Monday night I came home from work to a huge surprise from Peter for our engagiversary. Our actual engagiversary was last night but Peter and I often get so excited about holidays and exchanging gifts that we celebrate them a bit early. Monday after the surprise had happened, he told me that I just looked so tired and sad about the whole “springing forward” concept that he knew I needed to come home to something special. This is one of the many reasons why I love him. I don’t have any before photos because I didn’t know an after was coming but basically he took a plain cork board that I had and repainted it with some leftover paint from this and recovered it with some leftover fabric.
On top of this crafting project, he also bought me a home improvement book that I wanted from Home Depot (although he found it at Half Price Books), a pencil holder and some magazine holders from the container store (all of which I had recently discovered and then told him were on sale), and fresh tulips. But the best part is that this whole girl space didn’t exist Monday morning when I left for work. I had been sewing at the kitchen table and we kept talking about how we should find a home for the machine. When I walked upstairs on Monday it was so touching how he had taken the new and newly crafted gifts and combined them with other things we owned like the candle from Anthropologie that his mom got me for Christmas and the Ikea stand that we bought this weekend. He even brought a chair up to the desk and removed some of his more boyish art. You can see that in this post here.
Plus, you should’ve read the note that he wrote inside the home improvement book. *GUSH* It was just so perfect.
We’ve only ever pictured the office once and even then it was just a small portion of one wall, so let’s zoom out for a second and take a look. You’ll quickly notice that Peter has *a lot* of books.
I’ve tried to convince him to let me arrange them by color or even cover them in wall paper, but each time I send him into a panic attack.
(Do you love our nutcracker hiding on top of the book shelf?)
So that was his super sweet surprise, along with cooking me a fabulous dinner. He later confessed that reassembling the cork board was actually quite difficult. He said he knew he could force the whole thing apart and break it but gently easing it into submission was a whole different task all together.
I think I’ll try to reupholster the chair and we’ll probably add some more decorations to my wall space in the office to make it feel that much girlier. For a moment I wanted to add a chandelier to my side, but I realized that would be odd. What do you think I should add to my little corner?
Awwww! What an amazing guy you have there – hang on to that one!!!
He did such a great job on the cork board!! The paint and fabric choices are flawless. And a Home Depot book and sweet note to top it all off? Wonderful!
I think you and I have very similar office issues. Lee has a huge, heavy wood desk that I’ve named ‘the Godfather desk’ that he took from work and then a bunch of guitars in his corner, a guitar amp and who knows what else. Then in my corner, there’s a little desk, my covered corkboard and my red filing cabinet. Like all of those books, my corner is being swallowed by Lee’s desk.
Have you seen Ish and Chi’s studio? She has a million fun prints and girly touches. I particularly like her mobile. It reminds me of a chandelier but seems to somehow make more sense in her office space. Maybe you could do something similar? I think your heart art proves you could create something just as good or even better.
Oops! I forgot to include the link: http://ishandchi.blogspot.com/2009/07/studio.html
Thanks Heather and Meg! Peter and I are so happy with how his surprise turned out. Monday night he turned to me as we were about to go to sleep and asked if I wanted to look at it again. (The answer was of course yes!)
Meg: Yes, I do follow Ich and Chi. Her studio is actually the entire reason that I started. The mobile idea is a great thought (and one that I hadn’t thought of)–and thanks for the vote of confidence!! You guys are so great.