First Floor 2.0

We've been in our place for 6 years now. Moving in is always exciting; trying to fit your old stuff into a new space. Living in a place for a while, over time, you start to acquire new things that grow into the space. But when we started it was a clean slate:

May 2014

Then we started making changes:

August 2014

My work space took a little while to set up, but after a few months, things began to settle in pretty well. Got a rug. Got a sweet, sweet desk. We had an extra door laying around, so I put it to good use! Then, I used cabinets to hold it up, so I had tons of storage space. It was great!

January 2015

And that's about how it stayed until this past May, when Hubby's office announced that (due to this CORONA-craziness) their employees were to continue working from home until January 2021 (at least). It was then that we decided that some major changes were necessary. 

Over the years, lots of things had accumulated. Then, with us all being home for a couple months (and for a while our trash collection was limited, and all donation places were closed) our mess down on the first floor got to be pretty impressive. 

Yikes! (May 2020)

Then, to rearrange things, we had to pull out things and make a mess before we could put it all back together. So, we began! First thing, clear out a few things. Good bye, treadmill!

Week 1:

Week 2:

We decided that our desks needed to swap places. So, it was finally time to dismantle that sweet, sweet door-desk. Once we started moving things around it became very clear that the rug *really* had to go:

GROOOOOOOSS

Week 3:

It took some doing, but we got the work areas swapped around. I got a different desk that fit my new space better, and the reorganization continued. 

Week 4:

One of the big questions was: What to do with the cabinets that had been under my desk? I found new homes for most everything that had been inside, but the empty cabinets were still in fine shape. Should we keep them or sell them off?

It was actually funny how huge they looked, out from under my desk, taking up space in the middle of room.. Eventually, we decided that our garage could use some more storage, so they moved to the wall out there:

They don't look so big up there!

Week 5:

Next, rugs. It's hot now, but winter is coming and it gets *cold* down there! Since we were going for more defined spaces - his and hers, one easy way to do that was for us each to get our own little rugs. They are very us. I also got a little lamp to improve the light over my desk. 

In the midst of all this, with moving that old treadmill, we created an extra space down there. Hubby and I chatted about what we could do with it, and tossed around a few ideas. We settled on a little listening corner; a place to enjoy all his music. 

First, we needed a little table to give some extra space for the larger music sets and other things; we went with a blue one - to tie in the dark desk with the colorful CD collection. Now the CD storage feels like a more intentional addition to the room.

It took some doing but, little by little, we got the main part of the room situated and things settled into a good rhythm so our attention could turn to the last little details of the music corner. 

Hubby filled it up the table with his box sets and other uncommonly sized music and moved his CD player off the top of his desk and onto the table; making more space for his work stuff and giving easier access to the player. Then, to further set this corner aside from the rest of the room, we put in another rug... but, for fun, this one was round: 

And, to top it all off, a sweet sweet listening chair... and the transformation was complete!

August 2020

It's a really nice change; it's definitely a better use of the space! It feels more grown-up and more intentional, which I like!

These two are fans as well.