Tuesday Tales: Office Overhaul

 

                As you know, Mom and Dad moved to a different area of Swiss Village this year, and as a result, there were several things they didn’t have space to keep. We moved with them anything and everything that would fit in their rooms, and then we cleaned out their apartment. Some items were sold or donated. Some were shared with family. And some came to live here at our house.

                Our house isn’t huge, so we have to be extremely intentional about what comes in the door. We’ve reached the point where everything that comes in means something else has to leave, because we simply don’t have more floor space to rearrange it all.

                One of the hardest things for Mom to leave behind was her beloved rolltop desk. Dad gave it to her when I was in junior high, because she didn’t have a desk space and needed someplace to write cards and lists, to store her treasures, and to call her own. Dad was newly retired and when Mom and I came home from school one day, the desk sat in its new home. At that time, I’d just discovered my own love of writing and dreamed of such a space to sit and craft my stories. Alas, my desk was a Walmart special that Dad and I had assembled together, and suddenly it felt very lackluster when compared to this stunning Amish-made desk.

                Mom told me that very day that someday I could have the rolltop desk, and now that day has come. We brought it home a little under a month ago, and it’s been sitting in our home office with piles and stacks surround it. Last week we worked so hard to re-see the office, and while rooms are always a work in progress, this one has made much progress and is once again usable.

                Though I am often the queen of the before/after pictures, the way in which this room transformed meant that I didn’t get a proper before picture. So I will direct you to this post from July 2024 to see the most recent photographed layout of this room. We had made one change since these pictures – switching the cube shelf with a dresser – but otherwise, it’s accurate.

                The dresser was the one piece that didn’t stay in the house. As you know, everything we have tells a story, and it is always hard to part with a piece of the story. But of all the furniture we owned, I felt the least attached to it, so we carried it off to the church sale to be donated for a much better cause than our little house, and then we moved forward with this room.

                This overhaul felt like a game of Tetris, because we knew things had to fit just so. It started with the reshaping of the shelves.

                These bookshelves have been with me since my single days. Dad built them for my office in the Marion house, and when we left that house, Ryan took them apart and reassembled them in our new home. He’s done so each time we’ve moved, and I’m so glad we still have them. The sentimentality of them matters.

                They had been on this wall – two shelves butted up against each other.

                But I asked if Ryan could cut them down, because while I hated losing precious shelf space, I wanted to put them on either side of this window and create a built-in look. He did this project in the span of two evenings, and I reshelved everything as soon as he was done.

                I love this look. We kept the sit/stand desk we bought at IKEA a few years ago, because sometimes I do want to stand to work, and sometimes we both want to work at the same time. This also allowed me to keep my extra wide office chair I just purchased a few months ago. (I can sit cross-legged on it, and I love that.)

                For now, the turquoise bookshelf stays. Ryan and I bought it (upcycled barn wood) at a shop in Kokomo, and we love it. One day we may put a Murphy bed here, and if we do, we’ll have to rethink this shelf, but for now, it gets to stay. It holds my Bibles and some other treasures, and I love it. The window on the wall belonged in my grandparents’ house, which became mine for the first sixteen years of my adulthood. We found it when we moved out and kept it as a memory piece.

                And here is my beautiful, beloved rolltop desk. I had the best time decorating the top and choosing the pieces that would go inside. Lexi’s bed gets to stay in this room, and on the other side of the desk is my new, early birthday gift from Ryan. I’ve had this spinning bookshelf on my wish list for about three years, and now it’s mine! I love it and am still trying to figure out which books should live here. I put in some, but I need to make a plan for the rest.

                There are so many little details to this room, but they’ll keep for another day. For now, I’m just happy to have a functioning space to enjoy working, creating, and inspiring!