There are certain times when an item strikes my fancy to the point I stop and remain fixated upon it like a deer in headlights. In moments like this all life ceases to exist. RT, my husband, knows this look all too well. Sometimes when my interest is sparked he can distract me and I'll soon forget about the object. He then walks away feeling victorious. Then there are other times he knows it is a lost cause. There is no distracting me. The conversation goes like this: "RT, isn't this the most glorious thing you've ever seen?" "NO!" "Well, sure it is." "Surely, it is not." "Oh, honey, I can do x-y-z with this piece and then it'll be..." And if I ever tell him "Shh! I'm thinking..." he just casually strolls away knowing this is one battle he will not win. Yeah, my man knows me all too well. Saturday was such a time. This story actually begins two weeks ago with a private conversation I had with God.
What used to be our school room evolved into a sitting area:
Not a bad place for the family to sit for a chat or to read but it just wasn't suiting the need I now have. So I said, aloud to God, "Father, I need a table, please. I need a place to spread out my study material and be able to leave it for days upon end without being in the way. You know the size and shape I need. I now ask for You to provide it." This convo stayed private between just the two of us.
Then Saturday RT and I walked into a thrift store and I laid eyes on this:
My eyes glazed over, RT did his best to distract me and he ended up walking away in defeat. See, he didn't have any knowledge of the convo about this with God and thought I was just up to my crazy ideas again. As you can see, one side of the leaf is missing and this has been a well loved table. Not sure how old it really is. "1983" is written on the underside and there were three different layers of paint on it. The previous owner stripped the top and leaf but for whatever reason gave up and am I sure glad they did!
The first thing was to remove the remaining leaf...to be used in another project on down the road...then, after two afternoons and many hours of stripping paint later, that became this:
And, for once I did not *ruin* it with paint, as my family would say, much to their suprise. Instead, I chose to seal with with a wood wax and enjoy the old, well-loved, rustic quality.
Then came the fun part. Time to put it into place. Yeah, into the place that was already full of furniture. So the furniture shuffle began...and an official office is born:
I did have to swipe one of my dining room chairs until I find the perfect chair to go in here. But now I can spread out, reach the books I want on the two middle shelves on the bookcase (these are filled with the commentaries, dicitionaries and different Bible translations, etc. that I use) and for those chilly days I have a foot warmer! Only "problem" is that the rocking chair looks too good sitting next to the table. I'm thinking it needs to be roughed up some. ;)
And just what became of the other chair, you ask? Well, let's say this started a small chain reaction. It began with moving the computer desk down the wall from where it sat while cleaning off the top so that the other chair can temporarily sit next to it. I say temporarily because I'm not married to the idea of liking it where it now is. If I had my druthers I'd head out to Pier 1 and buy a set of the most fabulously perfect chairs for my new office. But this is the real world and those chairs would hit me for quite a few hundred dollars and these rockers are already bought and paid for. Plus they are super comfy. So staying put they are. Before I show y'all pics of this furniture shuffle, I've said all this to say this: everything in my home is a process and in that process things aren't necessarily *perfect* right from the start. For several months I've been working on this area in my home.
So, before yesterday the computer area looked like this:
And here's the "after" from the shuffle:
There is still work to be done....and the next two orders of business with be distressing the computer desk and then doing something creative with the snake tank in the background. I've also still got to work on decorating the table and computer desk but that will come after I've used them for a little while so I can see exactly what accessories I'll actually need. Oh, and the flamingo needs to find a permanent home somewhere in the room, too. But those are the fun little tweaks that'll happen with time. And that fun just never seems to end.
Thank you, dear reader, for bearing with me on this long post today. I almost didn't put up all the pics because to me the room isn't *perfect* yet. But, at the end of the day, I would rather you see me as a real person who does not have her act all together.
Happily Feathering ~Betsy
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