Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A Room of One's Own

Whether you are writing fiction, paying the bills or just reading a good book, you need a room to call your own.

I have claimed the front room of our house for myself. That doesn’t mean nobody else uses it, but I call it my room anyway. My husband has a room in the basement and the kids have…well, basically the whole house.
In my room, I use an antique table that my mom gave me as my desk. Because it doesn’t have any drawers, the top gets pretty messy sometimes. So, with tax time coming, I thought it was finally time to tidy up my work space.

Just like in university when I had an essay to write, I will do anything else first, rather than start organizing tax papers. Luckily, this means I will even tidy up.
I started with the desktop (baby steps) and I will move on to the rest of the room (can’t show you that right now—I have stuffed a bunch of papers in a bag and they are sitting on the floor next to me). I figure once I accomplish this one small task, it will inspire me to do more.


For my special room, I settled on a black and white colour scheme, with a touch of pink, inspired by this portrait of Audrey Hepburn, which hangs on the wall next to my desk.


I like to surround myself with little things that inspire me, like this postcard of a painting by Alex Colville.


I got this neat Umbra tray (with a swivel lid) for $1 at a liquidation store. It takes up too much space on the desk, so I put it on top of my printer.

I also got this little charging station for $1. I couldn’t resist the price and the pink. While I was tidying, I unearthed the label maker my mom loaned me. The whole family has been going nuts with it ever since. The little rocks that rest on the charging station were painted orange by my daughter. She added some little happy faces in pink chalk.


I found this inspiration board at a discount department store—perfect for my colour scheme.


My room would not be complete without some of my favourite artwork—like these woodcut prints made by a dear friend. The top one is of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.

Do you have a room of your own?

2 comments:

  1. I love your re-claimed room and the pink touches (hey, a girl's gotta have a little pink!). So, I see you already have a bright corner in the house... Thank you for visiting my happy entry way :)
    Cheers. I would come again soon but your vegan recipes make me empty the office fridge!

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    1. I agree, we need a little pink. I love the yellow in your entryway too!

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