As we close out the second month of 2025, I thought it was about time to give you a little look into my home office. I’ve shown snippets here and there, but recently, I decided to change things up a bit. So here’s a before and after of the space I call my own in our home. It’s still a work in progress but more importantly, it’s a space of my own, even though the kids and kitties like to descend upon it daily.
My home office is in the corner of the main floor living space, to the right of the front foyer, after you go up several stairs. This is where you’ll find me most days while the kids are at school.
When we first saw the interior of the home, I envisioned this as becoming my office/studio space. Matt had already claimed the basement for his own, so this was one of the other available areas. The spacious built-in shelves, courtesy of one of the previous owners, won me over since I have accumulated a lot of books, knick knacks and shop items over the years.
Another reason why I loved this spot in the house was because of the amount of natural light it seemed to get streaming in on most days. Saskatoon generally seems to be a sunnier city that having lots of windows all around the house makes such a difference when you work from home.
Up until a few weeks ago, this is how I had my two desks and office drawers arranged. My larger desk was facing the front foyer and was also the desk I had been drawing and painting on.
While I thought the larger surface was better for working, about half of the space usually ended up being taken over by piles of paper. The desk also has an outlet on top, so I decided to switch it with the smaller one I had my computer on.
Of course, when you start to move things around in your home, if you have cats, they will obviously come over to inspect.
I think the larger desk works better against the wall, fitting the space almost to a tee.
The shelf beside my desk also needed a little rearranging…
I only managed to reorganize the bottom shelf so far. Ideally, I’d like to revamp the whole built-in shelving unit with a coat of paint – the dark grey is not my personal favourite – as well as removing things that are not related to my business. Everything also needs a good wipe down, after almost a year and a half of not dusting and moving things around. There is definitely an art to organizing shelves in a pleasing way, but since this is my office/studio space, I’d like to remove the majority of family photos, baby books, and decorative objects. A few are okay, but when space is at a premium, I need to reserve it for things I need to access everyday.
The space below used to house the piano that one of the previous owners – a piano teacher – left behind. If you’ve ever tried to move a piano, you’ll understand why she left it here. Even though it was on wheels, it ended up denting the floor a bit when I rolled it to its new location. But I needed to have a place to put my office credenza – full of old sketchbooks, notebooks, and more – as it provided a surface for other important things.
Here’s how the space looks now.
The smaller wood desk that I scored off Facebook Marketplace before we moved is actually the perfect desk for drawing and painting on a smaller scale. It’s not the prettiest in the back, but that’s not my personal view everyday. And with less surface space, it also means, there are less piles taking it over.
I also moved my long-time favourite Ikea drawers over since there was no room for it in its previous position, once I moved my larger desk. In its new position, it sort of acts like a divider to the dining space, while simultaneously making my home office a little cozier.
Today, I finally reorganized the desk drawers as I hadn’t done that after the move and was having to go back and forth for the last little while. I’ll share some of my thoughts on drawer organization soon.
Until then, have a great weekend!
