A Decorating We Will Go!

Last week was booked with many different projects.

We painted the new Office. As you can see it was a family event.






While we painted Ginger loved having free rein of the rest of the house. She used the step ladder to get this cup off of the table. Sneaky little girl, which of course she dumped all over herself in a matter of minutes.



Thanks to our new home teachers who happened to stop by the day after we painted, Ken was able to move his desk down (and we wonder why we haven't had any HT visit our family for over a year:-).

And this weekend we decorated! The decorating turned out to be a bigger deal then I thought. I spent an entire day out shopping with the kids to get lights, frames, pictures, drapes, figurines, etc for the office. I love how it turned out! Ken totally loves it and it is warm and cozy.

Looking from the doorway. I saw the Eiffel Tour at Hobby Lobby and had to pick it up for his office.

I surprised Ken with this Horse Picture. He loved it, which is good because I spent an hour obsessing over the frame and matting at the store.

Notice the 5 feet wide screen of monitors. Placing them here was the only way to minimize their size. Ken loves them, I checked my mail on his computer this weekend while he was moving mine into the room and I have to say it is quite nice. I felt very powerful, and the mouse switches across both screens. Plus he has it set so that he docks his laptop on the other desk and he can still use his big screens and the regular keyboard, or both if he wants at the same time. I was impressed, but I also use just a plain old computer without a flat screen monitor.

This is my favorite area in his office. I think it is pretty and functional, and I am very impressed with my self, I'm really not a decorator type. First of all for remembering that Ken has a Flag that his mom had sent down from Alaska a couple of years ago. So I got him a shadow box to display it.

Then we also had this picture that Ken's old professor painted and had handed out prints to his students. I actually framed it for him our very 1st Christmas 11 years ago but it hasn't been hanging up on the wall for 4+ years. Ken really likes it. It's of Ben Franklin and George Washington signing the Declaration of Independence.

And then I love the lights that I found. Ken was super picky about the lights he wanted in his office because he didn't want a glare or anything harsh bouncing off of the monitors.

This is the shadow box and the certificate that Ken found when he pulled out his flag. The certificates says how the flag was flown at the Capitol Building on July 4, 1990 at the request of Senator Stevens (yep, the one from Alaska, Ken's home state) because he completed his Eagle Scout. I thought that was pretty cool so I found the perfect frame at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to put the certificate in. The frame isn't spectacular except that there is a pocket on the back of it that I was able to put the other pamphlets and booklets that came with Ken's flag. So I thought that was pretty cool.

Nathan picked out his Dad's drapes. I wouldn't have taken a 2nd look at them, except Nathan insisted they would look good. And now I think they match his room really well and add just the right touch.

We are done, except I need to make throw pillows for his couch, but at least Ken now has a fully functioning, beautiful (can I say that for a man:-) room to work in. Which is kind of sad after we realized he has been working from home for nearly 11 months now. And I'm really really happy that he loved my decorating. We usually have pretty similar tastes, but it's nice to reaffirm that.

Of course with one room done we couldn't stop. We painted the Dining Room also. Actually we were finishing them both concurrently. I wasn't sad to say goodbye to Rose's Black Sharpie drawings or to the bottom three feet of the wall that was covered in grimy handprints. My dining room feels so much cleaner now that it is painted with Semi-Gloss paint.


And I also painted the little alcove that goes into our room and hung pictures of Ken and me from our Anniversary. I don't think I ever posted one of us at dinner with beautiful dress (that I lost:-(. I just took a picture of the picture in the frame because I am way too busy to scan them.