Before: My Office

The primary reason for the move was so I could have my own office. As a phorographer, I work from home, and the old apartment didn't give me enough space for work. My desk, now nicknamed "Hemingway" because it is ginormous, wooden-ish and very manly, took up a good part of the living room, and since I often do my own fashion styling, I would often have boxes and boxes and boxes all over the place. Set pieces would take over the couch, lights were trapped in my closet, magazines in piles around the coffee table---it was bad. I joked with friends that we looked like we were on an episode of "Hoarders", and we're really not that messy.

By having such a cluttered, messy, ugly living room, it prevented us from having friends over, unless they were pocket-sized (like my best friend, who is 5'2" on a good day). The Boy and I had plenty an almost-fight about the living room and the clutter. There are other reasons behind the move, far more sordid and mysterious for a blog post, but having my own office alleviates a LOT of the tension about the clutter. I get my piece and quiet, my privacy, more storage, and I can make is as personal as I want.

These really are before-before images. As you can see, it had some shitteous (shitty and hideous, get it? I made a funny.) wood paneling. Wood floors, plus wood walls, plus a wood desk would be too much wood for one girl to handle--insert naughty joke here.

This is where our landlord is a saint: The Boy thought he saw wallpaper under the wood paneling. While visiting my family in DC (and trying to figure out what the hell to do with those walls), I emailed our landlord and asked him what he knew about the original walls, and mentioned the wallpaper. Next thing I knew, he had gone ahead and taken down the paneling! Turns out, he hated it too (he's another photographer, a fellow "sensitive artist-type", and he was looking for an excuse to update the room, but didn't really have one until us.

At this point, the paneling has been taken down, drywall installed, and the walls are primed for paint. For consistency with the rest of the apartment, the walls will be white, but I'll make them pretty....

As for the bench-thingy, we're investigating a custom pad sleeping/lounging. An extra-tall mattress is actually fairly close in size, but right now, we just have the twin that came with the place.