So the daybed came home with us. Into the living room it went, taking the place of one of the three futon sofas that had previously comprised the room’s seating options. And the question, now, was where to put the futon? There was always the garage, but we hated the idea of letting a perfectly comfortable futon sit in a place where it couldn’t possibly get any use. 

And that's when my boy came up with the brilliant idea to move it into the office.

The office, you remember, that was already stuffed to the bursting point. Which meant that, despite all my efforts at avoiding the seemingly impossible task of spiffing up that eyesore of a room, I'd actually forced myself to the point where I had no choice but to redecorate. Sometimes, you need that little kick in the behind ...

I’d always thought the room was tiny but when we actually measured it, we discovered it was a good 16’ long by 7’ wide. It wasn’t so much small as just oddly shaped – long and narrow, and with two doorways and a very strange open closet (no doors) that made the space rather challenging to play around with.

The biggest problem with the current arrangement was that there was just too much stuff taking up floorspace. We could get rid of at least one bookcase if we simply added some wall shelving. Plus two short file cabinets could be moved into the closet and stacked on top of one another. And my boy kindly offered to give up a little of his workspace by parting with the extra small table that had previously sat next to his primary desk.