Merry Christmas to me!

It's February {4 days til March!} and I'm finally posting pics of my office area makeover. I got Ikea gift cards as my Christmas gift from JT and my mom and dad. I planned out the space and headed to the big blue and yellow box to get my goodies. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Thank you so much to my family for this treat!

A while back, we decided it would be a good thing to keep the family computer in a common area of the house. There is a really good wall in the kitchen to have an office area, but we didn't have furniture that fit into that spot. I just kind of used what we had, so it was high time for a makeover. Here's the before and after:

*A little disclaimer on the "before." I was sooo excited to get the old stuff out of there that I moved all of it before I took my "before" pictures. {It's truly annoying how often I've done that...it's super embarrassing to ask my clients if I can move stuff back to "the before" to take pictures, but sadly, I've done that.} So, I hastily moved everything back to snap a few pics. That's why everything looks a little um, untidy, but you get the gist.

Before:

Problems:
*Printer too large, took up too much space on the desk area
*No storage for office supplies, mail, papers, drafting and craft supplies
*Furniture didn't coordinate with the rest of the space, was just a hodge podge of stuff
*Lack of adequate work space for drawing, drafting, and homework
*Lack of adequate task lighting

After:

This is a very usable space for us now. The drawer unit stores all my office supplies perfectly. The printer has its own table, so it's not taking up valuable realestate on the desk. I store bills and other papers in the file boxes under the printer. The two desks create a lot of work space as well. I have task lighting now thanks to the thrifty score I found a couple of months back. I am, however, still on the look out for chairs. While I looove my classic Thonet cafe chair, it's not the best for this space.

I still really like this one:

this one is cool too

Hmm, or a little more traditional with this one.

The chairs will have to come later, but with everything else the total cost for this makeover was a little under $250. That's not bad for two desks, a printer table, a drawer unit, 2 lamps, wall shelves, and some accessories.