The Cloffice Reveal

It all started with a mouse.

Mind you, not a real mouse, because a real mouse in the house is never a good thing (we’ve experienced that 🤪). The mouse I am talking about is cute and functional and just makes me smile every time I see him. When I saw the little guy, I knew I had to get him and I had the perfect place for him to live, in a Cloffice.

Initially, I thought of putting a Home Office in our Master Bedroom.

I knew we needed to create an office space in our home since both Mark and I work out of the house (and not just on it). At first I thought I would use a closet we have in our master bedroom that we created from some dead space while building. Over time, this closet has become cluttered with home decor items and more. It sort of became that one closet we all have where we can throw things in if people stop by unexpectedly or we need a place to store things that don’t quite have a place in your home yet.

The closet I cleaned out was a nice size, but it would have been an awkward location for every day use. So then I considered my husband’s closet. His closet is literally the perfect space for a small home office. It even has windows overlooking the lake. The location in the house is ideal, but that man looked pitiful when I mentioned it. He’s never had a closet of his own and I just could not do that to him.

A Home Office under the stairs?

After realizing I couldn’t transform the closet with the amazing views of the lake into our office, I started going through all our closets. Finally, after some debate and lots of measuring, we realized the closet under the stairs would be perfect. It’s quirky, cute and small, but also just the right amount of space we needed. Plus it’s in a location that works for everyone. I would have LOVED having the office in my husband’s current closet, but I just couldn’t do that to him.

In order to create a true office area, I knew we would need a desk. I had the idea to build a corner desk, but lumber is so expensive right now. So, I scoured Facebook Marketplace and found an old desk for just thirty dollars that I knew would be easy enough to work with. I brought it home disassembled and sanded it. Then my sweet husband helped piece together a perfect custom corner desk. You would never know it was once part of a big old desk!

Inspiration takes over for The Cloffice.

After realizing The Cloffice was possible, inspiration took over and I love the final outcome. I am so proud of that reclaimed bead board ceiling I added! And isn’t that wallpaper amazing?! This was my first time using peel & stick wallpaper by LovevsDesign and I like the way it changed the whole feel of the space.

I chose to use LovevsDesign because all of their wallpapers are completely customizable. You can choose from a color chart to get exactly what you want. The peel and stick is easier to remove and replace than traditional wallpaper and much cleaner too. There was zero mess and it was easy to apply. The only thing I noticed that might be an inconvenience about the peel and stick was there were a few areas that didn’t want to stay stuck to the wall. I had to work on those areas a little extra to keep bubbles out of the paper. Overall, my thoughts are if you want something long term, spend the extra time and use traditional wallpaper. If you don’t want to commit to one wallpaper for a long time, peel & stick is a great solution!

From the beautiful Scalloped Ceiling Lamp and these Floating Shelves which were the perfect color and are great for extra storage. I’m hoping the Small Woven Bin and Medium Woven Bin (from Target ya’ll!) combined with this Acrylic Letter Tray will help me stay organized. I decided to make this space a little more special with the framed image from our magazine shoot (a dream come true!) and a few small mementos.

The little pig was a gift from my Dad who often helps me with projects so it felt fitting that he should live in the Cloffice. ( I’ve never told y’all this but, my dad’s nickname for me is “Porky” 🤣 and he is always finding little piggy souvenirs for me.)

A nod to that sweet little fella that started this Cloffice.

A cute little mouse light from Etsy really gave the inspiration for this space. I mean, isn’t he so sweet? I love how he is holding this small, yet bright light in his paws. It makes for the perfect amount of ambient lighting. Fall of 2021 was a hard one for us so this Fall, when I sit down to work and I see this little guy shining his light brightly on the little space that now holds such sweet mementos and reminders of dreams come true, I am reminded to remain hopeful and grateful.

I think it’s fitting that we have a little mouse living in our Cloffice under the stairs, don’t you?