Design Changes—Turbo Decorating to the Rescue

Sometimes design changes in your own home can be expensive, time consuming, and overwhelming.  That is when Turbo Decorating comes to the rescue.  I blogged about Turbo Decorating a few months ago in a very long post.  You can read the entire thing or this quick summary of the rules:

Turbo Decorating 101

1. Decide what you want to accomplish and your time frame.
2. You can only use things you already have in your home.
3. Little fuss and no perfection allowed.
4. It has to be finished that day.
5. You must listen to loud music or a good movie.

Just in time for Joe’s birthday, it was time for a quick Turbo Decorating session in his home office which is where he does the majority of his lawyering.   So, Joe and I set aside a Saturday and spent the day cleaning, organizing, and Turboing in the office.

This is what the office looked like when we started:

If this was not Turbo Decorating time and money was not an option, I would have repainted the walls and hired a carpenter to build floor to ceiling shelves on two of the four walls.  Then we would have had our fantasy carpenter build a credenza under the two-windowed wall.  We would have added a large and beautiful desk that Joe and I could both work at.  We would finish everything off with an amazing rug and some beautiful accessories.  Alas, that does not fit the Turbo Rules or the budget, but someday…

So after applying the Turbo Rules to the office, this is what we came up with:

Turbo Decorating 101—The Office


1.  Decide what you want to accomplish and your time frame.
    -time frame:  A Saturday…as long as it takes.
    -organize the office:  remove everything from the office except large furniture, clean, 
    move furniture to new location, sort and return items to office.
     -clean:  everything!
    -decorate:  repaint and move items from other rooms in house.

2.  You can only use things you already have in your home: 
-painted old frames and large star from living room with silver spray paint left from the wedding
-painted mats with white paint left over from the porch changes
-moved plant from living room to office
- moved lamp and recliner from loft to office
-moved plants and from basement to office
-used old art and diplomas sitting in a cabinet

3.   Little fuss and no perfection allowed:
-left scuff on cabinet front
-outside windows need washing
-desk drawer is still a bit messy
-need to label boxes inside cabinets
-add more comic book art
-sew pillow

4.  It has to be finished that day:  only cheated a bit…
-hung art the next day to allow for paint drying time
-added fabric for pillow a few days later

5.   You must listen to loud music or a good movie: 
-Pandora baby!


After applying the 5 Turbo Rules, this is what we came up with in the office…

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

It was a long, hot day with no air conditioning and mountains of papers to go through.  I think we filled about 10 bags with garbage! I love this kind of decorating because it is inexpensive and very satisfying.  You should try it!


My favorite part:  Live plants, clean surfaces, organized cabinets, color, diplomas on display (he worked hard for those!), and especially the comic book art (I made these several years ago by color-copying the covers from some of Joe’s extensive comic book collection)…it reminds me that Joe is my super hero!