House Envy: What Can I Say, Neurotic Behavior Runs in the Family. . .

When Laura and I started chatting about posts for this week, we both had our minds on organization and controlled craziness. I have always kicked myself for not adding a home office when we built our house seven years ago. For the first four years I kept our bills and mail in a nice little basket in our laundry room. But now that we have two kids in school, papers and mail flying in rapid fire and an actual calendar of events to track, I had to reorganize my kitchen (aka, the place that 90% of my life is lived!) and create a place that would make my calendar, bills and school papers easily accessible. We have a spare bedroom, but the thought of walking upstairs every time I want to look at something is daunting. I'm also not a fan of calendars and stacks of papers (or baskets of papers) on the kitchen counters.

Luckily, I have a fairly large pantry and decided I could dedicate a shelf or two as my "office". Here's the space pre-makeover.

When I decided I wanted to commit to the space long term I decided it needed a makeover. I started by taking everything out and moving the shelves up and down for optimal storage and leg room to sit.

BEWARE: This little exercise actually involves reorganizing your entire kitchen!

Then I found some scrap wallpaper and decided to wallpaper the wall.

To wallpaper, make sure your wall is clean. Measure your space and cut the paper accordingly. If you have to use more than one sheet for the width, make sure to marry your pattern up at the seams before cutting the second piece. Measure and mark the paper on the backside. I always hang wallpaper sheets left to right. When you do this, remember to measure and mark the back of the second sheet from the right hand side so that you keep your pattern continuity.

Then apply wallpaper paste with a paint brush or roller. I used this ULTRA Clear product that does not require you to prime the wall beforehand with certain types of wallpaper.

Use a flat edge smoother to get any air bubbles out.

And wipe any excess wallpaper paste off with a damp sponge. Wallpaper paste tends to yellow as it dries.

I already had the Pottery Barn Daily System installed, but decided to designate each bin to one of my kids for homework, permission slips and school handouts.

P.S. The Daily System is now on SALE at Pottery Barn!