Introducing The Keeping Room Office Project

Raise your hand if you have a bathtub full of office clutter. Tentatively raises hand. Yes, I currently have a situation involving a pile of office clutter in a bathtub which I’ll get to in a soon-to-be-revealed full-circle moment later in this post. But today, I’m sharing our first interior project of the year, FINISHING our keeping room.

Keeping room painted dark green with a corner fireplace, IKEA pullout couch, drafting table, desk, and chambray blue rolling desk chair

This space is heavily absent from the blog as most of the work was done in those sleepless days of infanthood almost eight years ago. While we finished many of the basics, like sourcing the furniture we needed, painting, and building bookcases, there were many finishing details left undone.

Today I’m walking you through the purpose of the room (spoiler…it’s of the multi-variety), where it currently stands renovation-wise, and what we plan to do.

Purpose Of The Keeping Room Space

I’m a big believer that rooms should be both functional and beautiful. Form equals function.

It took us a while to figure out the purpose of “the keeping room,” the room’s official name in the history books of our circa 1781 Vermont farmhouse.

The space is primarily used for Colby’s office. He works mostly from home as a window and door salesman. He only requires a desk for computer work but the drafting table has also become incredibly useful for reviewing building plans.

A drafting table sits in a home office in front of dark green bookcases filled with fiction books

Secondary purposes for the space are a guest room, music room, reading room, and pretty fireplace space for the Christmas season. But more on these in a moment.

Current State Of The Keeping Room

Just before Thanksgiving every year, I tackle a grand, super deep cleaning ritual of the keeping room along with the rest of the first floor. This year with the keeping room, the clutter was out of control. Enter to evidence records, exhibit A.

A cluttered home office with piles of papers on top of the desk, trash can overflowing, items stacked on a couch, drawers overflowing, cobwebs on the ceiling, and more

I asked Colby to help me declutter. We started by hauling everything out of his office that wasn’t furniture intending to return only what he needed or what belonged. The sheer amount of things was astronomical. I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten.

In a bout of panic with the Christmas decorating season looming, I took the entire pile of clutter and filled up the empty clawfoot tub sitting in our bathroom. In full disclosure, it was not one of my proudest moments. Thankfully, the tub is uninstalled and unfunctional. It’s all part of our laundry room/bathroom plan. And yes, that’s also an amp and a telescope taking up space. Unpictured, the broken printer hiding around the corner.

A pile of office clutter removed from the office and piled in an unused, black clawfoot tub in a bathroom/laundry room space

What The Space Needs To Function Better

Before I even think about decorating or space planning, I like to think about each of the functions of a room. So I went through those functions for the keeping room and came up with some ideas to make the space function better.

Office Needs

The office needs are aplenty! In general, it needs a lot of organization for general office supplies along with storage for some oddities, like rolled-up rolls of construction plans.

Right now, there is no rhyme or reason for how office supplies are stored in our home. Some things are in the kitchen, others in my craft room, and some things are in this space. I would like to corral all office supplies and make a home for them here.

The desk could also use some organizing with a space for some paper files, extra pens in the drawers, a better monitor stand or laptop port, and maybe even a desk pad where Colby can write notes instead of scribbling on random pieces of paper when he takes phone calls.

A vintage wooden desk with a computer monitor, task lamp, and lots of clutter in need of organizing and setting up to work better; dark blue office chair and dark green office walls

We consolidated the two printers in our home down to a single, compact printer when Colby’s machine died. I would love to come up with a storage cabinet or spot for it that’s concealed with room to store printer paper.

Guest Room Needs

The keeping room occasionally doubles as a guest room, hence the couch in the space pulls out into a full bed. It works relatively well as a guest space but there are a few things we could improve upon.

Ideally, I would like a bedding set that we can store in the couch that’s strictly for guests. Right now, extra bedding is haphazardly all over the house so we scramble to find everything when someone stays in here. There’s a spot to store these things within the couch. We could stand some fresh pillows and sheets for guests instead of our old threadbare sheets and flat pillows.

IKEA sleeper sofa in a home office with dark green painted walls and ceiling; fireplace in the corner, and striped curtains flanking the window behind the couch

Lighting is an issue. The curtains do close but they let in a lot of light. They’re just super cheap, thin curtains we picked up from Ikea with the intention of upgrading. I’m thinking velvet drapes, since they help keep the cold drafts out and this room is COLD, along with some blackout roller shades.

The door in this room also needs a roller or Roman shade. Fun story. Our outdoor cat, June June, loves to sit on the potting bench just outside the door in the morning and meow at our guests until they let him in for a quick bite to eat at 4 am. Every time. Maybe with a shade on the door, the cat won’t notice them and our guests won’t have sun in their eyes so early in the morning.

Music Room Needs

We have a vision of a music nook in this room. Just behind the drafting table, to the right of the fireplace is this little nook. It’s the perfect space to house our record collection in a DIY cabinet which doubles as a stand for the record player. Then we can hang Colby’s and now Rowan’s guitars above.

A music nook in the corner of dark green room across from a corner fireplace, filled with electric and acoustic guitars and a banjo

Both Rowan and Colby have informed me they also need a spot to store their guitar things AND they need a new amp. I was asked to work the price of their amp into the budget for the room.

Reading Room Needs

Since we put an electric heater inside the fireplace, this room has become my favorite place to curl up with a book and read. To make the room a smidge more cozy for reading, I would love to acquire some fluffy throw blankets to drape over the couch arm for easy access. Maybe even a weighted blanket for extra coziness while reading.

Adding another level or two of lighting would also be nice. The overhead lights, which I want to refinish with Rub N Buff, aren’t terribly bright. Colby’s desk has a task light and the drafting table light can be moved to help illuminate the bookshelves or the couch for reading. But adding some picture lights to the bookshelves and a lamp by the couch would be helpful.

Dark green built-in bookcases filled with fiction books; vintage wood drafting table in a home office space

Pretty Fireplace At Christmas Needs

The keeping room is the pretty room at Christmas. It’s my favorite room to decorate, mostly because of the fireplace, and as I decorate and finish this space, I want to keep Christmas in mind. I’m not sure exactly what that looks like right now. But maybe it’s just asking myself with every item that comes into the room, “How will this look at Christmas.”

The Grand Project List

And now for the grand poobah of this post, the master list of projects and to-dos. This list is subject to change as I dive in and change things up. Or more likely, adding more things as we go along.

  • Declutter the room
  • Space plan large items (although I think the current layout works)
  • Choose a color palette
  • Refinish light fixtures
  • Adding picture lights above the bookcases (or maybe one of those lights that sits on the shelf)
  • Switch out window coverings
  • Make a window covering for the door
  • Refinish beams to be less orange (maybe?)
  • Refinish door (double maybe?)
  • Repair desk
  • Build a printer cabinet
  • Organize all office supplies
  • Organize Colby’s work papers including building plans
  • Develop a filing system for personal paperwork
  • Fine-tune things on the desktop for style and function
  • Update pillows and throws on the couch
  • Store guest bedding under the couch
  • Add a light near the couch for reading and guests
  • Build a record cabinet
  • Organize records
  • Set up record player and Colby’s vintage Bose speakers
  • Hang guitars above the record station
  • Add art to the walls
  • Update to fancier light switches and covers, or at least ones that blend in

Thrifting List

I’ve been on the thrift hunt for the following items. So far, no luck on anything except for some vintage office accessories. Here’s the thrift list as it currently stands

  • Drafting stool for the drafting table
  • A cozy throw
  • Large-scale art for above the couch
  • Frames for family photos
  • Vintage office accessories
  • Velvet drapes
  • Blackout shades
  • Art prints that play with the color palette

Typically with a project like this one where I want to FINISH finish the space, I give myself a time limit on thrifting. So for example, if I don’t find four velvet curtain panels by the end of March, I’ll either buy or make a set. If I don’t set this limit, I’ll get stuck in our current situation of letting the room go unfinished for years.

Speaking of thrifting, I’m off to the thrift store to see if I can hunt some of these things down.

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