Our first apartment was something like 800 square feet with one bedroom, a sweet kitchen, and a small living room. Having no real place for a dining room table, we settled for a pub table with two chairs for our main dining space. We didn’t put into consideration that I was growing a small business and that I’d need a place to work, so when the time came for me to need a place to edit, I ended up taking over the pub table. I think we shared… four meals at that table? Whoops!

It wasn’t ideal by any stretch- I spent hours every evening and on weekends sitting in a wooden, straight-backed chair, hunched over my keyboard at a too-small table that had space for nothing but a computer. I had nowhere to store things like hard drives, card readers and notebooks, and as for the rest of my business-related stuff? It took over the bottom tier of the one bookshelf we owned. It started out being mostly ok- since I wasn’t doing too much business, I didn’t own a lot of business-related property. But as the year passed, my collection of capital grew and I slowly began to take over the living room. Things were always cluttered, always disheveled, and I was SO ready to have my own space. When we began searching for our next apartment, we knew we needed a second bedroom for me to turn into an office. We found the perfect place for us about twenty minutes from our first apartment, so come moving day I was READY! I had boxes marked “Abby’s office!!” and made sure I was the one carry everything into my new space. That night, after our friends had gone home and we were flat exhausted, I still managed to pull myself into my new office and begin to unpack. Getting things settled in my office was even more important to me than getting my clothes unpacked!

The office has been a work in progress over the past six months, but I think I’m finally happy with it! During my last few months at the day job, I sat dreaming about spending hours working in my new office, and when June 1st finally rolled around I was positively SQUEALING with delight that I get to work in this awesome space, a room just for ME to do what I love! This office is my favorite place in our apartment, and it’s hard to close the door to it every night. Enjoy the tour of my personal space!

I’m a morning person- I LOVE getting up early and starting work as soon as I can. So it was really important to me that my office be full of light in the AM, because a) I love light and 2) I love mornings. We lucked out- my office is full of sunshine by the time I reach my desk at 8 am!

I first saw the idea for a huge client organizational board here, and my favorite graphic designer Wendy helped me come up with one perfectly tailored to my needs, as well as a smaller chart to track progress on each individual project! Now I just need to update it with my new logo. 🙂

I LOVE my desk. It belonged to my Mimi and sat in my parents house for the longest time, and my dad (being the lover-of-throwing-things-out that he is), offered to let me have it when we had a space big enough to allow for it. Antique desk for the win!

My favorite Anthropologie candle and the air plant my best friend Sarah gave me for Christmas- feelin so SoCal.

Another gem from Anthro- I bought this mug last December and wouldn’t let myself use it until my first day as a full-time photographer. Let me tell you- that was the most glorious cup of tea I’ve ever had. Also, check out these rad cork coasters! I’m definitely doing a giveaway of these sometime soon!

This key from Williamsburg, VA was given to my Granny by her mother some 40 years ago, and when I was visiting last week she gave it to me!

How sweet is that bookend??

A slightly different take on a DIY project I found on Promise Tangeman’s blog…

I freaking LOVE this shelf. I found the wall brackets at Anthropologie and knew right away that I wanted a thick piece of dark shelving to sit on top of them, so I contacted Brian at Concepts Created and he made one for me out of reclaimed wood from a bank built in the 1820’s.

Can you tell I’m slightly obsessed with this display?

We’ve reached the favorite part of my whole office- my loveseat! I searched for MONTHS to find the perfect loveseat (you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a PINK couch), and I finally stumbled upon this gem at World Market. Well then a sales rep went and broke my heart and told me it was no longer in production (then WHY is it on display on your website??), but I kept checking back and they finally had it in stock again. Them sales reps be cray cray.

Lily hangs out on the footrest of our squashy brown leather chair all day. I love it 🙂

The end! Happy Wednesday!