A room of one's own...

Sometimes I do things and my kids wonder what got into me.  Yesterday after dropping my daughter off at the pool for swim team I made my way to a little second hand shop called QCumberz - it's a great little shop full of forgotten odds and ends like old window frames and yellow rotary dial telephones and tv trays.  I found a writing desk which was perfect for my purposes.  It was just small enough to fit in the back of my car  (the guy looked perplexed that I wanted to try to cram it in the back of my Jaguar but he obliged anyway).  I got it home, within a few hours had pink paint and started devoting a few hours to transforming it.  My daughter seemed to wonder why this was something I suddenly needed to be doing. (because truly I had a million other things I could/should have been doing instead).

I explained to her that this is how my brain works.  I notice a problem (in this case, the fact that I didn't have table or a desk in a private area in the house where I could study without being interupted).  I puzzle over the problem subconsciously until an answer comes.  Once I have an answer, I strike quickly and totally.  What she didn't realize is that I've been looking for a writing desk like this for weeks now.  I just got lucky yesterday.

So here are the before and afters.  My only concern at this point is that maybe I should have painted it yellow to match the dresser instead of pink.  I think the pink might be a little too much.  I mean, the room is kind of crazy enough as it is.  I realized one reason I love this room so much is that it's kind of the room I always wanted.  I cannot tell you how serene I find it.  Even though the colors are crazed.  It is my escape.  As Virginia Woolf says, every woman should have a "room of one's own" and this is mine. 

Here's what I started with - it was a steal, less than $50, I just couldn't live with the blue and the bad hardware

see?  super ugly hardware I had to remove

I can only explain the hot/bubble gum pink by saying that it "spoke to me" also, in that room I do have some pink accents here and there and I thought adding a little extra pink wouldn't hurt.  In retrospect I maybe should have just gone with yellow again, but I can always change it later if I decide it's really too much. 

looking pretty in pink, I think

Amazing how a slight hardware change can give it a whole new look (hardware from the local hardware store - shout out to "Barry's Koller Hardware on 16th!- only $2 per knob)

I opted for this location in the room because I felt like you still have plenty of room to walk into the space, but when I pull down the top and put the chair up to it, I have plenty of room right there for that.  What I love about this too is that I can put all my books away in side the drawers instead of having them out on the floor of my room where they usually are. 

See?  There's plenty of room still when I move the chair over to use it as a desk. 

view looking down the hall from the other direction

As I'm laying in my bed looking at my Kate Spade bag hanging on my dresser today I'm thinking you know, I could have done Orange accents in this room, and that would have worked too.  Isn't that combination nice? 

I'm still questioning if I should have painted it yellow instead of pink though...I do love this yellow

Me, relaxing in my room.  I love this room.