Christa Wagner

Before

Back in March we had a contest called Vancouver’s Ugliest Office Contest.  I partnered with Suze Interiors and we “made over” the Ugliest Office in Vancouver.  Our winner, Elyssa McKee lives in a two bedroom apartment with her husband Ryan.  They have lived in their home for four years and Elyssa uses her home for work and study.  Elyssa was great to work with and Ryan was amazing as he helped us while Elyssa was out of town at the end of the trip.   The photos speak for themselves……

Suze and I met with the client and assessed the situation, developed goals and prioritized.   Elyssa’s overall goal was an office that could be used for working, studying and reading.  She also wanted a calm, yet motivating space that she wanted to use.   Before the makeover, she didn’t even want to enter the room so she certainly wasn’t using it.  I went in with a team of three organizers and we started by sorting the contents of the room.  There was so much stuff and box by box we sorted like items together.  Once we had everything sorted, we went through each pile and Elyssa released anything she no longer used, needed or loved.  This was tough for her as it can be for most people.  But with our help, she let go of anything that did not have a purpose in the office.  Then we decided where things would go in the new office.

From there Suze went in and talked furniture, color and accessories.  The client’s budget was $1,000.  Until this point the couple had really made due with what they had and it was time for a major furniture face lift.  So Suze and I went shopping and pulled it all together.   We purchased a desk, a file cabinet, a bookshelf, a rug, baskets and containers, closet organizing tools, hanging file folders and a FreedomFiler.  You can see the results were amazing and the client is thrilled.

So what can you learn from all this?

• Elyssa and Ryan had plenty of space, but it was not being used effectively.
• They had too much stuff in one room that was supporting the needs of that room.
• They were holding onto things they no longer had a use for.
• They had old broken furniture that was hurting, not helping
• The room had gotten so out of control, it was too overwhelming to manage on their own.
• They need to get back to basic organizing principles; one in, one out, for example.

Good thing Suze and I had the contest.  Learn from Elyssa and Ryan and make a change in your home today or contact us to help you turn your ugliest room into a relaxing, practical and gorgeous space.

Tags: Christa Patchen, Christa Patchen Wagner, Christa Wagner, Files & Paper, organizing paper, paper filing, Suze Interiors, Suze McCart, Ugliest Office Contest

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 11:53 am and is filed under Files & Paper, Office Organizing, Vancouver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.