Real homes: my office makeover part II

I've had another office makeover. Only a little one. 

But it's amazing how much difference it's made moving the desk to the window. And I get a view! A very urban one, which I like a lot, and it has bonus trees. Here is how the office looked before...

I wrote about it in this previous post, where you can see the before before images with white walls and everything. And I also dug out some even older pictures of how the office looked before it was an office, when there was building work going on and I was sleeping in it...

But now, two makeovers later, the room currently – and very newly – looks like this. My favourite yet.

This is the urban yet tree-studded view I now have as I type. I live in the middle of a big London housing estate (best place I've ever lived, the friendliest neighbourliest by far – and nearly all the staffies are lovely!) and it stretches for miles. I like being surrounded by other houses and flats, it's reassuring when you work a lot of the time from home on your own.

The little blue and white bowl was a present. It's by Marimekko and part of this range, which you can get at Heal's.

The two postcards below the windowsill are core by-the-desk essentials: the motivating race finisher probably needs no explanation, while the one next to it is from my very old, very dear friend Holly, who can always put the funny into any shit situation. A valuable best friend quality. And there's usually at least one time a day when it's good to remind myself not to take things to seriously. The card reads: "Please note this person is an absolute twat".

Yes. It's the kind of map you get in a cab office – it's of greater London. But I like looking at it. I always see something new, or make a connection I hadn't made before. Maps are good.

This old light-box works well as a lamp and a shelf (youngsters: it was for picture editors and designers to look at transparencies on before digital pictures. You'd even use an actual magnifying glass thingamy). It's actually my boyfriend's, but so far he hasn't complained that I've nicked it.

The magazine is from 1971 – it was a leaving present from my first ever job on 19 Magazine, which had grown from its original incarnation, Honey. Cool bike chicks.

Can't have enough postcards. I can't, anyway.

A lovely friend who lives in New Zealand emailed me this daft but brilliant poem, The Frivolous Cake by Mervyn Peake (you can read it here). It's about a loved-up cake that goes out sailing.

I've written about Conran's late 70s The House Book before, and you can have a look inside it here. The owl print is by the talented Jane Foster.

But this is my office after an epic tidy. Photos can lie, as one of my favourite interiors blogs My Friend's House illustrated a while back when they featured a not so flattering photo of my office...

Post by Kate