Best laid plans.

I don't know about you, but when I move into a new space (which is more often than I'd like), I try to have it all planned out before the big day. The furniture, the wall colors, where the lamps will go. Everything.

But sometimes things don't turn out exactly like you expect. There's enough space for the couch on that wall, but looks terrible. Your pots and pans don't actually fit in the cabinets. The TV is perfect right there, but the deck door allows a little beam of the neighbor's outdoor light in exactly when you want to watch The Real Housewives airkiss and then rip each other to shreds. You get the picture.

Anyhoo, it turns out that one of the AWESOME things we didn't count on was that our fabulous extra-narrow cherry farm table that used to be in our dining room fit perfectly in our new kitchen, so we didn't have to buy a kitchen table and it freed up a whole room. Frankly, I've always thought formal dining rooms were sort of a waste of space, so rather than doing a home office/guest room combo (our original plan), we have the unexpected opportunity to have an entire room dedicated to an office (can you hear the chorus of angels?). I'd like our space to be:

Peaceful, with lots of work space,