Where I Spend Most of My Time: A Peek into My Home Office



Since my official occupation is that of a freelance writer, I was so excited to finally get to have a dedicated office when we bought this house.

For the past two and a half years, while I’ve been a full-time freelancer, I had worked with my laptop propped up on a sturdy card table that I’d spraypainted a light pistachio color. That was eight years ago, when I took an internship in Birmingham, Alabama and needed to fit all my furniture in my parents’ van.

Needless to say, it was time for an upgrade.

Here’s what my “office” looked like in our last apartment:


It was squished into a corner of our living room, where you had be to careful as you turned around because my chair would sometimes hit against the stereo that teetered just behind the set-up and turn it off or on. (You can see more pictures of that old office set-up here.)

With our new house, though, came two extra bedrooms. One of which we are using as a guest bedroom (can’t wait to show you that one soon!) and the other as an office.

This, my friends, is where I spend way too much time:




We looked at a lot of different options for building our desks and I had a few qualifications it had to meet:

1. I wanted me and my husband to have our own desks. While sharing has worked for the past couple of years, it was time for my husband to have his own spot so that he didn’t have to worry about me always moving and “organizing” his piles. I think he’s much happier about this setup!

2. With that, I was adamant that our desks match. My husband didn’t think this was all that important but for some reason, it was a biggie for me.

3. I also wanted to get away from the desks-facing-the-walls setup that I’ve always had. Who wants to stare at a wall, when you can look out a window? Or even across the table at your spouse? That’s more my kind of scenery!

4. Storage. I wanted as much as I could get. No more wasted space below the tabletop. Give me drawers!

After doing a ton of research and setting aside a pretty big budget for our desks, we ended up going with this build-your-own setup from IKEA, which cost less than half of what we were prepared to spend. Don’t you love when that happens?!

They had two different options you could choose for the storage components and we decided to pick one of each, to allow ourselves some room to mix things up. We also went with a larger tabletop that gives us plenty of room to spread out, make piles and still have space leftover. Welcome to the lap of luxury!





The last piece of the puzzle was finding a new comfy desk chair, since the old one we’d been using had not been very good for my back. (Since my husband isn’t at his desk near as much as I am, he’s using the old one and hasn’t had any problems.) I ended up getting the opportunity to pick out anything from Wayfair.com’s extensive selection of items for the home and found this ergonomic chair that comes in a handful of colors, of which I chose the charcoal gray.

And I love it! I love that it’s not your standard issue black and the heathered gray lends a sophisticated feel. Plus, you can adjust the chair’s height and tilt. I haven’t had any back or neck issues since switching chairs! I’d love to upgrade and get another one for my husband, too. (Matching, of course!)

I still haven’t done much wall decorating (save for tacking up calendars, hanging a clock and our budgeting corkboard), but for now, I couldn’t be happier with this workspace of mine!

(Plus, if you're looking to set up your office, you can also use Lenovo promotional codes to help save on computers and components.)

Related Posts
An Epiphany About Reorganizing
Thoughts on Having Too Many Ideas for My Own Good 

10 comments:

  1. I love the his and her desks!

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  2. Your new office setup is so nice!!


    I LOVE IKEA anything. I'm definitely looking at IKEA when I get a new desk.

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  3. Thanks, ladies! I'm in love with the separate desks, too :)

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  4. Looks nice and spacious! Work environment is so important I think. I also work from home as a freelancer, and I have two desks in my office: a functional desk, and a cute secretary desk which I use more for fun writing :)

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  5. I am so excited for you and your new office space. I definitely get sharing one desk space with your spouse, it can get a little tight. I love the idea of facing a more interesting scenery than the wall. Great idea. I know you will have many days of inspiration in your new spot. Oh, by the way, I have been introduced to this website a few days ago. I would say it is God sent. I did send you a message from an older post after reading one of your articles. In the event you are not able to follow every message that comes in, I just basically wanted to thank you for your openness to share your faith journey with so many people. It is refreshing to have someone young experiencing God the way you are. It has been an inspiration to me. I look forward to read more and to share my own walk with you. Iliana
    I'm not sure how to post using my name.

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  6. I would say "I love IKEA anything!" but that would be inaccurate. I like IKEA. But I love IKEA scratch and dent section. That's where we got our desk. (victory dance)

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  7. Stephanie, what a neat idea to have two separate desks!

    Iliana, thanks so much for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying reading along through my blog. I am so excited for all the inspiration this little house will continue to bring. Oh, and if you want to be able to sign your name, you can either pick "Google Account" or "Name/URL" from the dropdown menu. (You don't have to include a URL if you pick the Name/URL option.)

    differentparent, I have never had much luck in the scratch-and-dent section at our IKEA. It always is really picked over :/ But I still love spending a good afternoon wandering all those aisles!

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  8. Very nice! Loving the new set up! :) I'm trying to redo my bedroom and put a little work station together in it, so this was a nice little inspiration. :)

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  9. Oh, fun, Kristin! It's so nice to have a dedicated work station. Have fun setting it up!

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  10. I so love your couple desks. Your office looks very calm and relaxing. It must be a lot of fun to work here. The color scheme that you picked is so fun!

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