A jungle green home office with a little bit of birds, nature and travel thrown in..
Working from home is great. I get to set my own office hours, which can mean starting and finishing early or late, with the added bonus of no travel time, train strikes or traffic jams to contend with. I can take a break when I want. These can include sitting in the garden with my cats, chickens and ducks for a bit of mindfulness and nature, raiding the fridge for something naughty, and popping out to run mum jobs without getting permission first. Oh, and I can also sit and drink tea or coffee with or without donuts or pastries, and no one is going to giving me ‘you greedy mare’ looks either. I can also come home from a wedding in the evening and upload my cards straight away, review the images and neck wine as I do so. Yep, working from home is mostly awesome.
The downside? It can be hard to close up shop for the night, and you have to know when to stop editing and join the family for time out. In the holidays deadlines don’t care about kids being in the house, making noise, playing loud music, and asking to be amused and taken out. Then as my husband goes off to work in his nice tidy organised work space, I still have the washing pile and dirty dishes from last night’s tea plaguing me. It’s incredibly hard to separate your roles and allocate time to each when somethings are screaming at you to get them sorted.
So in a busy house (apart from me and my husband we have 4 kids and 4 cats), I need an oasis of an office in which to sit and work comfortably, free from clutter and distractions. A place for my mind to breath and my creativity to flow. I need to have a sense of order in order to run my business. I’m not going to lie, it isn’t always this tidy, and if often gets hijacked by kids doing homework (for some reason they prefer my office to their own computer space!), but I love this space. It’s not jungle themed as such (in a changing rooms theme kind of a way), but it does have flavours of the jungle and nature and beasties.
I came across this dark jungle green when visiting a furniture store’s blog and instantly loved the depth it created on a feature wall. I love how it makes the whites look so crisp and stand out, and how it provides a background for all different shades of green (my favourite colour). I found the shade I wanted at B&Q, it’s called Sherwood Forest mixed from their Valspar range.
My desk, draws, magnetic notice board, shelves, files, boxes, and spotlight are all from Ikea. I’ve had them several years and am on my second desk top which does need replacing every few years. My chair is also from Ikea, it’s black and ugly but comfortable thought not the least photogenic.
My lamp is a mix of a cheap wooden Tesco base, and a handmade shade in a leaf print fabric by the Lampshade Design Studio who you’ll find on Etsy. The Brass monkey (gold wall plaque), is from Next as are all the plants and pots.
The little personal things that make is special are photographs, shells and coral collected from family holidays, and various objet d’art that include; a fertility doll from a trip to South Africa, a Jade dragon from my daughter’s trip to China, and a miniature bust of Queen Nefertiti that my mum gave me after a trip to Egypt. I love the whole travel vibe and find the colours and the plants very relaxing.
So this is my home office. Thanks for taking a look and feel free to leave a comment or question. 🙂
Lampshade – Lampshade Design Studio
Ikea – Office Ideas
Next – House Plants
B&Q – Paint Mixing
Where to now?
