At the top of the stairs is a small landing with a window. I wanted to decorate this but with it being so small an area I didn't want to crowd it. So, I kept it simple.
Once on the landing, a left turn takes you up a short flight of stairs to the first room in the house. It's actually supposed to be the third bedroom, but the builder left it open (I'm supposing at the request of the original buyer). I'd wanted a third bedroom to use as a guest room/office, and I was disappointed to see that this room wasn't an actual room. But after discussing it with my realtor and my son, I realized I didn't need a third bedroom. Yes, having a guest room is nice, but the only person coming to stay over is my oldest son R, and that only happens a couple of times a year. What we really needed, I thought, was a music room, a room where my son E could put a drum set. I wanted to get him an electronic drum set for Christmas, something that wouldn't make a ton of noise and disturb the neighbors. This area would work perfectly for that.
Since I didn't have any office furniture when we first moved in, and E didn't have his electronic drum set yet, this room became the staging area. All boxes, plastic containers, decor, even furniture, went in here first to be sorted before being moved to a permanent location. It wasn't the best situation, since this is the first room you see whenever you come into my house, but it was useful to contain the mess here while setting up the rest of the house.
The wall unit had been in my living room at the old house and it was going to stay in here. This is the only place it will fit. Once all the boxes were emptied out and everything but the office equipment and files put away, I went ahead and purchased some office furniture. The wall unit I'd bought years before off of Amazon, so I looked it up to see if there were any other pieces in this collection. I was thrilled to find there was a desk, though not a file cabinet. It took a lot of searching, but I finally settled on a file cabinet that was from the collection of furniture in my son's room, also purchased off of Amazon. Once I had these pieces I was able to organize the office.
I didn't have to buy an office chair; my daughter had one from her old desk that she didn't intend on keeping, so I took it for myself. I also didn't need to buy a new rug. This rug had been in the family room at the old house. I'd bought it from Costco for $40 a couple years before. I had all the decor except for the wall clock. My realtor had bought it for her own house, but when she put it on her wall she didn't like how small it looked. She found another much larger clock that she liked better, and she offered this one to me. I was only too happy to accept! It goes perfectly with the rustic wood furniture in this room.
The office looked like this until Christmas, when my son opened his gift. We set it up in the office as we'd originally intended. Then my son asked what computer it would be connected to. Leave it to this technological dinosaur to not think about that. His computer is in his bedroom, and it's a desktop computer. The drums are supposed to be connected to a computer to record music or to look up music and lessons. I told him he was welcome to use my laptop; he said he wanted the drums in his room. I didn't think that was possible; his room is a good size but so is a drum set. He believed he could make it work, so long as he moved the nightstand out of his room. He wasn't using it; in the old house it had been next to his bed, but because of the configuration in this room it was on the other side of the bedroom next to his desk. Taking it out of the room looked like it would allow the drum set to fit, so we gave it a try. Lo and behold, the boy was right.
For the next couple of weeks E tried to get the drum set to work with his computer, but to no avail. He tried different cables, different programs, anything he could find, but the drums were not connecting properly and it was just not working. I felt terrible. The one thing he wanted when we moved was to be able to use his drum set, especially since we would be moving far from his drum teacher. His drum set was in the garage gathering dust, and the electronic set was a bust. I didn't know what to do.
My son talked to his drum teacher, and showed me an option: low volume drumheads. They are made specifically for "noise sensitive situations", and are 70-80% quieter than regular drumheads. Even the cymbals are quieter, so he can play on his entire drum set without disturbing any of the neighbors. He found a really nice set on Amazon that was almost the exact same price as the electronic drums, and I had just a few days before the return window closed, so we packed up the electronic drums, shipped them back, and ordered the drumheads to my son's delight. Of course the next question was, would the real drum set fit in his room? He was sure it would; me, not so much. Once again my son was right. It's a bit tight but whenever he isn't playing he can condense it and it doesn't get in the way. We've never gotten any complaints about noise, so I can attest to the fact that they do work.
But now that meant that the office didn't have to be a music room. It could be just an office - or maybe a guest room as well? I knew I didn't want to put a bed in there since it's a wide open space. Even a daybed wouldn't work. The next option would be either a sofa bed or a futon. I'd seen futons in the past and I didn't like them at all, but I was pleasantly surprised at how they've improved over the years. I began researching and took into account the look, functionality, size, and of course affordability. I read reviews from customers as well as consumer report websites. I found a couple that had excellent reviews, and I was price comparing the two styles on Amazon, Wayfair, Overstock, even Home Depot. They ran for $400+ but sometimes went on sale for $350. As I waited to see when the price would drop, I found one of the styles on Walmart.com for $280. I about fell out of my chair! Why was it so cheap?! Was it a return? Something wrong with it? Nope, turns out this model is being discontinued and replaced with something similar but more mid-century modern looking. I jumped on that so fast! No way I was going to let that opportunity get away! The color, size, everything was perfect. Once I got it in the room I knew I'd made the right choice.
Now this is what you see when you make your way up the stairs:
I moved the desk over to the left side of the room along with the file cabinet, and put the futon on the right wall with the wall unit in the middle. The nightstand became a side table.
The pillows were a set I'd bought from Costco before moving to this house, and they look perfect on this couch. The artwork above it was in our old family room. I'd originally put it in the living room above the television set, but it looked terrible. It's about the same size and shape as the tv so it looked like we had a tv over the tv. I'm so glad it works well in here, since I don't have anywhere else to put it and I don't want to get rid of it. It is one of my favorite pieces.
I moved the clock as well whenever I moved the desk. Unfortunately, I didn't have the clock as well secured as I thought. I put it up, turned around and heard a loud crash. The clock had slid off the wall and fell flat on the glass front, shattering it. Thankfully, though, the clock itself was not damaged, so I decided to keep it and make no one the wiser ;-).
Beside the desk I set up the file cabinet so that I can access everything easily. My paper shredder and printer are on top, and over them is a piece of artwork I got years ago from Kirkland's.
The three pieces on the wall next to the file cabinet also came from my last house. I got them from Target several years ago, but I still see them there occasionally.
This is one of the rooms where I've spent the most money since I had to get new furniture pieces for it. Still, I was able to get everything for just under $725. That includes any decor and accessories. Considering there are three new pieces of furniture, I think I've done pretty well. I still want to get a floor lamp for this room. There's no overhead lighting, and the small lamp I picked up from Hobby Lobby for $20 doesn't really light the room up much. Other than that, this room is done and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.
Next up: the living room.
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