We’ve been in our new home for one month now…our little LA casita. As much as we loved our cozy studio apartment in Hancock Park, with a baby on the way this October we needed more space to create a proper nest, both for him and for us. The second we stepped foot in our townhouse to view it, we were smitten. It was the perfect place to start our family and had just the energy we wanted our son to come home to in a few short months.
The downstairs spaces — the living room, dining room and kitchen, came together right away. My crazed obsession with finishing a space as quickly as possible in order to feel settled usually happens in the common areas of the house before I figure out the less common areas.
When we moved in, I knew we needed to designate a work space for Dan, but I wasn’t thinking about myself. I figured with the baby coming, I would be doing everything just to stay afloat after he was born, working from home on my laptop wherever he needed to be. But as the weeks have gone by, I’ve felt creatively displaced. While I’ve been wildly inspired from a homemaking standpoint, I realized I was floating around between couches and tables trying to do my actual work without a home zone to productively focus.
It wasn’t an option for me to have a workspace in our studio this past year, so I worked from the couch. I got used to it, but now that we have more space I feel the need to physically delineate where I create what. Downstairs, I create physically — through cooking, decorating and entertaining. Upstairs, I create mentally — through writing, mood boarding, blogging, designing, producing, and whatever else it is that inspires me or is required of me for work.
It didn’t hit me that I had the space to make myself a home office until last weekend. I was lying in bed tossing and turning with 3rd trimester insomnia when all of a sudden I was struck with a vision for the potential of the upstairs landing. If the baby’s changing table could fit in our bedroom along with his crib, then I could define an office space for myself.
The furniture switcharoo worked, and on Sunday at 4:45am I found myself wide awake scouring Facebook Marketplace for a desk and a chair to get started with building my office as if my life depended on it. After two hours of bleary-eyed digging, it appeared: the steal of the century. A Pottery Barn cherry wood desk and matching wicker chair in beautiful condition that someone was selling for…$25?!? TOTAL? As they say, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
This is why I love Facebook Marketplace (they really should sponsor me). Talk about the thrill of the hunt. I rearranged the baby’s furniture in the bedroom and made space for the desk while I was waiting for a reply from the seller. I figured I could manifest this desk and chair being mine if I literally cleared the spot for it in my home, and sure enough…it worked. Before I knew it, I was sending funds via Venmo and Dan was on his way to pick everything up. Now, the nook nesting fun begins…(to be continued).
