a (living) room of one’s own
When we bought our house, I quickly claimed the smallest bedroom for my office. In our apartment, my husband and I split the extra room down the middle and each had our desks and computers in it. My desk was a child-sized hand-me-down, so I did most of my computer work while sitting on the couch in the living room (thank goodness for laptops, eh?).
I was so excited to finally have a room of my own, so to speak, when we moved. I got to pick out the paint color (Dill Pickle by Benjamin Moore), the bookcase and the desk. In the beginning of May, J even surprised me with a Pottery Barn rug that I had been dreaming about to complete the look.
Sadly, I never use my sweetly decorated office. I still sit on the couch with my laptop and clutter the coffee table with my magazines and notebooks. On the days I’m home all day I like keeping the television on for company–and there is no TV in my office. The dog has his crate and his toys downstairs, and I like spending time with him. Plus, in the living room, I’m close to the kitchen… Mmm…
So yesterday I did what I thought was the most logical way to break my bad couch/laptop habit: I brought my desk downstairs and planted it in the living room. I’m not sure how my husband is going to feel about this when he returns home from his deployment next week. In truth, I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. The look of it is going to take some getting used to. But as I’m writing this post, the TV is on over my right shoulder and the dog is lounging on the couch over my left. I don’t feel as isolated as I did when I tried doing work in my little office.
Check in with me a week from tomorrow; I’ll let you know what J thinks of the new arrangement. I have a feeling he may not be as keen on it as I am…
Where do you work on your computer? In a home office, in your kitchen or on your couch?
it looks nice and you may as well have it somewhere you will use it, right? It’s much better than my laptop and papers strewn all over the bar in the kitchen (where I’ve decided to work rather than the office upstairs for the exact same reasons). Maybe he won’t mind since it will now free up the coffee table
So what is the office going to turn into now? I work in the spare bedroom which is ‘the office/junk room’. Both my husband and I have ou desks in here (against opposite walls) along with book shelves, an old tv and stand that I’m trying to get rid of and other odds and ends. My favorite part is that I face a window and get to watch the little bird that lives a few feet away.
my laptop used to be a permanent fixture on the coffee table, but a few weeks back i decided it was time for the office to be an office, which is right off the living room anyways. i got tired of “conducting business” off the couch, my living room was always such a mess because of it.
now, i kind of like having a room where i can work and not get distracted by the tv, but again, since the two rooms are side by side, it works out quite nicely.
i think it’s great you put your desk in the LR. that way you can still store all your work in its own space and not encroach on other surfaces, but still not be cut off from the rest of the house. it works!
why don’t you just invest in a tv for your office and have a second area for your dog in there as well? Small TV’s aren’t too much money, plus you spent all the time and effort creating your own office space. We have a TV in our office and it works out well for us.