My own office dreams come true!

**This post was written in January 2020. 

When we moved last year, I insisted that we have a guest room. I wanted my parents and any other guests to be comfortable and feel welcome. In reality though, our fourth bedroom was cramped. While there was room for a queen size bed, that is about all that fit in there! We only fit a table on one side of the bed with a very narrow passage, and there was no overhead light. It just wasn't ideal for a guest room, even though we checked off the box as having one.

One year later though, we're reflecting on how much is that room being used? How much are we "paying" to heat and cool it, to keep it reserved for the rare visitors? We estimated it's been used only about 6 nights out of 365, and basically that equates to, we are putting the guests needs above our own.

When we moved, the idea of all of our rooms being used daily really appealed to me, and while there are still rooms we don't use everyday, at least more of the rooms are used daily, but there was one dream I couldn't quite fit in to our home, a home office just for ME!

When I was a kid, I would spend hours in my room, alone, by choice. I loved my space, I would listen to music, arrange my various collections, clean, tinker, whatever, it was my space to do what I wanted. It's not until that's gone that you really realize how much that means. I've come a long way in sharing my things, myself, my space, but it's nice to have your own space. The man cave, the she shed. My friend Nova has an amazing home office, with glorious natural light, high ceilings, built in bookcases. I thought how much I would LOVE my own space. I would put only furniture and art in there that I wanted, everything would be intentional. We have an office at our house, but it has a stuffy, antique desk, secretary/hutch, it's not private at all-it's the first room you see when you come in and it does not have a door, it's also cluttered and for me it's anything but inspiring.

Months ago Ted suggested turning the guest room into an office for me, and I wasn't ready. I am so used to putting others first and I thought it would be selfish. The idea was planted though, and with time I came around, and eventually started to get excited, "I'm going to ONLY put furniture in there I WANT, only art that I WANT, I will only put MY stuff in there, no one else will use it!" If anyone else's stuff appears in there, I will silently remove it!!! This is my sanctuary!

I was planning on painting it, but on a Sunday afternoon Ted said he was up for moving furniture so I just went for it! I honestly didn't feel like taking the time to paint right now! I spent hours organizing my stuff and I am writing from my first early morning in my office! It's glorious! I'm not distracted by everything on the kitchen table, counter, my phone, etc. This way too, it will be easier to put the work aside and focus on my kids. I will not bring food up here, coffee yes, but this will force me to stop.

**I did not publish this on January 15 when it was written because the pictures aren't perfect, I was going to take better pictures. I was going to format the post, do more decorating, etc. Alas none of that came to be....