Sage – Author at Plaster & Disaster

We’re wrapping things up in the study (HOLIDAY PUN!), and I wanted to share some “final” photos as promised. I say “final” in quotations because I’m learning that I never really finish a room — I always want the ability to come swooping back in and make changes, so don’t you try to stop me SAM. Also I still need to figure out a lighting scheme, right now there’s exactly one lamp in the room….

Anyway. This space has come a long way from earlier this fall. Here’s where we started:

First, we painted. Which, as you recall, was actually Maddie painting, and also I got over my irrational fear of caulk guns.

Then I built a hanging desk and shelving unit:

Installing a hanging shelf and desk -- Plaster & Disaster

I want to make some art for that awkward space behind the computer

And climbed up a ladder outside the house to photograph it:

The back of the room was still looking like this, though:

Well, I’m pleased to share that this half of the room is looking a little better now:

Is this the room I would have designed for myself? Probably not. But did Sam want a Pinterest-perfect styled home office where every surface was covered with thoughtful vignettes of “gathered objects”? No, no he didn’t. This is design for real life, people.

The “finishing touches” mostly involved buying things. Specifically, a reclining chair, blinds, a TV, and a new dresser. Let’s take them in order, shall we?

The reclining chair was a big point of contention within the sea of contention that describes this project. Let’s just say that I am apparently not a good collaborator with anyone other than Naomi. I prefer form over function, and Sam was all “I want this room to be functional and comfortable.” God he’s difficult. We went around and around on the chair because he wanted a traditional recliner, and I would rather have burned down the study than put something like this in my home:

I’m so reasonable.

Finally we met in the middle with a heated massage chair Sam found on Amazon for $220 (affiliate link – read our policies) that is both comfortable and not offensive to my eyes.

Next up, new blinds. The house came with cheapo plastic blinds in every window:

We’ll likely upgrade them all over time, but mostly they aren’t an issue because we have up privacy sheers in most windows that hide the blinds and also make them unnecessary — we don’t need light blocking in most rooms so the blinds would just be for privacy, and the sheers do that.

But Sam’s office has a more minimalist look, and I didn’t feel like silky sheers with curtains layered over was the right way to go. Plus, he wants pretty good light blocking so that he can sit in the dark and play video games and stew about his mean wife who won’t get him a hideous recliner. The plastic blinds are not only hideous, they also aren’t the greatest at blocking out light.

So I did a bunch of research, and finally came across some decently affordable and well-reviewed “cordless blackout solar shades” from Home Depot. They will cut them to size for you, but I was lucky that their 33″-inch width is actually 32.5″ according to the website and that’s exactly what my two windows are. At $60 each they are a little bit of an investment, but totally reasonable in the spectrum of window treatment costs and for just two windows right now it was quite manageable. Also I had a gift certificate, because people know me well and give me awesome presents.

They were really easy to install, and look so much better than the broken and dingy plastic blinds we had. Here’s a side-by-side in the same lighting so you can see that I’m not just tricking you with nice lighting and a styled shot:

And of course here’s an after in some nicer lighting:

They’re pretty unobtrusive while up, and down they really do an excellent job of blocking the light. Here’s our bedroom in the morning light, where we’re still using the cheapo plastic blinds:

Home office makeover -- Plaster & Disaster

Not dark enough!

And here’s Sam’s study that same morning:

Ahhhh, the perfect cave.

Okay, next up is the TV. Sam wants this to be a room where he can play video games. This is a major point of discussion between us, because I don’t care if he plays video games in the living room and I thought it’s sad for him to be spending all his time in another room. But that’s what he really wanted. So now as I write this, he’s sitting in his study and I’m all alone in the living room. Womp womp.

Anyway, we grabbed a 32″-inch TV off of Amazon (affiliate link – read our policies) for the space.

We went around and around on layout for the room, and he finally suggested the set-up we have now which I think is the best option. The recliner is along the short side wall, facing the TV on the end of the desk.

This leaves most of the floor space clear so that we can still easily use the room as an extra guest room when we have company (like over Thanksgiving, when we had a bunch of family staying with us). Welcome to the most beautiful guest room ever!

In retrospect, maybe I should climb off my high horse about the recliner…maybe a hideous recliner and I deserve each other.

The wall hanging is a rug that I (or my mom?) bought in Mexico about 10 years ago. We used it in our first apartment, and then didn’t have a space for it in our last apartment. As Sam’s office started to come together we knew we needed to add some color, and I thought the rug would be perfect. But it was too small to use as a rug, and I thought it would be perfect for the empty wall behind the recliner.

Next week I’ll share more about how we hung it.

Lastly, a dresser for storage.

This is actually a dresser we had in the bedroom, but I thought it would work well in here. So I moved it out of the bedroom and into here, and now we need something else for Sam’s clothes. I have a dream of a long and low dresser in the bedroom that can contain all our clothes and free up some floor space in there, so stay tuned on that.

Okay, so that’s all the stuff. There were a few smaller things I did in the room that I’ll share next week (hint: invisible bookends — I know, right?!?). Now I am ready to move on to another space where I don’t have to compromise. I’m a real delight.

(Sharing at Remodelaholic and The Creative Gallery)

It takes a really unique set of circumstances to prompt you to think turning a fuzzy plastic cactus into a side table is a good idea.

Well, you may remember how last spring we participated in a competition where we received a mystery thrift store item in the mail and had to make it over.

The creative/evil genius behind the “Mystery Thriftoff” is an incredibly hilarious and diabolical woman named Lindsey who has one of our favorite DIY blogs ever: Better After.

Every day Lindsey features amazing before-and-afters that people submit for sharing, so it’s a really fun way to see a steady stream of makeovers that come from bloggers and non-bloggers alike. But the best part of Better After is how freaking funny Lindsey is — we literally cannot read her while we’re at work because we would be laughing way too loudly and conspicuously.

Since Lindsey spends most of her time featuring other people’s projects (and she’s featured some of ours, for which we’re super grateful and flattered!), we thought it would be fun to do a feature on her and some of the projects she’s done in her own home. And since she’s always so ridiculously entertaining in her posts, we’re going to do our best to channel our inner Lindsey and make this as funny as possible. (But we won’t come anywhere close, so make sure you go direct to the source). Fortunately we’re already on the right track by crafting a funny title that involves a pun, an art which Lindsey has totally mastered.

So without further adieu, our tribute to a few of Lindsey’s awesome projects:

First up, an exploration of one of the fundamental forces of the universe. Of course, we are referring to gallery walls.

Gallery walls are everywhere. We both have one, and I think we’re actually behind the trend because we don’t have more than one each. Have you ever read the advice for creating a gallery wall that involves cutting out pieces of paper the size of your frames first and then rearranging them until you figure out what works best? It saves you putting lots of unnecessary nail holes in the wall because you get everything laid out in paper and then just put the frames in their final location.

Unfortunately, it requires an amount of patience that we do not possess. Lurking behind our gallery walls is a hole-to-nail ratio of at least 5:1. But Lindsey is way smarter than all of us: she recently created a gallery wall using magnetic paint. Yes, she harnessed one fundamental force (electromagnetism) to generate another (a gallery wall). She is a wizard!

All the pictures have magnets on the back, and now she can move them around however she wants without destroying her walls. Her hole-to-nail ratio is exactly ~~1:1~~ an irrational number (zero holes, zero nails).

Next up, a furniture project. Lindsey features a ton of other people’s furniture makeovers, but it turns out she does some pretty impressive work herself. For instance, these bookshelves that she found at a local secondhand shop.

We’ve never met Lindsey in person, so we can’t say for sure whether the bookshelves are huge or Lindsey is really tiny. But in her original post about this project, she claims these are 8-feet tall, so I guess the former is more likely.

Anyway, she was sure to share a photo of the damaged veneer to justify why she had to paint them. Like us, she has felt the wrath of the “painting wood is a mortal sin” crowd.

See! Painting was totally necessary. And paint she did, using spray paint for the entire project to get a nice smooth finish. And now they look amazing and we’re totally jealous. Unfortunately, 8-foot shelves would not fit in either of our homes as we both have 7 – 7.5′ ceilings.

We’re totally not bitter about how amazing these look in her home for giants.

And lastly, Lindsay’s bathroom, which took “simplicity” to the level of “really boring.” Here’s where she started:

She turned all that right around with a “mini bathroom makeover.” We’re huge fans of the “half” or “mini” makeover, which is basically what we do when we’re too lazy or broke to take on a full makeover of a space (for instance, Naomi’s kitchen half makeover). In Lindsey’s case though, we think the makeover was so mini because that’s all it needed to be totally awesome.

Let’s ignore the fact that in our houses, that chandelier would be hanging below the water line of the tub given our ceiling heights. (Seriously, we’re not bitter.)

The mini makeover brings out the best in the bones of the space (that tub is awesome, and we didn’t even notice it in the “before” picture), but adds a ton of new interest as well. Lindsey describes it as “a small step toward my ultimate master bedroom vision of “Monochromatic and Glamorous!” which is prettier in my head than my words are making it sound.” We think she’s on to something.

Let’s get a close up on that back wall:

It’s a stencil, which is awesome. Sometimes people will do “small updates” and it turns out they’ve spent like $400 on wallpaper, which to us does not feel small. But manual labor and claw hands (the hallmarks of stenciling) are something we can totally get behind.

So those are just a few projects from Lindsey, and we hope you’ll head over to Better After to see what true DIY entertainment looks like. Lindsey, we think you’re awesome and we hope you’re not offended that we somehow managed to imply that you’re either tiny OR a giant. It’s just that you’re flaunting those ceilings and we’re blinded by jealousy.