Project House Update: Dream Den

Since Dan's shop is basically done now (I should make a note to do an update post on it), he has a space all to himself. Part of me is incredibly happy for him to finally have his dream shop. The other part of me, however, is incredibly jealous that he has his own little utopian hiding spot.

Lately, the jealous part of me has been quite ugly so it became necessary to fight it by planning out my own little hiding spot. I don't know where the idea came from, but I decided that my room would be our den.

The den has been the least touched room in the house. It's basically the only room that hasn't been painted. The terrible built-in desks stay and continue to be barely functional (mine is so low I can barely fit my legs under it).

 
So, I purposed a plan to Dan that would improve the room in two stages. One stage would involve all projects that are independent from the future floor upgrades and the second stage would be everything after. With this in mind, I was able to get him to agree to Stage 1.

The reason we needed to break this room transformation into two parts was because of the floor. Ideally, this room will have a wood floor that flows from the great room, down the hallway, and through the den. Because of the massive area, we want to do it all at once so that it completely matches. And, having lived in this house for four+ years and knowing very well how long it can take for us to get around to a project like that, I can't stand to wait that long to touch the room.

With that in mind, here's the break-down of Stage 1:

• Replace window. This is completely independent of the floor. In early November, Home Depot had a sale on windows so we bought one that matched the others we've already replaced. Expect a post on that soon (or 18 months, you never know).
• Remove the built-in desks. I hate the built-in desks. They are tacky, have basically no storage, and I can physically barely sit at mine because it is so low. They need to go. And they need to go before the floor so we cane floor all the way to the wall.
• Buy and assemble cabinets. To replace the desks and to add storage, we are going to do a row of cabinets. Eventually, they will mount to the wall and house all the random things that now live in plastic tubs and shoe boxes. The idea is to find them now and use them while they just sit on the floor. Once we redo the floor, we will mount the cabinets to the wall, add some legs, and hopefully make them look like a beautiful floating credenzas. I haven't planned this part out fully yet, but hopefully it will be something like this.
• Buy a floating desk. Since the built-in desks will be long gone, we will need a new desk. Dan agreed that we can go from two desks down to one because we only really use this room one at a time anyway. The trouble I've been having is finding a functional 'floating' desk. A desk that looks good from all angles, but is also large enough to store a desktop computer tower. The best match so far is this one from Ikea, but it's a bit plain for my tastes.

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The floors will be hardwood. The layout will frame the window and the desk in the doorway. It will be light and airy and calm. Above all else, calm and feminine. With a deep chair I can sink into and hide from the world with a good book. 

But that's all a dream right now. Like I said, eventually we'll do the floors and there will be a lot more thought and work put into this room. At minimum, hiding the ceiling fan wiring in the ceiling and giving the walls a coat of paint. If we're feeling fancy, maybe we'll get to my dream french doors and window seat. Who knows at this point?

But in the near future, expect a post on the new window once it is installed and on how I reorganized and restyled the shelves to make them work better for us.