Creating A Spot To Sort Mail, Do Homework, Etc: a house log

When Lee sent over her Design Dilemma after pictures we could not wait to share them. We know that many of you are chomping at the bit to see how our mood boards turn out (believe me, we are too) so we are consistently thrilled to see how those spaces transform after some fairly major room makeover-ing. You may remember that we whipped up this custom mood board for Lee a while back when she came to us for assist turning her hodge-podge of a room into a space to sort mail, do homework, and store a few things in a more appealing way. Since the room’s visible from a plethora of other adjoined spaces, it serves as a pass-through but also needs to bring a lot more function and style to the table. Here is the before picture to refresh your memory:

And here is the mood board that we created to inject order, balance and tons of eye-pleasing function to a formerly undefined and unfinished looking room (see more mood board details here).

And now for Lee’s big after pic. Here is her newly spiffed homework and mail zone right off of the front room and the kitchen:

Is not it endlessly more inviting and useful? We enjoy everything from the big round pendant to the woven baskets that mimic the texture in the round jute rug under that strong desk that stems from that fantastically functional wall of bookcases from Ikea. And here is what Lee had to say about her big room makeover:

This overhaul was so exciting! We got nearly everything you suggested and as soon as we built all of the Ikea stuff it immediately began to look strong in there. Your ideas truly did make for a big change. We enjoy it. The bowl on the desk is consistently changing (sometimes it is full of fruit but I also enjoy your crayon idea – we have boatloads of those!). Brilliant work! Thanks so much! -Lee

No thank YOU Lee, for sending us your room update. You do not even know how excited we get when they turn up in our inbox. Did not Lee do a fantastic job? We enjoy that she brought in as many boxes and bins as she needed to meet her storage goals and that she’s having lively switching out the desktop bowl depending on her mood. This is one of those strong transformations that shows how simply a few swift and straightforward changes (like Ikea bookcases that mimic the look of built-ins, and a plain pendant light along with a textured jute rug and some affordable Ikea art) can truly pull a formerly mismatched room together and add plenty of form and function in a snap.

Plus Lee’s big presto change-o proves that you do not have to break the bank for a big room makeover either. The whole bookcase and desk system was simply $317 while the pendant light was only $49 and the rug was a mere $84 (so all those major pieces only set her back a total of $450). Not bad for starting over practically from scratch, right? So let us all shower Lee with praise for being so wonderful and sending us her eye-pleasing pictures. And here is hoping more Design Dilemma after photos will be landing in our inbox quite soon…

Update: We sadly can no longer find the time to take on client commissioned mood boards (and simply whip up general inspiration boards instead) but if we ever reinstate them we will make a big announcement!