Study Makeover (and Misc. New Year Holiday Things)

We didn't go anywhere over Christmas last year. It was very much a stay home and rest kind of break. Steve had ten days off work, but instead of trying to put in any kind of travel or get away, we just stayed home. It was surprisingly relaxing and also productive. 

Belated Happy New Year:
Rachel with her latest balloon creation to celebrate the Year of the Horse

Thanks to working in the tech industry, Steve gets a laptop upgrade every two years, which means we have older, but still great laptops just lying around the house. Since Sophie was moving into high school, and the girls are both just generally older and more capable with computers now, we thought we would actually set up the study with spaces for them to work in. 

The study is Steve's official office, since he works there everyday. It's got his big desk with all the screens and gadgets, but it also stores a stack of other stuff. We had the piano in there, under the shelves we had installed back in 2013 and all our extra musical instruments and cases in the corner. The shelves had initially served the purpose of holding our DVDs, but was currently holding our board game collection. And against the wall under the windows, was three 2 by 2 cube storage units (hand me downs from Fi) that had a collection of things from tech stuff to kids toys. 

This is an older photo, but you get the idea - stuff!

Knowing we needed to put two desks in the room ment we absolutely needed to clean out everything else. I did a huge cull of all of the games, and the kids toys, and all the craft supplies that I still had from when I ran a Family Day Care. So much stuff. But it was great to get rid of - most of it went to other people, or sold on marketplace. Not to landfill just yet. 

We also realised that we'd need to paint one of the walls, which had been hiding behind the piano. After the renos were finished in 2019, I had used the leftover wall paint to paint the entry, hallway and most of the study before I ran out. Since the final wall was firstly in the study (where really only Steve went) and secondly hidden behind a piano and some very full shelves, it was not worth getting more paint at the time. Now, however was different. So we took everything out and I painted the wall. 

And reinstalled the shelves. 

Twas beautiful! 

Two trips to Ikea later and we also had desks to set up and arrange. The piano (and other instruments) didn't fit back in, but they are not taking up too much space in the dining room. The girls both have smaller desks in their room and we had office chairs for them (that we picked up free from a furniture company down the road one day). Rachel has put her office chair out in the study and is using a big stool in her room while Sophie is doing the opposite. 

Everybody loves the new set up and the subsequent gaming that came with it. Steve and the girls are loving getting into playing together. Meanwhile my space is still round the corner near the washing machine and though I'm apart from everyone else, I love my sewing space so much that I can't complain. 

This whole study makeover was completed in the ten days (though I guess I did lots of the culling of things in the lead up to facilitate it) which was pretty cool. At no point did we feel rushed to get it done and Steve had a sleep in every morning. The right kind of holidays. 

Sophie enjoying the slow holidays making crepes in the pan she got for her birthday.