Before and After: The Study

I'm sorry it's been so long since our inaugural post! This fall has been pretty hectic at 16 Morse. We've kept working on the house, slowly but surely, and finally have something major to show for it as of today: the study renovation is done!

Here's what the study looked like on one of our first walkthroughs:

View entering the study from the dining room. Lots of dark wood paneling, only one window. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice light it gets later in the day, though (it's a west-facing window).

The laminate flooring continues in here from the living and dining rooms, which is nice. So is the old wood trim. But it's still very dark in here.

We decided that this would be the study, which would be my "office" and where we'll put the household files as well. We also knew immediately upon viewing this room that we'd need to paint it. We decided to use the same paint we got for the living room -- a nice pale coffee color called "Tightrope." Subtle yet classy, neutral yet warm!

It was hard to paint while storing some boxes in the study, so we ended up pushing things against two walls while painting the other two first. That method worked pretty well, but made it take longer. Here are some halfway shots:

Window wall and long wall are done, including trim. And random pipe to nowhere.

One more wall to go!

Cords to the cable modem and router that I kept tripping over, and the one wall left. The last wall, on the right, is the one we decided not to paint.

We decided not to paint the last wall.  Well, I decided -- it's a different type of paneling and it didn't take to being sanded well at all. (We sanded first so that the paint wouldn't slip or peel off the paneling -- great tip from Gayle and Frank!) And since I was doing the last of the painting, it helped it be done faster. :) That's the wall to the dining room, and we'd like to do something else with it in the not terribly distant future anyways, so there you go.

And now for the finished paint job and organized setup, just finished today:

Tada! It's done!

Desk setup and storage.

Window treatments make things homey. I bought these curtains while living up in Pepperell and never used them!

My old maps from teaching Latin finally get put to use again.

Corkboard salvaged from the old office purge. Maybe it will help us track takeout menus??

It's amazing how finishing one full room can really help you feel like you've accomplished something. Now the printer has a proper home, rather than the dining room table or a chair in the corner. And I've unpacked my iMac and desk (ahhhh) and a bunch of books. Things are coming together!

Our goal is to have the first floor unpacking/organizing/improvements done or nearly done in time for Thanksgiving holiday visitors, and we think that will really motivate us to get even more things done. Watch for more posts soon!