a peek inside my workspace

Hi friends! I spend a lot of hours every week in my little office, so I thought I'd share a peek in this space while I still have it. We'll be moving again this fall and I don't know if I'll have a space of my own in our next house. For now, I'm relishing it.

I didn't have an office for the last four years, so I don't take for granted that I have a home for all of my stuff. In our last house all my work stuff lived in the sideboard under our TV and in an upstairs closet. It was a bummer. Now, I can walk away from my workspace in the evening, leave everything in place, and continue working in the morning. That definitely wasn't possible when I worked from our kitchen table.

I like filling a space with furniture, so my desk floats from a wall into the middle of the room. I have two chairs at the desk - one for me and one for a little boy who periodically sits in here and hangs out with me while I do some sketching or finish up work from the early morning hours. And occasionally, I get an even smaller visitor - an 11-month old rocking some major bed-head first thing in the AM. I learned early on that he's particularly fascinated by big spools of kitchen string.

Needless to say, those have been relocated.

The office is right at the front of the house on a corner. It has two doors - one leads to the entry, one to the den. On the walls opposite the doors are two sets of big, beautiful windows. I could do without the mini-blinds, but they come in handy when I get afternoon sun in my face. Two sets of 3x3 cube shelves provide storage on the long wall opposite one of the windows, and my desk floats into the room right underneath the window you can't see in these pictures. I'm guessing the chandelier is original to the house. It's dark and bronze-y and it has two pineapples hidden in the post - a symbol of hospitality you see all over these homes in New England. I love it.

These days I use this space to work on design projects and personal creative stuff like Project Life. This week I'm working on two sets of custom wedding stationery and a project I'll be able to share more about in the coming weeks. I stepped away from doing custom work last year when we had our second baby, but it's really nice to be back doing it. Taking a break from something I'd been doing for so long (since 2008!) gave me a little perspective, and allowed me to hit the refresh button and come back with renewed energy, inspiration and creativity.

I've learned over the years that I really create best when I have no distractions. No TV, no music - just me and the sound of pencil scratching on paper or of my mouse clicking away. It's amazing to not have to do all of this in the kitchen or at Starbucks.

I love how bright this space is and I love its character: old window sills, a 70-year old chandelier, original wood floors and tall ceilings. It does its job - inspiring creativity - so I can do mine. It's also the perfect size for me - not too big, not too small. Anything larger would be overwhelming for me at this point. This is also the only space in the house that's just mine, and in a house full of boys, it's nice to have a place to put a pink flamingo, if you know what I mean.

Do you have a space that's your own? Where do you do your creative work?