Pulling Together A New Office

I was asked to help pull together a small medical office. This was for a Chiropractor that will see patients in a Pediatrician's office once a week as both doctors are working toward integrating standard medicine with fields that focus first on wellness, which as a parent I love the idea of. I feel odd mentioning names but if you are in Central Florida and are interested in this type of partnership between doctors, email me as I'd love to recommend them to you!

He has a waiting room and a room next to it for his adjusting area that was not private nor defined from the other. He brought his green table into an office with baby blue walls and red chairs and I must say, I was a little perplexed how I would make this space feel cohesive when I first walked in!

The Challenge:

Make a curtain that could provide privacy for the adjusting room. Warm up the space. Provide something for kids and siblings to do while waiting. If possible, try to make the curtain tie into the green table and blue walls and red chairs. (Um, okay!)

Before: waiting room area

After: waiting room area

Before: adjusting room.

(This also clearly shows the colors that I was working with)

After: adjusting room

Once I saw the small window, I had to complete a valance for that as well!


Here is a closer look at the fabric I found! You can't see the red well in the pictures but it does stand on its own in the space. It softens the room up and ties the colors together!

Fabric really is amazing isn't it?

Make Your Own Window Seat

I do encourage doing everything on your own but you may need a little bit of help on this unless you know how to use a saw! It only takes a short amount of time to do the construction part and it isn't that difficult! The fabric is all you!

1. Determine where you want your seat and the size. Lay out large paper if it has a unique shape which is what I did here. I free handed the curve. Or, determine the exact dimensions if it has straight lines.

2. Cut the seat shape out of two pieces of MDF. Yes, TWO.

3. Take one piece of MDF to your local upholstery shop and choose your foam. The thicker the better. You need to do this first, or at least know your plan, before you build your seat so you know exactly how high the base seat needs to be built. They will cut it for you to match your top exactly. To give you an idea of cost, mine is 4" thick and was around $70.

4. Use 2x4s to support one piece of your MDF seat at your predetermined height. Use studs to support the seat on the wall as well as legs and then make legs every 8"-12" where it isn't attached to the wall. If you plan to use this as storage, make sure your legs are spaced correctly for function. You won't see it so just make it strong and you are set! Construction is done!

5. Buy your fabrics!

6. Determine the bottom skirt measurement. You will need to leave 3" inches to staple on the top. The length should be adjusted based on how much gathering you want. 1.5 times your actual length gives you a decent amount but play a bit before you cut! Hem the sides and bottom. Start gathering and pinning until you get the piece the right length with gathers. Do one run on the sewing machine to hold the fabric in place and remove the pins. If you need to tweak it, just loosen or gather more as you go, especially around the corners but doing this first makes it easier. Staple it to the built in bench. You should use an upholstery stapler to get through the MDF which you can get at any craft store.

7. Set your seat fabric face down on a flat surface. Set your cushion and then your MDF, also upside down. Ensure you have enough room surrounding every side to cover before you start to staple! The TRICK with upholstering is to take it slow and to maintain your fabric lines as you go. Do not start at one point and stay in a straight line. Put a few staples in the center of the left side, a few on the right, a few in the front, a few in the back, always ensuring that your fabric is staying taunt, not pulled too tight and remaining straight. Do the corners last by gathering each piece carefully so you don't have any areas with a large amount of fabric. Staying balanced is key. Curves are tough! You must use fabric with some give. Email me if you need some hints but most likely, you won't have to worry with that!

8. Viola! You have a window seat and it's gorgeous and custom! Now sew some pillows from coordinating fabric to go with it or buy some! Mine has some scrapbook storage under it and if I'm in the middle of a sewing project, I slide the storage box and other stuff under until I'm done with that project! It's a great hiding place too, the kids love it!

"Make Me Pretty" said the desk . . .

Can you tell these clients have a BIG house? They don't even NEED this area! Surrounding this area by their garage entry are 3 bedrooms and a bathroom and one room is a large office. So this area did not need to be used at all as an office but it did need something!

The Challenge:
Move the collectibles to another area. Create a space that looks good!

What Worked:
Decor: Clean Slate
Organization: Lots of space!

What Didn't Work:
Decor: This became a space where things collected. I didn't take a picture before I moved a few things but it basically housed extra wine and collectibles.
Organization: There are drawers but they weren't organized. It was an easy catch-all. However, there was no home for anything so her purse and his keys ended up in the kitchen or laundry room or sometimes here. The goal was to find places where all these things belonged! They own 2 businesses and had lots of paperwork, flyers, marketing they wanted to read, pending decisions, industry magazines, etc. that ended up in other areas as well and I wanted to find a place for them to sort these things too.

I organized this space along with several closets all at once in order to zone everything. Batteries are now in one place and not in 4 different areas, for example. The desk holds everyday office type supplies like tape, pens and thank you cards! No more screwdrivers and light bulbs here!

The basket holds things like sunglasses, the hooks hold keys and her purse and the tower sorts all their pending business materials until they are ready to take action or toss them. The bulletin board holds pictures, invitations and upcoming items. The clips can be used by anyone for whatever their 'thing' is that always seems to be sitting around. Maybe it's paperwork to take with you or forms to send to school or banking if you run a business from home. For this family, they always had coupons as well as gift cards sitting around so the clips are labeled and now they have a home for them!

Can you do anything with this space?

I enjoy a unique challenge and this was certainly a tough one! This bathroom is the employee bathroom in a medical office. Their office is very busy and every inch of space is used for their patients, except for a narrow area for the only private office and this bathroom. So, it has become storage along with being their bathroom. As you walk in on either side, there are two LARGE metal units that house all their office supplies. It was so narrow I couldn't even photograph inside them. Past them as you start to see the actual bathroom area housed cleaning supplies and you can't see it in the picture but in between the right cabinet and the toilet was a small tower of the paint cans they needed for future touch ups.

The Challenge:

Organize the space, help us find space, make it look better and Nothing can leave! That's right, even the paint cans need to stay! There really was no other room in their large office for these things.

What Worked:

Decor: The wall color ties into the office and I am pleased I can unify this neglected space with the rest of their office that has been set up quite nicely.

Organization: They have done a good job of keeping things up with their space challenge. Their supplies were in order and everything they had they did need.

What Didn't Work:

Decor: Definition between storage and bathroom had been completely lost. I had to take back the bathroom area as tight as it was!

Organization: Zones were desperately needed. A few storage items were needed to maximize their storage space within the cabinets.

It's tough to see but on the sides of this picture, you can see the tan 6' tall storage cabinets that take up pretty much this entire space.

Sorting through every shelf, bin and box and determining specific zones made a huge difference. Parts for medical equipment were clearly labeled and given their own zone which had no place of its own before. They now have a system set up with a reference at each cabinet along with labels on everything so they can quickly locate anything from a paperclip to marketing for future holidays. Zoning items helped free up enough space to move everything off the floor--even all the paint!

Here is the after. I made the sink skirt from a shower curtain and the basket to the left of the sink on the wall was in the CD section at Target that was not made for hanging at all. Altering items and using them in another manner than what they were intended can save money while solving problems! I hung the cleaning supplies and the mop bucket is under the sink. Everything that had been in the plastic drawer system is now in the cabinets.

Wallpapered Niche

Here again is the before:

I asked if anyone had any idea what I was up to and yes, you guessed it--Wallpaper! I know, wallpaper is not on the top of most of our lists of great things. If you have ever removed it, you are, I'm sure, with me! I knew I wanted something different in this area above my refrigerator. I had lived with the green for a year, thinking and thinking about what it is I wanted to do there.

At one point, I though it would be fun to decoupage it with scrapbook paper as I was inspired by this from several decorating blogs. But I'm picky. And they didn't railroad. Meaning--match, line up, connect. So I checked out wallpaper and fell in love with this wine label paper. It had great bold color that matched my home so I decided to just do it! I bought the cheapest paste so that I can pull it down in a year or two when a new idea strikes me. I picture this spot being a place where I can move things around as I am inspired or my collections change.

Once I was done, the red pottery just was too much with the white and the wallpaper so I pulled more of my white collection together (American Atelier, Athena with a few pieces from their Baroque line). I do not normally encourage wallpaper but it's great for a small 'pop' in places like this. You can back display cabinets or bookcases too! This spot took me 5 hours by the way, imagine wallpapering the inside of a box! I won't take this project on again anytime soon!

Lets talk about pillows!

So, we all have pet peeves. Things that bug us. Just annoys us. This is really minor in the realm of life but one of mine is the pillows that come with your couch! Sure they 'match' but they don't really give your couch character now do they? 90% of couches are a basic neutral color which I am ALL about. But you still need to have your couch coordinate with your room and leaving the neutral pillows on it leaves it just a blob of tan in the middle of your room! Here are gorgeous couches, but all looking like 'tan blobs'! Once you have a color scheme, pull those colors into your room through new pillows. You can buy some or make some, or both. Mix it up! Here is an example of how to do this. Here is a room that I transformed and their couch is gorgeous and feels like a soft sweater but it had no life!

We started with this store bought striped pillow. This pillow captured all the colors we wanted in the room and this became our base for all color choices. I focused on decorative pillows but also think that at least one pillow should be comfy--one that you can just curl up with! That pillow in this room is the butter colored pillow. I used a high quality down filled pillow form for comfort and no trim so that it would be cozy and not easily damaged.

This red pillow was purchased and then I made this green pillow from the same fabric used on their window treatments with a lush trim that coordinates with all the pillows.

Using the same green and using some tassels from the same trim, I made these pillows for chairs that flank a console in the entry which help tie that space into the family room. Imagine this same area without the pillows. It would look fine but there wouldn't be enough color, the chairs would look a bit cold and it wouldn't have as much interest.

Here is the same couch with the new pillows. Doesn't this couch look alive now? No Tan Blob in this room!I know, you don't want to 'waste' a good pillow. Neither do I! You have 2 options. 1. Use the pillows that come with your couch somewhere else. If you have chairs or a different couch elsewhere in the room, perhaps they would work there. If you view my Home Tour, you may notice that the pillows that are the largest and on the back of my window seat in my office are actually the matching pillows from my couch in my family room! 2. Use the form that came with the couch but sew new covers. I did this on the chairs on my patio. Forms run from $8-30 depending on size/quality so the 6 pillows I used saved a lot of money! The nice thing about doing this is that the old cover is now your perfect pattern! Just measure, pin it and make sure it's the same and sew!

Okay, go arrange your pillows please! Oh, and the same 'issue' happens with bedding sets so check that out too!

Kitchen Niche Project

Here's another Before! When I designed my home, I knew I didn't want the usual wood lined niche above my refrigerator. It is expected and darker than I prefer. I pictured this area a bit fun with a burst of color. And also something that I could change around as my decor changed. So, I just had them drywall it and paint it until I could get to it. After much back and forth in my head, I have decided what it is I am going to do! I have ordered what I need and should have it in a few weeks! Lets just say, it is something I never thought I'd do again and something my husband is quite apprehensive about! Can you guess? Here is a BEFORE of my project and I can't wait to show you what I have come up with!

What could be prettier?

Okay, my kids smiles should be my first answer I know! But besides that, I just love to look at this jar. Am I nuts? I walk past it all the time and love it when it catches my eye! I so enjoy needing to use it as I love to dig through all the tiny ribbon that makes such a huge difference when I'm creating!

I know this isn't a life altering design tip but really, if you don't love the things you have in your home, what's the point? You should look in every room and see areas that you love and that you are drawn to. I have seen many blogs where they photograph those areas and items (anything from a photo wall to flowers on a side table) and show all the pictures. Maybe I'll do that someday . . . My ribbon jar would be on the top of my list.

Craft Supplies!

So, you buy supplies for a craft project for your child's class and have left over googly eyes. Probably a few pipe cleaners too. Then you decorate for a girl's baby shower and now have tiny pink flowers and lots of sheer pink ribbon left over. Oh, and lets not forget about the remaining teeny tiny clothes pins that were so cute holding up baby socks at the same shower. And you were nice enough to buy all the leather rope and primary colored beads for a cub scout project and they only come in 5 lbs bags! WHERE do you put all this stuff?

Years ago, I'd store it in the original bag and put it in a craft drawer. But in a rush to complete another school project, I almost always bought more googly eyes because it's just too much work to dig for the old ones! Right? Here is how I solved that problem. I think that anything can be gorgeous if you display it beautifully! All of the above mentioned items are mixed into this wall and they don't go together at all but look at how great they look!

Here are a few pointers:

-Buy many different sized containers. This wall has 4 glass containers. The big candy jar bins (4 each of 2 different sizes) hold chunky ribbons, stamp pads, stamps, beads, large tabs, handheld punches, etc. The tiny jars hold all the tiny things you end up with from brads to flowers to tacks to clips. The taller medium jars are perfect for smaller ribbons, those googly eyes, smaller tags, pins for sewing, etc. The toile bins hold things that are too tall to fit in the bins and provide a pop of color that tie into the rest of the room behind the teeny tiny jars. The basket holds scrapbooks that I've made at expos and hope to complete someday! Shelves are from http://www.ballarddesigns.com/ .

-Make sure you buy enough containers and get some extra! In two years when you have a few more things, you want to have matching jars. If you want more and have none and they are no longer available, it will start to look junky if you start a new jar in a row of all matching jars.

-What makes this wall cohesive is that they all coordinate. All are clear glass with simple lids. They aren't all from the same container line but they still work together. Imagine if the tiny jars will all silver and contemporary looking and the medium bins were all white that look like cookie jars and the big ones were clear glass. Everything would be stored but it wouldn't look as cohesive and wouldn't have as great an impact.

-But I don't like matchy matchy, what about me? If you like the vintage look of old jars that don't match, go for it! I love that look! But there is still a trick to make it cohesive. You should make sure you have a wide assortment of different sizes and different shapes. What doesn't look as good is if you have say 10 jars that all match and then 3 or 4 that are different. Or 15 jars that are all the same tall size and 3 that are short. Varying the styles, shapes and heights so that they all are different but so that the variety is balanced makes it a cohesive collection!

-Labels. I am a bit obsessed with labels. But I didn't label my jars! Why? Creativity and art are always evolving and I don't want to be stuck with labels that are an issue to change every time I decide to add or take away an item. In a year, if I start using more brads but stop using letter stamps, I'll just switch things around instead of having to deal with label changes. Also, they are clear so the item is a "label" in itself.

This picture is what this area looks like from the side. My "office" is a little less than 7' wide but runs the entire length of the house. In it is a desk with computer, lots of cabinet storage, this craft area, my kids school display area, a window seat with a tv above it, a pantry and our mudroom. It is truly a "multipurpose" room! Just so you know what else is in this wall section, the built in below that is curtained covers 12x12 paper storage towers and more craft items that aren't as pretty (rolls of tape, kids scissors, gluesticks, etc.). The very top shelf is full of magazine bins that I have shown you in another post.

This wall is really the epitome of how to make a space PRETTY NEAT!

Family Resources

Every family needs a place to hold your reference items and my solution is a Family Resource Binder. What goes in it? Well that depends on your family. Mine has a menu section, school schedules, homemade gift ideas that I might want to use someday, a 'personal education' section where I have an article about wine and books I would like to read, vacation spots I'd like to some day visit and the list goes on.

After sorting through your clutter areas and determining what it is you are holding onto and why, I can create a custom Family Resource Binder for your family.




If I am not organizing your home but you would like one, I will gladly make one for you at a cost of $65. That includes the following: Binder, 80 pages to hold your items, custom cover where you and I will work together to select the colors that best fit your home, custom tabs that coordinate with your cover, and Content page that details the topics of your Family Resource binder. We will determine the "content page" together, based on your family's needs and you will be given a word document of that content page so that as your family changes and grows, your Family Resource Binder can as well.

You can contact me at Kiersten@ThePrettyNeatCompany.com if you would like to discuss your own Family Resource Binder.

I have readers!!!!

Wow! Welcome new readers!!! I barely know how to put up posts and hadn't even shown my mother until last night yet people are visiting! My blog was designed by Jennisa (her link is on my side thingy and she does SUCH a great job!) and I am listed as one of her designs and it seems 2 people have come and even left me comments! I have comments! :) And one of my sister's friends in Georgia said he will be following. I am now a multi-state read blog! I feel famous which I know is sad. I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this so thank you for showing me what it feels like to have someone look at what I am up to! I have a web address (theprettyneatcompany.com) but have NO idea what to do with it (so it is "parked" and is a future project) and have an email address (Kiersten@theprettyneatcompany.com) but I have no idea what to do with that either! Someday, once I am not spending hours just getting the format of one blog correct, I will figure that stuff out as well as start wandering and visiting you all too, I promise.

Since it feels so great to have comments, go ahead and keep them coming! :) And if you have a decorating or organizing question or "issue", let me know and I'll do my best to come up with a project and example in the future for you!

And a special 'shout out' to Jenn who has left 2 comments and added me to blog reader! I have NO NO NO idea what that means, though I assume it alerts her that I have written something?, but it makes me feel really special! Hee hee!

Thanks for visiting and I will do my best to post things that will keep you interested! And by the way, I wrote a lot in the past without actually getting around to taking pictures of the projects that go with them. I'm recalling my Family Resource Binder, kid's paperwork area and magazine bins to name a few so give me a few weeks and then go back and check them out too if you would like to see those completed posts!

Because I really love blogs where there are lots of pictures, here is a picture of myself and some of my girlfriends at a party I had this past October. I have known them all since middle school and some much longer--Nicole (teal shirt in front) was my first friend from this group at age FIVE! Oh, the history . . . . since they are intermingled very much in my life, they will not be surprised to see themselves on my page--once I get around to giving them a link to this. :) And someday, I'll tell you more about how I made that cornice board and how I think that outdoor accessories, like the ones on the wall to the right, can easily work into your interior decor too! Oh, and that chick that looks like me in black and white--that's my twin, Kim. I'm blending into the window treatment in the very back . . .

My first blog "After"!

I am finally ready to post after pictures of the family room I have redone. I focused on utilizing what they had as they have lots of beautiful, new furniture and accessories that they have collected in their travels. Other than buying a small side table and a large expense in silk fabric, the rest of the room was transformed through some new accessories and rearranging what they owned. Every single thing purchased has color and I'm sure you will agree that it makes a huge difference.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:



Pieces were added to maximize the tall walls. Color now gives this room life! The walls and shelves still utilize her collections while obtaining a better scale to the room. Storage solutions were found for things like magazines and remotes under the coffee table. See the green on the pillow? That's the same silk I used on their 16 foot long (yes, huge!) custom window treatment! I have never sewn anything so large--the valance weighed 40 lbs I think! You can see on the left that space was found for a massage chair from another room that the owner loves and here is a picture of that area, which also shows you one side of the window treatment.

This slider is so large with so much light coming in that a long shot has not come out yet but I'll keep working on it and am sure you can imagine how much this space has changed!!




I am still working on many other spaces but wanted to show you the progress so far!

Flat Screens, Game Systems and Cords, Oh My!

Cords are an inevitable problem whenever you have a flat screen and/or game systems. There are very expensive solutions to this and anyone can figure that out, however, I'd like to show you a trick to 'fix' this without hiring a framer, electrician, drywall guy and painter!

Here is an example of a flat screen mounted on the wall with the cords hidden in a tunnel in the wall. Once the tv is installed, it is very hard to add a cord so once the Wii was purchased, there's still a visible cord! As with any system, lots of games and remotes were added to the pile. And LOOK at the cords on the floor! There's not a lot of room to tuck in cords at the tv so all the excess ends up on the floor.

Here are some simple solutions! The cord was run to the right of the tv (taped underneath!) and two plants were put there to make it disappear. Two coordinating baskets were added to the area--the smaller one holds games and the everyday remotes and the large one on the floor holds the larger accessories. A simple frame or canvas print works perfectly to disguise the mound of cords--this one was around $15 at Old Time Pottery. The pot of flowers just adds an extra element to balance the basket. It became a beautiful area with just a few accessories!

There is a phrase in the design business--"Decorate Around It". This is a perfect example of when this rule can be used successfully!

If you are mounting a flat screen in your existing home, it is a tricky project to get it right but you can do it! First, determine where it needs to be mounted based on your framing and the height you want. Before you get the tv up, determine where the available space for cords will fall on the wall and then find an area between the framing to poke a hole through. Cover it with an outlet plate that has a large hole in it. Make sure that space does not have electrical on the floor. Do not saw but 'poke' so that you don't cute any wires if they are. Determine the best spot behind your console/table and poke through again. First get the cords up to the tv by dropping a long wire and then pull it all up--be patient here! Attach it all from there and enjoy your gorgeous new tv!

FYI, If you are building a home, you should have your framer make a solid area in the spot where you plan to hang your tv. You should have an idea of the size you plan to put on the wall as well as the height. The 'rule' is eye level when you are sitting but I think if you live like my family does that it should be closer to eye level when standing. Anywhere within that range works, in my opinion and if you are in a large area where you walk around often, like watching TV from your kitchen island in the attached family room, go higher! It has never bothered me to look up from my couch but it would certainly bother me if I couldn't see the TV from the kitchen because it was being blocked by heads on the couch! Then have them make a 'tunnel' from the very bottom of where the tv will be (look at the back for the cord space) to an area within the first 2 feet on the floor where you can run all the cords up to the tv. Plan ahead--if you think you are going to add something, get the cord in the tunnel!