Getting Organized in the New Year with your junking finds

If you don't follow me on Instagram or Facebook you are missing out on most of my posts and ideas. So I thought I'd take a moment to catch you up.

 Every day this month, I'm posting ideas of how to use your fabulous junking finds to get organized in 2016.

 For the home office

 I love taking everyday objects and junk finds and giving them a new purpose. Many  old objects can be creatively used in your home or office to keep you organized, in a fun and interesting way.

Hop over to my Instagram or Facebook page for more ideas daily.
 Link at top of blog

In the Garden, Kitchen or Fireside

 For the studio or craft room

Even in the bathroom

Put your junk to work in 2016

Vintage Photo Shoot, Props and the Final product

You might remember that back in January I got to provide some props for this fun photo shoot for an ad campaign for a local  historical building that is being restored for new office space.

Well I finally saw one of the ads, in it's final form today in a local magazine. It looks great, and I am glad I had a small part to play.
Didn't it turn out great.   You can read more about this fabulous old building here.

 
 The interior spaces of this old Art Deco building are fabulous

These are my very unprofessional images that I snapped during the process

I was so glad to provide the Saturday Evening post below

But mostly I provided many of these items, The globe, clock and intercom.

And this chair

Inspiration Office Decor thrifting

I must admit, that a huge part of the inspiration for my new office re-do goes to Orla Kiely. If you read my blog at all you know I LOOOOOVE Orla. I'm not a fashionista by any stretch, but I love her bags like nothing else.  

 After seeing her set, for the recent London Fashion week, I was truly energized to get going.

Here you see Orla's set and later with the models.  I love what she did with touches of color, just a touch, so as not to distract from the clothing.

I used a bit more in my decor because I don't have the beautiful clothing or models running around.

  I wanted to share, how much of my office redecorating was done with thrifted and used items. Hopefully this will inspire you to take the time to hunt and find those things you need to redo your space, save money and the planet at the same time.

Below you can see  how much of my office was thrifted. All the circles show items that I found used, at thrift stores, used furniture stores, and garage sales.

 All of my  "in" baskets, and desk top file holders.  The lateral file that holds my printer, the desk and chair, the bulletin boards, clock, globe  and vintage office  accessories,

The map, the organizer on the white shelf, the bulletin boards below, The book shelf everything on top of the filing cabinets including the lamp and scale (hard to see the scale),  The larger file cabinet, And even the carpet (which had never been used),  were all found second hand.

And I do love my retro clock that I spiced up with some spray paint.

Out of the camera view is a credenza which was also a used office furniture store purchase from several years back.  Of course I have the usual office fodder, copier, credit card machines, phone, printer, computer, calculator fax etc.  Those things are usually beige or gray and nothing can really be done about that.  But now they have some fun retro pieces to brighten them up, which I am loving.

If you are looking for office furniture I highly encourage you to find the used office furniture stores in your area, and take a look. Old furniture is made so much better than the new stuff. It's more durable and has great lines and styles.

You can almost always find exactly what you are looking for and maybe something you weren't  ;)

check out my Etsy store for more vintage office and organizing items.

Office redu part deux

Over the years I've tried again to organize, and warm up my office. I've Blogged about it  before, and I've tried to work with what I had.

 I hated my desk, I wasn't crazy about the computer "command center" and the whole things was gray and black cold and boring.
 
 A Few years ago I painted 2 walls and added this "broken clock"  to my wall hoping to solve the problem, but while I liked the "clock" art, I still had the furniture and the cold 80's office feel to deal with.

BEFORE

Why did everything have to be gray and white and black?????

****************************************

So I've been on a mission to change it all. I decided to get rid of my yuck desk and work station and have been mulling over different ideas for a few months. It all came together in my head a few weeks ago when I found my fabulous mid century desk.  Now computer and work desk are one, and I'm no longer constantly having to twist my body at a right angle to go from computer to desk.  Instead of the "command center" I have shelves, and propped my printer onto a thrifted lateral file I picked up at a used office furniture store, that has also given me ample storage.

Almost all the desk accessories were thrifted,  Lamp, stapler file holders pen holder, and even the yellow tape dispenser were all found at garage sales.

The shelves work great and I was able to accessorize them with some of my ampersand collection as well as other vintage items, and of course, the stuff I need to actually get my work done.

 This is, after all, a very busy office. Bills getting paid, orders getting taken etc.

There are only a few items on these shelves that are not actually used for business.  The globe, the magnifying glass on stand, and the 2 small black vintage office machines, and the books they are sitting on,  that you can barely see on the lower right shelf.

For reasons of thrift, I'm keeping the gray filing cabinets.  To add some color over here, I hung an old school map and brought in any office product I could find that had color. 

 For my binders I brought in an old encyclopedia book shelf, which also gives me a place to plop my big bag that I carry stuff to and from work in.

  The white organizer will soon be painted.  

I don't usually like to have things that don't have a purpose, lying around, but on top of the filing cabinet there are actually a few display only items.  The orange book and books in front of it are there for color as is the green drawer thing next to them.  The check embosser is just for show and I don't really NEED a lamp there, but It's nice to have.  The in baskets, and scale are used often.

 I'm actually looking forward to my work days  now :)  And the organization overhaul has been working out great.

In the next post you'll see exactly which items were thrifted, You'll be surprised.

The Ampersand

I don't know what it is about this symbol but I just love the Ampersand (&). The way it twists turns and squiggles and says so much..."and". The possibilities are endless, AND this AND that AND AND AND. It seems I have accumulated an ampersand collection in my office.

This is one of those accidental collections. I found one like it kept it, found another and then another and before I knew it I had a collection, so it was time to find a place to display it. My office (at the pay the bills job) is the perfect place. Typography is such an "office-y" kind of thing. Now keep in mind that this is a work space and has some of the modern office yuck to it, fluorescent lighting, suspended ceiling, filing cabinets and the general office equipment. But I endeavor to junkify it anyway. Since we are here lets look at my other wall too

This is my "exploded clock" wall. I just love my gear molds. I'm enjoying my newly painted walls. The golden color it has warmed up the space and made it more homey for me.

Do you have any accidental collections?