Let the record show, I claimed the loft as my home office probably a decade ago. It wasn't long after we moved in and was certainly long before Mila joined our little party. AND YET.
I have ceded my office to the girls. I spend hours and hours working from a crowded little corner in Mila's bedroom (...she wasn't using it) with my laptop propped up on a folding tables. Meanwhile, somehow this happened.
That's the loft. After a decade of having some furniture, but mostly being the place where things ended up when they should have been thrown away, it is now officially the place where the girls do their schoolwork. It's their office.
AND THEY GOT BOOKSHELVES.
Funny thing, that. Just a few months ago, I would have said we have too many books in this house. Now I'd say we need a whoooooooole lot more. Amazing what a few cheap Billy bookcases from IKEA can do for your perspective.
And, yes, those are IKEA bookcakes.
It's magical how much better they look if you put wood trim on the front of them. Truly. It's 1" x 2" boards running vertically and there are 1" x 6" boards running horizontally across the top and bottom. After nailing them in place, I painted them white to match the bookshelves. Seriously, it's that simple to improve Billy's looks.
The thing is, I felt like the one thing I could control in terms of making sure the girls are successful with remote learning this year was to give them a space that would allow them to focus. Mila especially seems to need dedicated spaces for dedicated tasks because she is super easily distracted. I might have mentioned that a few times because it's SO true. In talking to them about what their dedicated school space should look like, they ended up wanting lots of bookshelves and "fun" desks.
They ended up with -my- version of fun because I am going to take that space back. It will eventually be my office again and when it happens, I want a big L-shaped desk made out of pipes and reclaimed wood. I will be getting it, obviously, because the pieces can be rearranged.
The girls opted to face each other, by the way. I'm not sure why they prefer that when they could have faced out the windows, but whatever. It's their office.
Oh, and those prints? I totally picked them as well. They're upcycled dictionary pages and the girls LOVE them.
I'm not sure why they love them given that I have told them that I mean it with the name-calling. I won't say who is which one, but OH THE ACCURACY. Hint: One of them was selected because one of the girls is obsessed with house plants. She had a TON of them which have all moved to the office.
Though, I did upgrade the pots.
Because OBVIOUSLY it needed to be done.
Still. One of my kids is obsessed with house plants. That total nerd territory.
And I want to take over the nerd kingdom. So much. Let's just hope the girls are back in regular school next year so I can have my office because I have zero plans of ever setting foot in an office building on a frequent basis ever again.
(I added links for where I bought most of the stuff because people keep asking. Amazon is evil, but so convenient when you don't want to go to an actual store.)