home office specifics plus a mini-tutorial

Thank you so much for the kind & encouraging comments on yesterday’s office reveal.  It was a fun room to put my personality into and to try some new things and I think it turned out better than I had hoped.  And did you like the fancy photos? Those were taken by my husband who very kindly dealt with my over-controlling nature when it comes to these types of projects.  Thanks dear.

Now, on to some of the specifics of my current favorite room in our house.

The wall paint is the color that our entire house was painted. It is actually a pretty nice neutral grey/beige/wheat color {Rodda HFH09}. The pattern is painted with a custom white we had color matched to the trim in the house.  The dresser {one of my favorite things in the room} is from my m-i-l {of course} and it is painted Sherwin Williams Rushing River {also the color I painted Audrey’s bed & shelves – love it}.

I borrowed the chair from our living room and will hopefully replace it soon with an upholstery project that I’m excited to tackle.  I really love these chairs : my husband : not so much.  They are from #1 Allen and he gave me the go-ahead to chose what I like and I really thought he would like them so I splurged. And alas, he does not like them. They are sort of petite and have a great taupe mohair-like upholstery.  Actually, I think he likes them okay, but he was hoping for a more ‘sink in and fall asleep’ type of chair, which this is not.   Wow, that was too much information about a chair. Sorry.

The ruffle pillow was made by me and I’m hoping to put up a tutorial soon on how to make one.

A few of you asked about how difficult it was to hardwire in these sconces.

Ahhh how I tricked you!

The main reason for me painting the wall with chalkboard paint was that I wanted to hang these sconces {also from my m-i-l} but I didn’t want their black cords hanging down the wall. And I also didn’t want to learn how to hardwire them in.  So I painted the wall dark so that their cords would not be obvious. Looks like it worked.  Sorry to those of you who asked how to wire them : I am of no help.

This pendant light was a happy accident. It was previously hanging in #3’s nursery and when I started working on Audrey’s room, I took it down {actually, Ryan did} and stuck it in the closet. I happened upon it and figured I could recover it in something other than green gingham.

I bought it a few years ago on sale from Pottery Barn Kids.  I just tore off the old fabric and recovered using this stripe fabric from IKEA. Then I used seam binding to cover the edges.  Janell from Isabella & Max Rooms did a good tutorial here.

One of my other favorite things in the room is this sheep picture. My mom & new dad went to Italy and of all the A.MAZ.ING photos they took, this one was my favorite. I have a thing about sheep : perhaps another blog post about that one.

It is in an IKEA frame with a piece of frayed linen behind it. Simple, simple.

This old magazine rack was a gift from {you guessed it} my mother-in-law. Doesn’t she have the best taste?

It holds all my different white & cream papers.

Here is what’s in my closet:

And finally, the mini-tutorial.

I wanted to put my life verse {1 Thessalonians 5:16-18} up on my chalkboard wall because

1. it is a good verse and I like the reminder

2. i love typography

At first I thought I could just hand write it:

Not so much.

So then I remembered the technique I used to make my Jones Design Company sign and figured I could try it with chalk instead of lead.

So first, I printed out the lettering in the font & size I wanted.

Then I rubbed chalk on the back side of the printed words.

Taped them where I wanted them.

Then traced the outline of the letters with a pencil to transfer the chalk to the wall.

Next, I used this great invention to fill in the letters.

And there you have it. Letters that look like vinyl transfers but are virtually free.

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Just a reminder: if you haven’t signed up for the just for fun summer giveaway, make sure you do so. There is one more week to go!