Home office under the stairs?

If you ever work from home - where do you do it? I've currently got a dog with a wonky leg who isn't allowed out, which means I've been working from home lots more than usual... and even though I had my under-stairs area fitted out with a desk (some painted MDF shelves) a couple of years ago, I've never really used it. And the kitchen table is just too tempting (fellow home-workers, you'll know what I mean - it's not just the proximity to the fridge and the kettle, but the temptation to sweep up, empty the bin, deadhead the wilting flowers I can see through the window...).

So I looked long and hard at my little cubbyhole and thought that perhaps I wasn't using it for a reason. It had become somewhat of a hall dumping ground, meaning the deskspace had shrunk, and it didn't feel - well, very inspiring. So last night I gave it a bit of a makeover (click for more images), using the Penguin Classics postcards I recently bought, a set of cards from Habitat a few years ago (by Jean Widmer), some of my 8-year-old nephew's artwork - and a lot of de-cluttering (a huge pile of interiors mags acts as a screen for work clutter, while the perspex CD holder makes a great 'add your own art' desk tidy. There's also my cherished Jane Foster owl print, a laminated cocktail menu I swiped from a bar with cocktails named after 'cult dames', including Pat Butcher, Cheryl Tweedy and Jane Birkin. It now looks quite inviting I thought - even the dog is sleeping under the newly empty space under the desk. What do you think?





Poor bored Reggie. Which makes me think - his bed could
do with a makeover too. Time for a YHIL dog bed special...

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Home office under the stairs?

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Under the stairs office gallery

Great Dame cocktail list, pinched after an
event at a bar. Click to enlarge for recipes






My plaster head (much heavier than stone, but same look)
and the stack of homesy mags hiding a multitude of clutter. Oh,
and if you like the Bjorn Wiinblad wall plaque (right of the mirror)
check out Pip's Trip, where you can buy these 1970s Danish beauties






Slightly better lighting (and my non glamorous DIY book
propping up the laptop)






Artwork courtesy of my nephew Riley - displayed in a
perspex Habitat CD storage box 











Nice little things, including a mug my granny made me as a child and a
cup and vintage birthday card, presents from my stylish neighbours
Emma and Sarah. The little cat ceramics are Japanese saki cups, from Tokyo

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Under the stairs office gallery

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A woman's touch: the joy of old photos

The idea of moving from a flat to a house for some reason got me fantasising that I'd be living a new life in the style of a 1950s housewife (all about the baking, perma-glamour and vintage kitchen, btw, nothing about the domestic subjugation). God knows where it came from - Mad Men was then but a twinkle in my TV set and interiors scrapbook.

I had, however, been listening to a LOT of Doris Day (and perhaps childhood memories of watching the cabin makeover scene in Calamity Jane - minus the lesbian undertones - had made its mark, see below). I, too, dreamed of breezily doing the housework while wearing a floral day dress (also below). Anyway - when I spotted this cheap print of Doris with Cary Grant on a stall in Greenwich Market for about £2, it made the perfect house-warming present for myself.


After something similar? Try typing "vintage photographs" plus the name of your favourite old movie star on ebay. Here are the search results for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers... Let me know what you bought.

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