Hey-O! How’s everybody doing out there? Things are pretty good here! The kids are getting really good at playing Minecraft and eating junk, I really couldn’t be prouder. Meanwhile, The husband and I are figuring out our groove now that he’s working from home. He’s been very busy, and it makes me feel like a big slacker – like I’d give up my afternoon nap just cuz he’s around. Anywho, we are succeeding at being people who are at home all day.
I’ve been meaning to get this blog post out for weeks, and have been sitting on these photos for just as long. I was just waiting for the right moment to dive in and share this office/music space with you. If you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ll remember that we have a small “extra” room on our main floor tucked behind our dining room. I would imagine that it was probably some sort of room for the help back in the olden days. There is no closet, so it’s technically not a bedroom, and like I said it’s tiny, and located right near the dining room and kitchen. I’d lock up the maid in there.
For the last six or so years, the room has been functioning as a dedicated space for our record and musical instrument collections, we flexed our brain muscles and have been calling it (wait for it)… “the music room“. Flash forward to early this fall when the husband landed a new job in which he has to work from home. Now the music room needs to also function as an office. In a way this is a not a bad thing, besides the record collection, (which Jeff and I both maintain), the rest of the stuff is all his music gear – so making this space a dedicated office for HIM and HIS stuff, isn’t the dumbest idea. Our house is decent sized, but it’s not ginormous with tons of room. We had two options were to set up his work space, in the middle bedroom on the second floor, or squeeze him into the music room in the quiet corner of our main floor. I still think that one of these days, one of our kids will want to live in that middle bedroom, so music room it is.
Figuring out how to incorporate a rather larger vinyl collection, finding a space for the turntable and piano, and fitting a desk in the space was a struggle. After lots of planning, I landed on a symmetrical approach to the floor plan. Records on the left and right, piano on the opposite wall, and a large desk nestled right in between it all. You can check this post for details on the design plan.
As per uewsj, we furnished a lot of the space with goods from the flat packing gods at Ikea. Kallax shelves hold the records, door fronts on the top and bottom help to make it seem a little more custom and not as Ikea-y. I found this really good fairly inexpensive office chair at houzz. The only problem is that the “lean back spring” snapped right away, and it has yet to be replaced by houzz – we are talking months now, which is a bummer. However, it sits up straight and has a slight recumbent lean. All-in-all, not a bad little chair, and the leather looks nice and vintage, which is awesome considering it’s brand new. I nabbed a chevron woven rug from rugsusa during “a sale” and picked it up a 5×7 for $99 buckaroos.
Check it out, dudes! One of the trickiest parts of this whole room was dealing with cords and outlets. This room only has two outlets and one of them functions on a light switch. I hooked up all the lights in the room to the outlet that was controlled with the switch, and all of the other stuff on the other outlet. Sometimes this involved running cords around the perimeter of the room – as you can imagine, this looked gross and dumb. During a trip to my neighborhood Ace Hardware I came across this super sweet D-Line product that is meant to look like quarter round for base trim, it opens up and inside is a small channel to run 2-3 cords. The kit comes with inside corners, outside corners, and connectors – best of all, it is stainable! Check out that pic below! You can barely tell that the quarter round is a cord keeper.
You might also notice the custom built-in shelves I installed in the nook over the radiator. This was the only place I could think of to house that all-important stereo equipment and turntable. The trouble with this idea was figuring out how to get wiring up the wall without having it look like a crazy mess. After shopping the audio video aisle at the H.Dep, I found a solution. My work around involves this product that is meant for flat screen tv installation. It’s basically an extension cord with a fancy facade that fits inside your wall. You plug it in at a discreet location at one end, and a power outlet comes out of the wall on another. There is also a port for stereo cables and the like. Pretty sweet, huh?
Oh god, this piano. It’s great, but it’s ugly. Finn plays it, Jeff plays it, the cats play it – it gets used. But Jesus, is it hard to find a place to fit a piano in any space – big or small, especially a kind-a-ugly-one. It was necessary that it stayed, so I tried to my best to make it part of a scene. Think interior camouflage. I added some artwork that a friend had made back in art school days, and I had it framed here for a v affordable price at Frame It Easy, basically, a mom and pop version of Framebridge. The white shelves in the nook line up perfectly with the top and bottom of the artwork frame, this helps to balance the wall. As of late, I have been really obsessed with swing arm lamps that slide on rails, and I found this one at Urban Outfitters for cheap on sale. It’s good looking and very functional in the space, notes can be read! The plant stand is from target but only came in a dark-stained wood. Five minutes and some spray paint, and it was white to match the base of the ceramic planter, obviously because I thought of it, it looks way cooler.
The cord keeping doesn’t stop at the molding. I bore out a 1″ hole in the back of the filing drawers and stuck a surge protector inside, for when Jeff is computing during lighting storms, and also just because. It’s plugged into an outlet on the wall.
Are you bored with all my ways of hiding cords yet? Guess what’s in here? I dare you to guess. People of the internet, I took a basket, flipped it upside down, and hid our router in it. Can you even believe such things?
Wow, So Many Changes
Tidy It Up : The Music Room
Adding a Record Stop to Basic Shelves
Record Collecting and Expedit Shelving
Friend Art & Ribba Ledges
Tutorial : White Radiator!
Music Room Complete!
Things Done, Things To Do.
Sneak Peek
Around The House
Chugging Along.
Checking Things Off My List (goodbye wallpaper)
I luuuuurve this room.
Upside down basket as router cover – genius. I’m a couch potato so I do lots of my computing from the TV room and thus need a laptop charger in there. I hid the brick end of the charger in a box under the side table and I thought I deserved an award. I show everyone my hiding spot with such pride – which kinda defeats the purpose of hiding it.
The struggle to spell “uewsj” has been real, and you solved it. thank you!
Thanks, Ashley! I had to think long and hard to come up with that spelling. Let’s make it stick! I can’t wait to see your office reveal, the storage hack this week was killer!
omg the basket. Gonna do that this weekend. So now my son will use the basket as a footstool instead of the router. Which he does. While playing Minecraft, natch. Great room!
Thanks! That basket sounds like the perfect solution for your situation – v multi functional. Ha!
Beautiful room AND cord management!!! Husband and I were just having our monthly hide-the-router argument this morning and upside down basket could be our solution. THANK YOU! :)
Yeah! Hope the basket solution works. Routers are so annoying!
God bless you and your cord hiding ways. Seriously, this kind of shit has been breaking my brain lately. Thank you for your ingenuity.
Ha! Fer sure!
My kids are pretty good at junk food and computer games too!
The room looks great Scoops.
Hey Vanessa, Thanks! Kids these days, am I right?
You are such a good solution-finder!! Stealing all your cord-hiding ideas.
Thanks, Anne! Do it!
Wow the room looks great. You are very talented
Thanks, Gigi!
Love everything you do! Looks faboosh!
Wow! Thanks, Meghan!
I love the wallpaper- where’s it from?
Hey Mary, The wallpaper is from FermLiving, (called “Feather”) and unfortunately, I’m pretty sure they don’t make it anymore. I installed it in 2011 when the space was strictly a “music room”.
I am legit excited about all your cord hiding ideas, so clever! Please tell me about that hanging plant/planter to the left of the desk!
Sure thing! Jeff hates plants, but I made him have a few because it’s good for your soul, ya know! The one hanging is called “String of Pearls” and is a succulent. It loves sun and minimal watering, so he begrudgingly agreed to it.
I guess no man would ever feel guilty about taking an afternoon nap.
As always, a great job! Love the artwork above the ugly (?!) piano!
Ha! Or woman! I like finally having a good place to hang that artwork too, it helps minimize that ugly old piano.
I love everything–the ideas, the symmetry, the organization, the art, the built-in shelves, the cord-hiding.
Question: I bought the same rug for my dining room–are you hating it? The long, unbound sides are moving around like crazy. I have a nice rug pad, but makes no difference.
I’m very intrigued by this basket-over-router concept. But what do you do with the cord from the router? I feel like it would make the basket tilt?
So much ingenuity in such a small space. It looks really good as well as useful. Your beloved is one lucky guy!
I love your blog but I never comment (I just lurk around, usually in wonderment at the success of your garden when it must be so. freaking. cold. there)… but THIS IS ALL GENIUS. I’ve always used these random “Wiremold C4050” cord keepers (which are fine for running along the backs of shelves or in an inconspicuous corner) but the quarter round! BRILLIANT. And I bet you couldn’t have guessed that everyone’s favorite thing would be the upside down basket. But dang. So simple. DUH. Thank you!
dude. that cordkeeper is brilliant, especially for these old houses! very cool space.
Wow..this room!! It’s perfect. It’s as if you styled it to compliment the piano because the piano doesn’t look ugly. We’re a musical family too so this was helpful as I’m trying to map out my new house. I love the built in shelves, I love the chair, the art, the plants and crystals (what a beautiful touch), and the cord solutions. I actually have cords as one of my top 10 pet peeves. Not even kidding lol. Great job. Ps, I totally get it..my kids (one child, one fiancé) both indulge in the mine craft too. It’s okay with me. I build houses and castles from time to time too
Wonderful web site. Lots of useful information here.
I’m sending it to several friends ans also sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks in your sweat!