Whew. I am so glad we got through January. I hope you enjoyed the 31 Days of 30 Minute Organizing Projects. I hope you got a lot done in real time. Are you ready for something pretty and a little bit fun?

Let’s head up to the reading loft.

The client:  Work at home mom with an office/kid play room, needs to update the space for kids entering school and now having homework.

The problems: It’s a good sized room, but not that large. The kids like to be together, but need to be separated enough to get homework done. It has to serve for mom’s office, dad’s office, homework, and family game time.

The bonus: Dad is a carpenter!!!  How fast do you think I pounced on that information? I’m pretending to be Candace Olson with my hunky carpenter on the job.

Here’s the before:

We spent the morning on the standard redesign. OK, there is no such thing as a “standard” redesign, but work with me for a minute.

I won’t show you all the behind the scenes details, but this one is important, because the client’s hubby Jeff and I were conspiring in the back yard. We kicked around a few ideas before the work day, some of which were inspired by Anna White designs. When we settled on the plan, Jeff engineered the ultimate way to get more space out of this room.

I have a million, “Ladies, go get your own,” comments to insert here, but I’ll refrain myself. Because you CAN, in fact, have him for your very own. At least by the hour. Just wait till you see what he does with these 2×4’s that same day!

Ta-Da!

Wouldn’t you have killed for this when you were a kid????

First you have to do homework.

Which is a really nice space, thanks to Ikea Micke desks and a supplies cart.

The cube bookcase provides the right amount of kid separation, and the Time Timer works well to keep them on task.

Then it’s up you go. Notice anything missing? Jeff managed to build this properly to eliminate the 4th vertical post, anchoring the structure to the ceiling joists, which opened up more floor space. Love! Those boys look like they need as much floor space as possible for rough-housing, right?

Once up in the loft, things are pretty simple.

Even though mom got a lot of organization out of this…

I think the boys made out the best.

So, are you ready to hire Jeff for your handyman projects? He’s the real deal, a master carpenter in the trade who also has his own business. Reach him at jbgcarpentry@gmail.com.

What do you think of this loft/playroom/home office makeover?