The hardest working room in our house is our playroom/office. We use this space for pretty much everything, including (but not limited to) building Lego, catching up on emails, filming music videos, managing Amazon Subscribe & Save orders, “cooking” pretend food, doing puzzles, drying laundry, practicing yoga, and reading. After painting over the terrible yellow walls (see before pic below), our main design objective was to create separate areas for work and play.
The kitchen in our new home won the award for “worst room,” though our downstairs bathroom definitely gave it a run for its money. Sure, it gives off a cute, cottage vibe in the professional real estate photos (see below), but the microwave was not functioning, the stove was electric, and the fridge continued to give off an odor that could only be described as “rotting compost” no matter how many times we scrubbed it. The kitchen’s worst offense, though, was its lack of dishwasher. Also, it was yellow.
After moving to a larger space, my husband and I found ourselves in the market for a new shelf to house the books that had been boxed up for the past two years. Unfortunately, (as usual) our tastes exceeded our budget. We were drawn to industrial-style shelves made of metal and reclaimed wood. Anthropologie’s version (pictured below, left) retails for $998 amd West Elm’s version (pictured below, right) goes for a whopping $2960. We’ve made a commitment to only buy furniture that we absolutely love and since we couldn’t find anything that compared in our price range, we decided to DIY it!
City Mouse 