No, I'm not talking about some silly movie whose best actor was a red stapler. I'm talking about my workspace. My office. My design studio.

Ever since I was a little girl I have had an office. Whether it be under the front porch, from which I directed a painted rock cartel (you laugh, but it's true), or my teen cave with the antique wooden desk my dad salvaged from eff knows where that I loved until it's dying day, or my first real office when I bought my first business (a tanning salon, when I was 18). An office is as integral to my life as the bathroom. I kid you not.

I say this to paint the picture of my disappointment when I had to leave my office things behind when we moved. My jewelry studio was in an old butler's pantry and I worked off a built-in. Couldn't take that. And my desk was a table that will withstand the apocalypse, but was too heavy to pack. So, I moved without any office furniture, and due to some stupidity on our part (a trip to IKEA for a desk, from which we came home with no desk) my office was one of the last pieces of our home's puzzle to be put in place.

But now it's together, and it's my favorite office ever.

What did I do, as a designer who works from a home office, while I didn't have office furniture? Well, it's not pretty:



Told you it wasn't pretty. For weeks I worked from a wire rack with zero storage and sat in an old computer chair that David still can't let go of (though he's considered it after seeing my shiny new one). I honestly almost lost my mind and practically ran to the desk section of IKEA when we were finally able to return to retrieve the forgotten desk.

Now I have a shiny new bookcase, desk and chair, and a space that's all my own. Well, mostly, until I have to chunk some lingering thing of David's into the closet. Ha! I have my oil paintings from Parisian street artists on display where I can see them everyday, my birthday orchid and my Karen Faulkner print all on display. I have a desk big enough for my favorite piece of technology, my iMac, and my office is right beside the patio door so I get tons of natural like, which I enjoy as much as the orchid.

I thought that living in a house whose interior is entirely of wood would be a huge designing challenge. Especially with my long-lived desire to paint everything I can get my hands on, but it's definitely starting to grow on me. My love for my studio is proof of that.