pleats are a lot more voluminous and may have slid back in front of the window, even when pulled to the side). The chrome-look grommets and chrome curtain rod tie in nicely to the chairs and light fixture.

And the final task was completed just this past week. We had one of the French doors from the basement moved upstairs to replace the office door in order to let some of the light streaming in filter into the rest of the house. It's perfect. I'm thinking I might spray the handle and paint the brass casings black to make it a bit more modern, but that's a project for another day.

So there you have it! Operation Office is DONE. Two years later, but DONE. And, just to show you how far we’ve actually come, check out these before and afters:

Pretty radical, right?

Other Office Posts:
- Before
- Chalkboard Wall 1 and 2
- Walls
- Trim
- Desk
- Bookshelf
- Art
- Rug